I've got stuff and my wife has stuff. I turned down a bunch of stuff when my parents died. I just acquired more stuff from my dead father in law. So did my wife. My home is full of stuff. I want to get rid of it. My wife has one local son to give things to. My son is loaded down from my dead parents stuff. He's got a bunch of my stuff already. It's such a chore to organize useless stuff that will never be used. I could get rid of a truck load and never miss it. Why do we hang onto sentimental useless stuff and have no one to give it to that would really care. Geeze!
Stuff. Oh, I have a lot of it. What I find most frustrating about some of my stuff is its ability to hide the stuff I want to find. I need to find an item. I know I have it. But there is all this stuff in front of, or on top of what I am looking for, wherever that is. And as you try to chip away at the daunting task of cleaning it all out there is more stuff coming in all the time.
We all have stuff. I like to have 2 of everything. Most of my stuff is not new. I can't afford new in almost any of it. I don't like to trade my stuff but I could do that. Most of it is from yard sales and resale shops. Out of 3 computers only one of them is new.
When I want to get rid of stuff I take it to some of these same shops I buy stuff from. They sell it to somebody else and the money made on all this goes to help poor people.
My latest example of stuff is that I needed a digital alarm clock for the spare bedroom. You can get a new one at Dollar General for $8 but I got a used one at resale for $3 and saved myself $5 bucks.
I shop at care help... they have gotten a lot of money from me... i help them and get good stuff too.
Stuff is nice, stuff is fun, stuff weights you down if you want to run.
(? musician, I can't help it)
But yeah, best thing that ever happened to me was having to leave a bad situation with whatever I could carry in my car. Bye bye stuff... then stick to not re-upping.
. Inherited stuff, just get rid of it - donate, sell - someone along the line will do it might as well be you.
I suffer from two problems:
A couple of times, I've tried to get into the mindset of "If I were moving house, would I bring this or bin it?" But I still don't seem able to dump a lot of the stuff I don't need.
I think it is an un-written law about (2) above that you need it the moment you get rid of it. When you don't need things give them to charity shops that help the needy.
I pay to store my stuff. I go visit that stuff on occasion. Sometimes I add more stuff. I’ve even sold off some of the valuable stuff. The boxes of stuff are piled up high and I’ve forgotten what stuff I have in those boxes. But it’s my stuff that was once in my house and I keep hoping one day soon I won’t have to store it anymore.
[familyhandyman.com] and more on death cleaning
Great article... they're so right about all the stuff. It's really clutter.
[nbcnews.com] Good article about getting rid of your stuff before your kids have to.
I follow the advice in the book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing," by Marie Kondo.
You gather all the items of one kind from all over the house-such as all the scissors or all your shoes, and put them in piles of the same items. Pick up each item and if it doesn't give you joy, give it away. Only keep a few from each category, as needed.
It's irrelevent if things were gifts or expensive, just rehome them to a Goodwill store so the items can continue to have a happy, useful life.
Once you get your house cleaned out that way, you'll never allow it become cluttered again, because you'll feel impatient with useless items that don't bring joy.