de-clutter standards/rules

[JupiterHawk]

I started a project in January to declutter our house. To a stranger's vantage, you probably wouldn't have noticed anything crazy. We park both cars in the garage. There is no room with piles of boxes or clothes in it. But what I had noticed when looking for an item in the closets, cabinets, dressers, and storage containers was the insane amount of shit that I stowed away and forgot its existence. So I started a goal to declutter the house.

Now sitting in July, I am probably halfway done if I am lucky. My initial goal was to get rid of anything I haven't used in over a year which I think is somewhat conservative. There are some exceptions including cables and tools. I got rid of all my 90's CD's to the goodwill, I have a huge collection of DVD's which I will give away or try to sell for maybe 25 cents a piece. A Nintendo wii - gone. A lot of chemicals, paint. 90% gone. I had always been paperless with my trusty scan snap scanner. Thank god for that. But I still have a lot of shit. A turkey fryer, for example, is used maybe every two years. Old photos. Will probably scan and upload them. Chrismas/birthday cards.

So I am curious, HORT'ers. What rules/standards do you use as far as keeping and getting rid of "stuff".

 

[HROT]

1. Ask the wife if I can keep it

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

I started a project in January to declutter our house. To a stranger's vantage, you probably wouldn't have noticed anything crazy. We park both cars in the garage. There is no room with piles of boxes or clothes in it. But what I had noticed when looking for an item in the closets, cabinets, dressers, and storage containers was the insane amount of shit that I stowed away and forgot its existence. So I started a goal to declutter the house.

Now sitting in July, I am probably halfway done if I am lucky. My initial goal was to get rid of anything I haven't used in over a year which I think is somewhat conservative. There are some exceptions including cables and tools. I got rid of all my 90's CD's to the goodwill, I have a huge collection of DVD's which I will give away or try to sell for maybe 25 cents a piece. A Nintendo wii - gone. A lot of chemicals, paint. 90% gone. I had always been paperless with my trusty scan snap scanner. Thank god for that. But I still have a lot of shit. A turkey fryer, for example, is used maybe every two years. Old photos. Will probably scan and upload them. Chrismas/birthday cards.

So I am curious, HORT'ers. What rules/standards do you use as far as keeping and getting rid of "stuff".

Did this a few years back.

Clothes. Put clothes that don’t fit or you don’t wear in a bag. Throw the bag in a closet. If you haven’t opened up the bag in a year - donate the bag to goodwill.

Things I want to remember but not keep - take photos of and kick to the cloud.

Still working on a solution for books - have a hard time getting rid of books.

Make a rule - if you buy something, something has to go out the door.

Good luck. I actually enjoyed the process of getting rid of stuff.

 

[bhawk24bob]

Every year over the winter, I clean out a room and put whatever we don't want on eBay. Sometimes it requires me to plane a board and put some coathangers on it, sometimes it's as simple as snapping pictures and putting items in boxes. You would be amazed how quickly it adds up and how much valuable crap you have sitting around collecting dust that you thought was trash

 

[bhawk24bob]

Still working on a solution for books - have a hard time getting rid of books.

I've had this conversation with my wife, repeatedly. There is no solution other than using the library. Nobody wants your used books.

We've compromised on putting them on the steps for a day and if nobody takes them in 24 hours, I put them in the recycling.

 

[HROT]

I've had this conversation with my wife, repeatedly. There is no solution other than using the library. Nobody wants your used books.

We've compromised on putting them on the steps for a day and if nobody takes them in 24 hours, I put them in the recycling.

Find one of those little free libraries some people put in their front yard. Boom.

 

[SSG T]

I made it easy on my wife on year (I need to do it again).

Our attic was out of control. It was a walk in attic, back side of our 2nd floor. 26x12. You had to move stuff after opening the door to get into it.

A few years ago I told her I was getting a 10yd dumpster the week of her spring break, taking leave and clearing out the attic. She could watch or she could help. My target was having 4 stacks that you could walk to and around. Everything else was going...into the dumpster, to goodwill, in a garage sale...didn't care.

When the garbage company picked up the dumpster the Monday after spring break, it was full (partially filled with crap from our garage and shed that needed thrown away), the attic was clean, my wife wasn't ready to divorce me and I was happy.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Sort of on this point…my neighbor has a stall at one of those antique barns and buying/selling stuff is her hobby. Although I’m not sure how much selling she does because her husband says their basement is full of stuff and they can’t park on their garages. She just bought an old UHaul style trailer to drive around neighboring states picking.

I’m like OP, struggling to stay on top of the normal crap a family accumulates. The idea of proactively adding other people’s crap makes me shiver.

 

[QChawks]

my wife (no pic) got hooked on the Minimalists podcast and it has greatly enhanced my life!

we keep very little stuff anymore:

- If it hasn't been used in a year, it's gone
- If it's worth less than $20 it goes in the donation pile for the Disabled Vets
- If worth more than $20 then she tries to sell through out schools buy/sell/trade FB site or direct through marketplace

- All the money gets tossed into a bucket and when we are going on a vacation we clear it out as "fun money," the kids get into it too by clearing out their old toys

 

[Rifler]

I toss everything but the wife is a collector,.. the end result is what I think is a fairly average amount of clutter.

 

[praguehawk]

Swedish Death Cleaning. Check it out.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

my wife (no pic) got hooked on the Minimalists podcast and it has greatly enhanced my life!

we keep very little stuff anymore:

- If it hasn't been used in a year, it's gone
- If it's worth less than $20 it goes in the donation pile for the Disabled Vets
- If worth more than $20 then she tries to sell through out schools buy/sell/trade FB site or direct through marketplace

- All the money gets tossed into a bucket and when we are going on a vacation we clear it out as "fun money," the kids get into it too by clearing out their old toys

Nice solutions.

Good podcast. The 300 thing (numbers vary) challenge is interesting.

I’m not that minimalist but not that far away anymore.

 

[StormHawk42]

One of the upsides of us not having kids (at least at this time) is the relatively small amount of crap built up in the house.

My mom’s thing is Christmas decorations. Her basement is full of them and has scarred me for life. Told my wife if a Christmas decoration isn’t used within two years, it’s gone.

 

[TylerJ76]

I don't keep hardly anything.
I don't like stuff.

I try to keep so when I need to move, I can make one trip with a small uhaul and that's it.

I'm a psychopath though, so take that for what it's worth.

 

[St. Louis Hawk]

One of the upsides of us not having kids (at least at this time) is the relatively small amount of crap built up in the house.

My mom’s thing is Christmas decorations. Her basement is full of them and has scarred me for life. Told my wife if a Christmas decoration isn’t used within two years, it’s gone.

My only Christmas decoration. Minimalism plus usually gets a good laugh out of visitors.

Amazon product ASIN B00FX966I8

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

I don't keep hardly anything.
I don't like stuff.

I try to keep so when I need to move, I can make one trip with a small uhaul and that's it.

I'm a psychopath though, so take that for what it's worth.

 

[soybean]

I laid the law down to Mrs. Bean last Winter that she needed to get rid of all the crap we had accumulated in our 50 years together. So when SIL came back to camp out with us they went to work in earnest. To my everlasting joy they hauled three pickups worth of unused stuff, some of it never worn or used, to Goodwill. They even managed to haul away two pickup loads of unneeded furniture to Re-store.

In return Mrs. Bean turned the tables on me and insisted I do the same in my two shops. I decided if I had more than one of anything it was gone. After Bean Jr. and his best friend picked through it all for themselves I took a truckload of the better remaing tools to the consignment auctioneer and about 6 weeks later I recieved a check for $3,015.01 - I still have a shop in Colorado and another in New York that I need to give the same treatment. Maybe yet this Summer.

It was the best thing we ever done.

 

[IowaPackFan]

Doing this now as we are selling and moving. There are things I could post on the interwebs to sell and make money, but it’s gotten to the point it’s just too much work to do and track that we’ve taken car loads to goodwill every week for the past couple months. Can’t wait to get audited on taxes when I show $50K in donations to Goodwill.