Anonymous wrote:YES. I need to do this. Our tiny home is so terribly cluttered and my husband never wants to throw anything away. Please someone give me strength!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give yourself permission to toss. Sometimes we are paralyzed because we see that the item “ could be useful to someone, sometime” and don’t want to get rid of it.

For paper, here’s the important thing. Do not bring it into the house if you don’t absolutely need it. I check my mail over the recycle bin - if I don’t need it it goes right in, or else if it’s something like a credit card offer that someone could take, I rip it into shreds and put it right in the trash in the kitchen. If you do need it, march it right upstairs to the filing cabinet that you will set up this year and put it away.

Today I just decluttered the entryway table because I needed to move it to have a dryer delivered. I also decluttered the stuff that sat on top of the old dryer. I also recently went through the pantry to figure out what baking supplies I had and tossed all the old items. I think the last time I did that was in 2020, so there was some stuff that was at least five years old that shouldn’t have stayed that long. I’m going to do better about not stockpiling so much stuff, which is a habit I had first after living overseas and having to deal with the commissary supply chain (if you see it, buy it because you never know when you’ll see it again) and then Covid. My shelves are so tight that I never really did that thing of putting the new things in the back and using them from the front.

After doing some big decluttering, make a resolution that this year you will go through your house every day and either put away or toss just five things.

The bolded is my problem. Especially if the items are hidden because I've stuffed everything in to drawers and closets. It's easy to just let the stuff stay there even though I know even the hidden clutter causes tension.

Anonymous wrote:Give yourself permission to toss. Sometimes we are paralyzed because we see that the item “ could be useful to someone, sometime” and don’t want to get rid of it.

For paper, here’s the important thing. Do not bring it into the house if you don’t absolutely need it. I check my mail over the recycle bin - if I don’t need it it goes right in, or else if it’s something like a credit card offer that someone could take, I rip it into shreds and put it right in the trash in the kitchen. If you do need it, march it right upstairs to the filing cabinet that you will set up this year and put it away.

Today I just decluttered the entryway table because I needed to move it to have a dryer delivered. I also decluttered the stuff that sat on top of the old dryer. I also recently went through the pantry to figure out what baking supplies I had and tossed all the old items. I think the last time I did that was in 2020, so there was some stuff that was at least five years old that shouldn’t have stayed that long. I’m going to do better about not stockpiling so much stuff, which is a habit I had first after living overseas and having to deal with the commissary supply chain (if you see it, buy it because you never know when you’ll see it again) and then Covid. My shelves are so tight that I never really did that thing of putting the new things in the back and using them from the front.

After doing some big decluttering, make a resolution that this year you will go through your house every day and either put away or toss just five things.

Anonymous wrote:The trick to declutter is start with your purse (s) and your car. Most junk that don’t need is probably there and probably more than you expect. If you’re like me, you may also retrieve things you were once looking for too.

Then, go in this order:

1.Cabinets (kitchen cabinets top and bottom including pantry and bathroom cabinets will have most of the clutter here).

2.Closets (coat closet in foyer, linen closet, and all other closets in house).

3.Countertops (kitchen and bathroom vanity countertop)

4.Crawl Space and Garage (basement, attic, and garage-this is where most clutter or junk usually ends up)

Decluttering does not necessarily mean dumping items. It means organization. Things like caddies and clever shelving inside closets or cabinets can help declutter items

5.Tables (Kitchen, Dining, Nightstands, Office desk, coffee tables). Throw out all junk mail and other unneeded magazines or newspapers etc

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proofreading is a life skill

Pare (reduce)
Pair (two, duo)
Pear (fruit)

Let’s declutter by having Jeff remove the above post.

Yep, useless.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proofreading is a life skill

Pare (reduce)
Pair (two, duo)
Pear (fruit)

Let’s declutter by having Jeff remove the above post.

Anonymous wrote:Proofreading is a life skill

Pare (reduce)
Pair (two, duo)
Pear (fruit)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! Please post tips, ideas. I need inspiration. Empty nesters with a full attic of stuff and it must go. Having a hard time figuring out old kids art, photos, etc.

I took photos or scanned and had a book made of favorites on Shutterfly. I let the actual kids art go but can still enjoy looking at it.

And then you threw the hard-copy photos away, right? I do, but it horrifies my siblings, lol. But we have the albums and backups all around - no need to keep the paper.

I threw the art away. Others in the family wanted the physical photo, some have since been scanned. But, out of my house so a win.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes! Please post tips, ideas. I need inspiration. Empty nesters with a full attic of stuff and it must go. Having a hard time figuring out old kids art, photos, etc.

I took photos or scanned and had a book made of favorites on Shutterfly. I let the actual kids art go but can still enjoy looking at it.

And then you threw the hard-copy photos away, right? I do, but it horrifies my siblings, lol. But we have the albums and backups all around - no need to keep the paper.