Let it GO! Decluttering (simplifying) your life of (people, places or things) success stories?

Decluttering/downsizing has resulted in an interesting effect on my life. I've achieved a sense of satisfaction during the process. I'm now able to realize that "I have enough," and be sincerely happy with owning less material possessions. During my younger years, it was very easy to get caught up in the want of buying things, without considering if I truly needed them.

While I didn't consider myself a hoarder, I had lots of items I kept around just in case I thought I might possibly need them one day...even though they hadn't been used in years.

And downsizing also gave me a good feeling to donate to those in need. I truly feel blessed with less.

I finally threw out (most) of five years' work from my degree. I finished the degree ten years ago and gave the profession up seven years ago. There was at least six boxes (you know the ones they ship bananas in?). It was time to let it go, apart from the fact that it was all out of date anyway and if I went back into that particular profession then I'd have to retrain. I have kept all of my essays though, as I am very proud of them and the grades I got (and I may be able to make some money from them). They only took up one box file. I filled up three huge recycling boxes (and these boxes must hold about 100 litres each). Some of the empty folders have gone to my sons, for their college work this year; the rest are being donated to whoever in the morning.

It didn't bother me at all, getting rid of it. My husband and I have also got rid of a whole load more stuff (we pretty well emptied the garage today) and we now have a huge pile of empty boxes outside of our house, which I'm hoping that the kerbside recycling team will take away on Wednesday.

The only frustrating thing about the whole experience was having to rely on someone else to shift the heavy boxes!

My daughter went to university on Saturday (I cried when we left her, something I was sure that I wasn't going to do but I did) and with her went a huge car load of belongings. The rest of her stuff will be taking a trip to the loft for when she wants to deal with it. Sadly, I have had to spend a lot of time with her over the last few days (I'm not sad that I spent the time, just the reasons for it) as two of her "friends" have been really unkind to her so I have had to help her "declutter" their toxic presence from her life. It is sad, as she is so upset about it but they were really very nasty to her and made the most awful comments about her background (because it is different to theirs, but don't we all have differences?) and in turn her family. Horrible, horrible. She appears to be getting on okay at uni though; she was out "clubbing" last night until the early hours so something must be going right for her.

But back to us. We are slowly gaining space. I hate moving house, it's always such a nightmare for a few weeks.

Tomorrow we will finish the garage, then we will have the space for the large freezer and tumble dryer out there. Then we will be able to get rid of the massive fridge/freezer left by the previous owner which in turn means that we can get the dishwasher, our own fridge/freezer and the table into place in the kitchen. Meals on laps is not fun. Maybe by the weekend, the house will be a little better for us all

I still cannot face scrapping my old bike though . . .

I have been wanting to join in on this thread for a long time. I pop in from time to time to read people's posts and always come away inspired. I love the focus on getting rid of the tangible and intangible clutter in our lives. I am working on both.

My war on the physical clutter started about two years ago when my son got married. We had a variety of people staying with us over several months. I found myself moving things around and around to accommodate everyone. I realized that I was hoping that no one would open certain cupboards or doors. I promised myself that as soon as the wedding was over, I was going to tackle my home with a vengeance. Instead I fell and injured myself and it took about a half year to recover. And then my elderly mother decided it was time to move closer to me and I have been carry for her ever since. She had a stroke in the midst of all this etc etc. I finally reached the point where I had to start spending some time on me.

That is where I am now. I am determined to do this for me. I am doing this in small pieces. On Sunday, I did the 'pull the clothes out of the closet' approach and bundled up a number of garments to donate to Goodwill. It took me several hours but it felt great. It was also hard to let go of things but I like the new space I have. My husband is a pack rat so this is going to be a long process.

Hopefully being here will give me the motivation to continue moving forward. Weirdly, I feel like I am working on the internal mental clutter as much as I am working on the physical clutter. Now I need to figure out my next mini project.

When I checked the forum last night I saw that every posting had "disagree" marked. I scrawled back several pages, and I noticed that most of the postings had also "disagree." I thought that a troll had taken over the thread because he/she didn't like to be organized, but maybe it's is another MFP glitch. Glad that they are gone now.

did not want to face the fact I have so many toxic people in my family and food distracted me. It has been a lot easier to lose the weight when I accept and distance myself. I guess taking care of myself with people and food, so people declutering for sure.