Had my first tag-sale yesterday. How bitter-sweet selling things that I'm attached to for a couple of bucks a piece. After years of being a hoarder I'm also experiencing great feelings of liberation. I have already filled three small dumpsters with things that I won't be able to sell (junk basically) As well as being a hoarder I am guilty of being a compulsive shopper (mainly clothes, bags and shoes) and am happy to report that I haven't bought one single thing I don't need for two months :-) My dining room is now full of boxes of miscellaneous stuff waiting to be sold. I am definitely staying true to the title of this post and craving an empty house. I am determined to become a minimalist when I move back home in August-Happy Easter everyone.

It really is a liberating feeling to have such a major clear out. I do regular clear outs but nothing to the extreme that I have done for my move home. Houses are much smaller in the UK and I know that I won't have the lovely walk in closet that I have been blessed with for the past 8 years. While I will miss my closet it has forced me to take a look at why I have bought so many things and that I really don't need so much stuff. I am determined to fill my life in the UK with the important stuff and not place so much on having belongings.

Can really relate to both these posts. I'm off to my new place today and already keeping my fingers crossed that the belongings I have shipped from Canada will fit into my UK room when they arrive!

I'm not a huge shopper but going through my belongings prior to moving was quite a psychological exercise and really made me stop and think as to why I had bought a particular item - and I found myself feeling quite regretful over how many books and CDs I had bought over the years. It's definitely changed my outlook on life and I will be focusing on filling my life in the UK with experiences/relationships with others and saving for a rainy day rather than buying stuff.

Thinking about it - I guess other than house moving, the only time people tend to go through belongings in a big way is when someone has died (and the individual who has died doesn't usually go through there stuff prior to death so they don't face the cumulative impact of what they've collected over the years).

I've known people who, after clearing out relatives houses who have died, have immediately downsized their own lives (moving to a smaller property, getting rid of belongings) and vowed not to leave so much stuff for their children to deal with as they found it so stressful to have to go through so many of their relatives belongings.

I've also found that having less 'stuff' is liberating. Coming from a house in the US where one of the walk-in closets was larger than one of the bedrooms in our current house meant getting rid of lots of stuff that hadn't been worn in years. We also got rid of even more AFTER the move back....and I don't miss a thing! I might add that we have never been conspicuous spenders/shoppers, but a lifetime of 'stuff' mounts up.

My mother is a borderline hoarder and definitely a compulsive shopper. I visited my parents in March, and while I was there my mother was hospitalized. I took that opportunity to clean out her pantry - some cans were bulging, and something had exploded, and the 'remains' were caked on the walls and floor. Took everything out, cleaned it, and got rid of the suspicious and out-of-date stuff. She had 22 tins of cream of chicken soup.....why???? Never mind the 12 tins of pineapple, and multiples of other stuff. I did a quick clean of the refrigerator, and there must have been 15 bags of shredded cheddar cheese in the deli drawer. I threw out what had turned green......I dread the inevitable of having to clean out the rest of their massive house; it will take weeks.

Best of luck to you, and well done for taking control of your life!

After he died, I was clearing through my father's stuff in the garage, and I found a hand grenade with the pin still in it. Although it had apparently been drained of it's main explosive charge, we had to call the bomb disposal team to take it away, along with two boxes of military detonators.

I feel so much better living with less in our temporary accommodation

Good luck with all the clearing!

I agree with the above. We de-cluttered before we emigrated but I really feel the need to de-clutter again. It feels...weighty...to have this 'stuff' about the place. I'm not a shopper but 'stuff' still accumulates via gifts. Mr BEVS is a bit of a one for collecting things that may come in useful. The garage is a place I fear to tred.

Only you

Less than a day after my father died, I found I had a half-sister, the same age as my own younger sister, that I did not know & did not want.

Also something with ugly explosive potential, I imagine.

That's really sad. For her. She might have really wanted to know you.

Without going into horrible details of that time, some of which has taken me 5 years to come to terms with & I am still not there with some of it, please do not feel sad for her. I didn't reject that person out of hand at all . Far from it. However in the end I needed to preserve my personal memories of my family life and parents. That person would have happily seen all that destroyed.

..and no, I did not misunderstand the intention in the end. My mistake was to trust and offer a tentative friendship.

Better the hand grenade TBH.

We have some weird family stuff. Why do you think I emigrated?

Decluttering is really cathartic isn't it?!

I came to UK for a "holiday" over 2 yrs ago so everything I have with me came in the backpack or has been accumulated since. I've chucked all the clothes as I'm now 6 sizes smaller and I try and have the rule something in = something out (the charity shops love me!). We moved in with my parents so manage to live quite happily in now small room. My mother was the epitome of hoarder-dom and I have gradually (and very subtly) de cluttered the living space (loft now a bomb site but we will have a tidy up/declutter weekend up there too sooner or later. I dread having to clear out all their stuff as they expect me to treasure their treasures unfortunately (anyone want a grandfather clock?) but in my old age I am going for very minimal! If and when I get back to Aus, pretty much all my accumulated stuff there will be moving on elsewhere!

Even with my bikes, wheels, cycling, tri gear and a new baby, we are still very minimal and always have been. We've always operated on a 'one in, one out policy' be it shoes, bags, sports gear or anything else. I even bought some new sunglasses last week and gave my old ones away.

The only things I can think of really that we've added to without throwing one out are the baby play mat, buggy and rocker. She's already gone through three sizes of clothes and all that old stuff went to charity the day she was too big for it.

Multiple moves international and domestic have never been too difficult and if we had to pack up tomorrow I reckon we'd be looking at 5-6 hrs max for the regular stuff and about an hour each for the bikes and 1 hr for my guitars, but that's only because they get special treatment.

Hate, hate, hate clutter.

You lot could be really helpful to me in my attempts to de-clutter!

I really struggle with parting with things that I have spent good money on. I have managed to sell some things but other stuff just takes up space because it seems too valuable to chuck but I don't really need it.

When I'm in the right mind I use the "do I love it, use it or need it?" mantra which helps a bit... or I ask myself if it's something which is helping me move towards the life I want... or, in the case of paperwork, I ask myself if I could get the information again if I needed it and if I threw out the thing I have.

It does my head in really.

Famous last words! I bought my first place in August 2004 in Cayman after renting for 6 years, moved in blah, blah and a month later, Hurricane Ivan whizzed through and took it all away (and it was solid brick, none of this wooden shed nonsense like here in the US). All I had left was what I went into shelter with...

It didn't bother me one bit loosing all that stuff, it was as you say liberating and I vowed not to buy so much "stuff" again. Fast forward 10 years - huge house - full of ***t, married to a guy who still has footie socks from his professional soccer playing days 20 years ago! I don't stand a chance