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Where are you on the clutter scale?

Where are you on the clutter scale?

Old Jan 29th 2018, 9:48 pm
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Default Where are you on the clutter scale?

I worry about this.

I don't think I'm that bad comparatively but I definitely have too much stuff.

We brought several extra boxes to Canada of "stuff we couldn't do without" following our house sale in the UK in 2015. We haven't opened most of it. Instead, we keep buying new stuff. Then sometimes I forget what I've bought and buy more of it (tends to be little items).

Apparently, hoarding/clutter is a real problem: a fire risk even:

Hoarder: 'My house was a hovel' - BBC News

One of the reasons I find it hard to start having a clear out, is that it always becomes unmanageable, taking much longer than expected (one thing leads to another ...).

Anyone else?

Last edited by Snowy560; Jan 29th 2018 at 9:51 pm.
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Old Jan 29th 2018, 10:59 pm
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

I was a bookaholic in my past life, having well over 1000 of them.. I bought around 400 to Canada - they are still in the boxes they have been in since 2001. I've boxes and boxes of 'things' in the basement that I bought over, packed in 2001, that have yet to be opened, including clothes that I will never get into again. I'm not one for ornaments but have a few pieces, some glassware and pictures all waiting to be put 'somewhere'. We have all my sons LEGO (huge boxes of them); keepsake memories from our world travels and various odds and sods, all still in boxes.

I'm not a horder, but I hate to throw things away so cupboards are cluttered. I dislike shopping intensely, so luckily don't buy lots of things, but I am sentimental and tend to hang on to silly stuff because they remind me of happier times or people who have passed. I still have the transistor radio that was the last gift my Mum bought me; the letters my Dad wrote to me; cards my son gave me when he was young.

I understand about the getting overwhelmed when clearing out, the only thing I can suggest is to have a target of sorting through just one box or just one cupboard - break it down into manageable pieces, then it doesn't seem quite so bad.

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Old Jan 29th 2018, 11:40 pm
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

My mum, her sister and my MIL are hoarders. My aunt's flat, you needed to be a contortionist to get around. Mum had stuff filling up the two spare bedrooms and a lot of her bedroom. I understand the brothers have done something about it. Mainly clothing that is "too good to give away" but is not going to be worn by her.

MIL has managed to get rid of a few things but when she moved here to join us she brought her four appliances, ridiculously big TV (old kind) loads of cabinets and bookcases...all stored in the garage and basement. Cooker aside, and we're only using that because it was better than ours and it was going to waste, none is likely to be used.

It cost quite a bit to bring it. Should we ever move, it might come in handy but if it's a long distance move it might cost more than replacements.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 1:19 am
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

Whatever the opposite is of a hoarder, that is me. I constantly get told off for throwing things out or giving stuff away.

Where I live we have an annual neighbourhood garage sale the 1st Sunday in May, whatever doesn't sell I try to give away at about 5pm but the Wife has other ideas. Put it back in the basement for next year she says....drives me nuts.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 3:05 am
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

Originally Posted by Danny B
Whatever the opposite is of a hoarder, that is me. I constantly get told off for throwing things out or giving stuff away.

Where I live we have an annual neighbourhood garage sale the 1st Sunday in May, whatever doesn't sell I try to give away at about 5pm but the Wife has other ideas. Put it back in the basement for next year she says....drives me nuts.
Giver her away.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 6:49 am
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

When we decided to come to Canada a great many items were lost.

Photos weren't lost though, they were scanned in and stored digitally. Albums were discarded never to be seen again and I have to say that most have not been viewed since we've been here.

'Ah' I hear you say, 'What of posterity? Won't those generations yet to come wish you'd saved them?'

Well they might if they'd known who they were. When I scanned the older, and probably more interesting photos, into the collection, I hadn't a clue who many of them were and the only relatives who might know were dead.

But the saddest loss was my ML7.

We've now accumulated as much now as I loaded into my trailer and dumped at the local tip.

Plus ca change......
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 7:02 am
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

Originally Posted by Oink
Giver her away.
Or at least put a $ sign on her at the beginning of the garage sale as we all know you usually get offered half of what you are asking at garage sales.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 8:59 am
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

We have to find common ground in our house, I hate clutter, wife likes to collect things.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 1:23 pm
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

My house would be fine if it weren't for all the bits of paper that come in the mail. Piles of the damn things everywhere
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 2:05 pm
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

Yes the stuff that comes in the post ... Husband has subscriptions to Economist, the Week and Private Eye. Several tend to arrive at the same time ... and pile up.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 5:44 pm
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

Originally Posted by bats
My house would be fine if it weren't for all the bits of paper that come in the mail. Piles of the damn things everywhere
That's just lack of a system. I think Marie Kondo's book has a chapter on how to deal with incoming paper.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 5:54 pm
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

Originally Posted by Shard
That's just lack of a system. I think Marie Kondo's book has a chapter on how to deal with incoming paper.

I didn't realise that keeping a couple of flyers for the shopping list, browsing a couple of others in the lav before adding them to the others in the paper recycling box counted as a system.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 8:59 pm
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

When I tidy, I go through the little piles, keep what's needed and bin the rest. When OH tidies, he just moves the pile to a bigger pile and then puts it somewhere - quite often never to be seen again, so I end up buying a new something that replaces the something that has been moved, so we end up with lots of somethings. He has a very bad habit of piling things in the guest room, then we will have someone to stay and he shoves the stuff in a room in the basement, he has filled two rooms now, it's quite daunting thinking about going through it all. He is far far worse than me.
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Old Jan 30th 2018, 10:28 pm
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

I didn't bring bring much stuff up here as I didn't plan to stay very long.
So the important things I left in a storage locker and a safety deposit box. Apart from an inordinate amount of fishing tackle I don't buy or accumulate much stuff here as I still don't plan to stay much longer.
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Old Jan 31st 2018, 1:19 am
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Default Re: Where are you on the clutter scale?

Originally Posted by Piff Poff
When I tidy, I go through the little piles, keep what's needed and bin the rest. When OH tidies, he just moves the pile to a bigger pile and then puts it somewhere - quite often never to be seen again, so I end up buying a new something that replaces the something that has been moved, so we end up with lots of somethings. He has a very bad habit of piling things in the guest room, then we will have someone to stay and he shoves the stuff in a room in the basement, he has filled two rooms now, it's quite daunting thinking about going through it all. He is far far worse than me.
That sounds very like my old man except that there's no pattern to where he hides the piles of stuff.
I have some very large envelopes marked with the year that I stick all the bills and stuff in, a big box to stuff anything that needs filing into, and then filing boxes in the linen cupboard. Of course this means that the linen has to go elsewhere.
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