Clutter and hoarding stuff!

[Gill W]

From reading these posts it seems like the majority of people or their partners are hoarders. My husband is a major offender, for every item I manage to throw away he brings in two more. Our garage is full to the rafters and I daren't even think about the loft. It does worry me because we have just had to clear out my dad's house after he passed away and it was a massive job taking us several months. I would hate our children to have such a task after we've gone so I'm trying to change his ways but it's hard going !

The death of my parents has been the catalyst for my decluttering.

My dad died, and my mum went in to a home, so I had to clear a lot of stuff. Most of it was in exactly the same places as when I lived there, plus another 25 years of stuff. At the time I felt I couldn't part with some of the things, so brought home a lot of stuff that subsequently sat in my loft for 5 years.

About 4 years ago I felt the need to streamline things, and have been working on it ever since. Every few months, I get rid of a few more things' many have been eBayed. It pleases me that things are out there being used and enjoyed again.

[Kendhni]

The only problem we have with the bird food is stopping the pidgeons from scoffing it all.

That is what shotguns are for .. stops those rats-with-wings from taking over.

[Kendhni]

The one thing I did get round to was to get rid of all the paperwork in my house .. I used to put it in a kitchen drawer and every few months lift it out, sort it, file it etc. etc.. It got put into a couple of filing cabinets and eventually into my roofspace.

I have now scanned everything into the computer and shredded and dumped all my old statements, payslips, P60's, P11's, receipts, certificates, tax returns etc. etc.. It took a couple of weekends but I am now down to one small A4 file that holds a small number of things that I can not shred (original is required). Now whenever any paper work comes in I simply scan it in ... the big advantage is that it is fully searchable making things much easier to find.

All items are held in an encrypted partition and backed up to the cloud (SugarSync) which means I can access them from anywhere in the world.

[emjay45]

Why is it though that as soon as you "reduce" the number of "stored items for future use" you need the very item that has gone?

We have often found that over the years and it's also my husbands excuse for NOT throwing things away. In his defence I will say that he has put up loads of shelves in the garage and everything is stored so that he can easily find it. We also take anything in good condition that we do get rid of to the Hospice shop so that someone can get use out of it. Last time my husband bought a new hedge cutter which was lighter and easier to use, he took the old heavy 2 stroke petrol to the tip and the man in charge of the tip asked if he could have it. So it went to a good home. I like it when things are recycled.