do you ever

[abmitch01]

look around at all your stuff and feel not good about it? sometimes I feel guilt that we have so much and others have nothing. sometimes I feel like if we had less crap, we'd have saved more money. sometimes I just feel overwhelmed by stuff and want simplicity.

I loved the book Affluenza, it addresses some of this

this is what I pondered while shampooing my rugs this morning, lol

 

[disny_luvr]

Your post actually made me chuckle. DH and I always say the same thing. We moved a few months ago and unpacked pretty much stuff immediately but we still have quite a few boxes in the basement that need unpacking. I just told DH this weekend I feel like just throwing those boxes away because I have no clue what is in any of them and obviously I'm not missing anything. We have so many books, movies and CD's that we never read/watch/listen to and so many collectibles that are just collecting dust. DH and I always say if we wouldn't have bought all this "junk" we'd have a lot more money...

I am all about decluttering this year. My plan over the next few weeks is to go through those boxes and get things prepared to either have a huge yard sale and/or to sell on Craigslist or Ebay.


I always ponder things when I'm doing stuff like taking a shower, cooking dinner, cleaning, etc. Heck, it's usually the only time I have some quiet to think about things.

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

I feel that way sometimes too. That's when I go clean out my closet & declutter something in my house & take a load to either the resell shop, Goodwill, or put it in the missionary box at Church.

I now say it I haven't used it or noticed it in several years...it goes.

However, I still haven't conquered wanting to buy some stuff when we travel so guess the clutter still doesn't bother me too much. I do try to get useful stuff though...like a cookbook, or a top or junk to eat.And garage sales kill me...I always find some cheap thing that takes up space at my house!

 

[kinntj]

I'm the same way. I look at the things I bought in our spare bedroom that's just sitting there. Some scrapbooking stuff to get started that I never did start and kitchen gadgets that I never use that sit there in our pantry. I'm cleaning out the pantry now and noticed all this stuff.

I'm ready to donate these items and live simpler.

I want to love the stuff I buy and know I'll use it often. Yesterday I bought 2organizing trays for spices in our pantry. It was so hard to find what we were looking for because they were mixed up and behind marinade bottles and such.

Part of saving money is organizing what you have, so you know you have it and don't go out and buy another one. That's a big problem for me.

Good luck on paring down your life.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Heck yeah. I spent 2 weeks this summer cleaning out and organizing DD's room. We got rid of lots of stuff and she still has tons more.

The same thing with DS's room and now I'm working on my office/craft room.

We have a basement full of stuff. Even boxes unpacked from when we moved into the house 10 years ago.

DH is a collector of many things. I didn't realize it until we were already married and his Dad called us to find out when he would get all of his stuff from the garage. We had to rent a 2 bedroom apartment for it all. And that was 26 years ago so you can imagine everything we have now.

I've talked with DH about getting rid of alot of it and he's fine with the general household stuff like extra christmas decor and halloween decor, anything that's mine or the kids and clothes but his collections? No way.

At least I've gotten most of it in the basement so I don't have to see it all time.

Oh and when his Dad downsized his house, guess who got the stupid piano (no one in our house plays piano or wants to), dining room table and chairs? DH just couldn't turn them down because they are antiques. Sigh.

I am much more careful about what comes into the house now but we have so much, I don't know that we'll ever be able to downsize the house when we are retired which is my dream. I'd love to have less cleaning.

Can you tell having too much stuff is a hot button with me?

Good luck paring down, OP. I hope you can do it!

 

[cseca]

Yes Yes Yes...

I usually buy stuff to replace things. So I don't pile up. But I can't stop buying stuff for DD... sigh... that is my biggest downfall.
AND I'm a bit of a packrat... was raised to NEVER throw away anything that still works. Regardless of whether I use it or will use it anytime soon. Still working on that issue, getting better at it but still horrible throwing out ANYTHING disney related...

Good luck to all of us trying to clean and declutterize our homes!

 

[QVCshopper]

Yes, I feel like our country has so much--myself included. The only thing that really helps is giving stuff away and/or not buying as much. I've read about people who only buy perishable things for a year. I think that sounds doable, but I sure do like a new piece of clothing every now and then.

As far as clutter, I only have a small section of my basement that's unfunished, and it has plenty of room for storage. And we have plenty of room to park our cars in the garage; no attic. I'm not at all a neatnick, but I'm truly sick of stuff. Probably b/c my parents are borderline hoarders...

 

[wdwfan16]

I am a person who likes everything to have a place and if that place is goodwill so be it.

I deep cleaned the house earlier this year. Everything is organized. I was happy to only have on car full of stuff to take to goodwill. I am not a garage sale person so donating it is.

DH came from a long line of pack rats. They threw out nothing and that included dead spouses cloths. I have been breaking him of that habit by watching clean house and by his seeing how I don't get frustrated by not being able to find an item.

I always check decorations each season. If a piece got lost or I never put it out anymore then out it goes.

We keep all winter and summer clothes in our closets. If there is no room then time to purge.

Doing all of this keeps the house cleaner longer and less cluttered. I am not one who cannot have a thing out of place but I have mounds of stuff lying all around.

I am even organized to the point that we have sorting baskets in our master closet. They are sorted by loads so it is easy to see if on load needs to be done.

 

[smokeyblue]

I'm sick of all the stuff too. I buy things just to buy things. I mean who cares that you got a great deal on something when you never use it.

I've been down 4-6 sizes for a long time now. I just had such a hard time letting go of clothes. I had paid a lot for some of them. I put a box in the trunk of my car and would bring one item out every day until my trunk was full. Some days I'd bring out one thing, some days five things. Getting rid of it little by little was easier. Having it in my car ready to go made it difficult to change my mind and saved my back from having to carry it out. What a relief it was to get rid of all that stuff. I think it's time for another purge.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

Yes.

 

[Local_Girl]

Yes. My DH has collections of stuff in boxes that barely, if ever, see the light of day. He keeps saying "some day" he'll be able to display them.

Sigh.

I'm not much better in that I have stuff for projects that I intend to do...and haven't done for years.

 

[abmitch01]

I'm pretty good at purging but go through spurts of buying "good" deals. Like after deciding I liked VB after reading about it on here and then having to get way too much of it on ebay. That weighs on my conscience. But hopefully I'll remember how crappy I felt when the next temptation hits.


I finally got rid of the really tiny clothes I hadn't fit into since before DS. DS was 12 by the time I got rid of the last of it, the stuff was so out of style and I finally admitted to myself that I would not be fitting into them again. I'm not really a pack rat or a collector but it's hard sometimes to donate things that I think we could one day use again. However, nothing is better than pulling away from Goodwill with an empty trunk!

 

[TxRabbit]

I totally feel like this!!

We have such a funny situation is our family...

We just moved to get closer to DH's work. He commuted 120+ miles a day for over 2 years. The doors finally opened and the timing was right for us to move closer. Long story short, the move involved a 10 x 20 storage unit that we moved a lot of our stuff into and moving some basic things (beds only, no other furniture) directly to the new home. DH and I did it ourselves (mostly), so we physically handled ALL OUR STUFF. It's all at the new house now.

Now it surrounds me...and I have to deal with it. I didn't have time to deal with it before the move. I always wanted to, but it was fairly organized (or in the attic), so it wasn't in my face like it is now. I feel overwhelmed by all this stuff and a part of me just wants to get rid of it all and live much, much more simply.

On the flip side, my in-laws house is virtually empty. Literally. A weird arrangement, but my SIL's family and my other SIL's family moved to GA. My MIL and FIL thought they were moving out there too and so they let SILs take almost all their stuff with the company paid for move (to take advantage of that opportunity). Only it turns out that the doors aren't opening for MIL and FIL to move. Their house has a bed and a dinette set with chairs. They have a computer desk with two computers and two folding chairs. And that's IT. In a 3000+ sq ft, 5 bedroom home. It echos. BUT...It's so peaceful at their house...

 

[mom2faith]

I have suggested to DH that we should move to an RV. That way if it does not fit, we do not need it - LOL!!

We just destashed our master bedroom and found boxes in the back of the closet that have not been unpacked for the 2 1/2 years since we moved!! It is awful!! I took two huge garabge bags of just my clothes to Salvation Army, and that does not include DH's (which he did and I think it was one garbage bag). It is almost perfect and I swear - we will not be stashing anything in there ever again!! It is a bedroom, not a storage room!!

Now to tackle DD's room!! That is a whole other story!!

Amy

 

[Laura24]

I look at the "stuff" we've accumulated and say "WHY"??? I just purged my basement and closets of "stuff"...what could be donated was donated but most of it, over time, wasn't usuable. So a dumpster full later....as it pulled out of the driveway, all I could think of was wasteful dollars from our youthful years of not knowing better. The knick knacks and chochkies mean nothing in your later years...just collecting dust instead of the money spent earning interest somewhere in some account. Wisedom.....too late.

 

[SLM]

Oh, yes. We have a small place at the beach. Not alot of funiture, dishes, I keep a week's worth of clothes there.Two sets of sheets per bedroom and one set of towels for each of us. When I bring paperbacks to read I take them to the resale shop as soon as I finish them or I get library books. We don't have cable, just a DVD player-and we rent movies, don't buy them. I think part of the joy of going is how pared down our life is when we're there. We're just focused on each other instead of things. I can't live quite that pared down at home, but I'm going to start getting rid of things. Thanks for getting me thinking about this!