What do you class as clutter?

[greenishfing]

It is obvious to my husband that all the "rubbish" that I accumulate is clutter to be binned and vice versa - he is the worst hoarder of useless worn out garbage and cannot say no to other peoples junk. My new rule is nothing comes into the house unless something goes out. As for old momentoes most burned in a house fire 10 years ago

[mothhawk]

I don't have clutter...I have stuff!

You can take a degree course in Stuff.

As in ....... "What are you studying at university?"

"Oh, you know, Stuff".

[SusieG]

Verinda, I too had the bittersweet task of 'clearing' Mum and Dad's (our family home - theirs since 1953).

They were sentimental keepers of all things, 'useful' and family related: school reports for me and my two brothers, not a year missed.... Accompanying hideous (obligatory!)school photos over the years (gosh some of the hairstyles!!!) ....
Photos galore from many, many holidays and just general 'life' - no 'delete' button on the proper camera if you didn't like the shot......
Framed family photos on every available surface .....
And clothes - they were from an era of make-do-and-mend - hence nothing got thrown away ...... Dad's wonderful 70's garish shirts, Mum's chain belts and bags of ancient lipsticks ......

And poignantly, Dad's army uniform and de-mob suit and shoes from after WW2......

It was like a museum of all our lives ......

Anyway, I try to be hard and not hoard 'stuff'...... I'll keep birthday/Xmas cards etc for a short while, look at them once more, then recycle....

Same with gardening 'stuff' - if they've not been used over the last growing season, it'll be hoofed out.

DH will 'keep important stuff that might be useful one day' - and I'll chuck it 'cos I know it's junk!!!

However, one time I'd done that, something really was needed, and I was in the dog house for throwing it out..... SO - I just put all his 'useful stuff' in boxes and then I know where it is when he asks "have you seen ........?"

[mothhawk]

One of the unassailable laws of the Universe is that clutter expands to fill all available space, so throwing stuff out makes not one jot of a difference. You will still end up with zero free space.

I don't hoard, but I do keep things a while before tossing them out. It seems wrong to have something only a few week or two then throw it out, including pots and trays that seedlings/plants come in, even when there are already stacks in the shed.

This year I bought some really flimsy seedling trays, deliberately so I would not be tempted to keep them when the plants were potted on. Turned out they were cr@p to use so not worth having, let alone keeping

I do have a complete cheap china tea service in the attic, all my father's bowls trophies (I don't want them, but other family members "might" ), oh, and my school scarf and hat.

[Bal]

I hate clutter and am almost a minimalist. I have a few momentoes dotted about, but I do have loads of books. I can't bear to part with any, I am selective in what I buy and will almost certainly read them again and again. I believe in the rule if you don't use it in a year you don't need it. Unfortunately oh is a hoarder. He has a complete wardrobe rail full of jackets, about 30 at last count. In seven the time we've been together he has not worn any of them even once, but has bought about 6 more. He keeps every thing. When his family cleared out his parents house after his father died. He took everything no one else wanted. It's all in boxes in various corners of the house. I have had to learn to live with it

[SaraJH]

I'm most definitely in the anti clutter brigade. If it doesn't have an organised home then it can't stay. I'm a sucker for storage boxes and they live in a cupboard all nicely stacked with their contents contained within. Having moved home lots of times I just couldn't be disorganised.

That said, I do keep things that are sentimental, some going back years and years. In face the older it is the more likely I am to keep it, stored in it's box!

My one exception to this is my old phone/ answerphone combo. It has the last message on it from my dad, recorded 2 days before he died. As usual he was just wittering on about nothing but I would never ever throw it away, I have it to hand and occasionally I play that message just to hear his voice again It makes me laugh and cry at the same time! I must get it copied to a digital medium in case the worst happens, this thread has reminded me that I must must do that soon.

[Scarlet]

In her front room there are no books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, craft things at all - just 3 chairs and a TV. It's tidy but soulless, you walk in and learn nothing about the owner. She doesn't cook either so the kitchen, although always spotless has nothing there either, even the fridge is pretty empty.

She just sounds lifeless...hoarding for me is very different to keeping things that are used. I don't hoard but as a family we use lots of items, if I kept lots of memorabilia that collected dust we really wouldn't have the room to move. We have a music room/craft room, which contains a couple of pianos,(one that's electric that can be used for recording/composing) a drum kit, a few guitars, African drums, a clarinet and a load of shelves which store my art stuff/acrylics/sewing machine/over locker/jewellery making kit/sugar craft stuff etc. I have coloured papers /tissues/fabrics/card etc. I have a lovely selection of Christmas baubles that get unpacked each year. I bought one each for my boys on their first christmas and they have chosen one each year to add to the collection. My "arty" friends have gifted me several more (I love christmas!). A friend popped in the other day for coffee and popped to the toilet, whenshe got back she said "nice bike in the living room" my response was "which one?" For me this isn't hoarding - it's our life.

[veggiechicken]

Not sure why this thread was closed but its open again now

[veggiechicken]

Well it should be now!

[Cadalot]

I am part squirrel and have two shed full of stuff and when I need stuff to do a job I have to remove all the stuff to get at the stuff I need because it could be useful, then I think bum not doing that and go and buy stuff that I know is "in the shed somewhere"

The I recall my Dad's most used saying was "I know I've got one of those in my shed somewhere" and I fell better as it's no longer my fault it hereditary.

[Stan79]

When we moved house in autumn 2012 we had to wait until March 2013 to move into the new house as the owner needed some time to sort their accomodation and we wanted the house really badly and were prepared to wait... Anyway, we were therefore going to have to pay to have stuff in storage so we minimised as much as possible to get the smallest storage unit possible. As a result, we sold over �700 worth of junk on eBay. I say junk because we hadn't used any of it in years.

When we finally moved our stuff out of storage we realised that a lot of stuff we had stored was absolutely useless and we hadn't missed it for 6 months and therefore it clearly wasn't that important... We sold over �1000 worth of junk then on top of the initial �700 worth.

A colleague wanted to clear his garage out at work and he asked me to help. I agreed but asked him to do two things first. List everything on ebay. Even if he thought it was rubbish. Anything that didn't sell was then listed on Freecycle. By the end of 3-4 weeks his garage was completely cleared of stuff that he had thought was junk. Originally he had been hoping i would have helped him load a large flat bed truck full and help him take it to the tip. In the end, he did one run to the tip with a bag and a box full of bits in the boot of his Audi A1 (very small boot)!

[gardening_gal]

I'm a sucker for storage boxes and they live in a cupboard all nicely stacked with their contents contained within.

My one exception to this is my old phone/ answerphone combo. It has the last message on it from my dad, recorded 2 days before he died.

I am part squirrel and have two shed full of stuff and when I need stuff to do a job I have to remove all the stuff to get at the stuff I need because it could be useful, then I think bum not doing that and go and buy stuff that I know is "in the shed somewhere"

The I recall my Dad's most used saying was "I know I've got one of those in my shed somewhere" and I fell better as it's no longer my fault it hereditary.

I relate to both of these posts.

I too love storage boxes. Only I have more industrial sized ones. I have many 84l & 64l Really Useful boxes which stack lovely and also 12 of the 145l big black trunks on wheels that were being sold for a tenner at one point. That's my problem. Instead of chucking things out, I go buy storage to store it. I bought Billy bookcases from Ikea to use to store my millions of books. I bought extra hanging rails to store clothes I probably wont ever wear. I bought Lord knows how many Vacuum Bags to store duvets and pillows I dont need. (I have spares of spares etc ) I need to stop buying storage boxes and start chucking things out.

I also have my Mum's voice on cassette from 1988. She got a cassette recorder one Xmas and used it to send us a recorded message instead of a letter one time. I never thought about storing it digitally, I'm going to look into that now.

As for Cadalot. I am clearly his long lost twin.

Sun is shining here, I'm about to go into the garage. I actually feel a bit re-energised into tackling it now after reading your posts, so thank you for sharing.

[Bigmallly]

I wish you would change the title of this thread...............I keep thinking someone wants advice on a Glass Cutter.................

[ESBkevin]

I have started arranging for a new 22x10ft shed to go accross the end of the garden for a) security reasons. b) somewhere to keep the 'stuff' that I will then be able to access without lifting one thing to get at another.
Some more clutter stories:
We moved my mother into a care home 18 months or so ago and had the issue of the bungalow to deal with. It sat full for a year and we concluded that it was best to go through and dump everything (except precious items) as if she were no longer with us, that way we only had to do it once. Mother can no longer remember even living there so it was just a case of cleaning up and saving the family photos etc. It's all done now so won't need to be faced again.
About 3 years ago I decided that solar panals were the way ahead, but to get certification the house had to meet certain 'environmental' standards, so I had to fit all useless/low power bulbs for the survey and increase the loft insulation yet again. In order to put more depth in the loft first I had to empty it! Again a huge effort was involved not least because it was summer time and loft spaces are erm...warm. Having cleared the space I then had to raise the joists a few inches above the new insulation and the board it out for future use. I now control very carefully what goes in the loft even though the space is decent enough I don't want to have another monster clear out or even leave it to someone else.

[mothhawk]

Not sure why this thread was closed but its open again now

it probably got too full of Stuff, and needed decluttering to make room for more posts