A clutter-free home

My wife is a packrat, it seems that our home is an extension of her purse and that our collection of crap has to grow until every conceivable storage spot is full.
She doesn't disagree and is working on it.

How often do you clear the clutter from your home?
Not often enough; but seasonally at the very least.

Any tips on regular maintenance to reduce clutter?
Wanna buy new stuff? You need to toss the old. Buy 5 pairs of socks, toss 6.

Do you discard things only to want them back?
Never

Do you keep clothes packed away from one season to the next or just get new as needed?
We have some dark, deep recesses to our closets. Out of season clothes and gear move to the back.

How do you simplify your home?
I throw a temper tantrum over clutter. Some shit gets tossed. Rinse and repeat as necessary.

Do you donate or sell your unwanted goods? Where?
We tend to buy nice things. Our daughters fight over hand me downs. Goodwill will take what they do not want.

 

I hate clutter. My philosophy in my home is that everything has a place where it belongs, and that doesn't include sitting in a pile on the coffee table, kitchen counter, bedroom dresser, etc. For this reason I try to stay on top of eliminating clutter before it becomes clutter by putting things back where I found them, or finding a place for anything new that comes into the house that didn't have a previous home. As far as clothing is concerned, I don't want clothing that I don't have room for, and I try as much as possible to respect the conservation of space, replacing existing pieces if there's not enough space for both the new and the old.

The only things that I really regret discarding were some of my favorite t-shirts, three or four in particular, but I know I don't have room for them anymore.

/hardass

 

How often do you clear the clutter from your home?
Quite often. And when ever we receive guests.

Any tips on regular maintenance to reduce clutter?
I keep a place for everything. Even if not perfectly organized at least keep each thing in its place.

Do you discard things only to want them back?
nope

Do you keep clothes packed away from one season to the next or just get new as needed?
We use them across season. Just leave it in wardrobe may be on higher racks. No packing away though.

How do you simplify your home?
Give away unused items. Sometimes I had posted things for free in CL. It always works for me.

Do you donate or sell your unwanted goods? Where?
Use to do a lot where we lived before. Here we are fairly new and when it gets there we would take Goodwill's help or CL.

BTW never use to live in clutter until I got married. Now it is part of life, comes and goes.

Ironically my office room (+ tools room) is the most cluttered room in our house now.
I am really overwhelmed with the amount of outdoor work this spring/summer.
Winter is already here so no excuse - the house indoor needs lot of clearing and improvisation.

 

We store lots of stuff in our basement. It ultimately gets overloaded.
I am not good about decluttering but I found a little game that helps: Every time you go in the basement you must come up with one item to be chucked out, donated, or recycled.
Make a few trips a day down there and over a couple of weeks you get rid of a lot of stuff that way.
I find that less painful than spending hours at a time down there.

The garage is hopeless. Short of burning it down I have no idea how to get it straightened out.

 

How often do you clear the clutter from your home?
It is an ongoing process. Rarely do I have to actually de-clutter my house because I am constantly removing things from the house that I don't need.

Any tips on regular maintenance to reduce clutter?
see above

Do you discard things only to want them back?
Never.

Do you keep clothes packed away from one season to the next or just get new as needed?
I pack away sweaters, but that's it.

How do you simplify your home?
It's not an action, it's an attitude. You clean it all out one day and decide that you're not going to let it get cluttered again. It's like quitting smoking. And I can say that with authority because I think I have hoarding tendencies.

Do you donate or sell your unwanted goods? Where?
I donate all of my stuff to a local thrift store. They are a Christian ministry that does an amazing amount of service for the poor and I really respect that so I give my stuff to them.

 

I've said it elsewhere, my ideal space is minimalist. If I could live with the bare necessities, I think I would love it.

With a wife and daughter that like to keep stuff, I will never reach that ideal.

That said, I find that having less space and, more importantly, less storage space helps. People seem to think the way to solve their clutter is with more shelves, a dedicated place in the basement, or a better system. This leads to storage lockers. If you are putting things in a storage locker, you have a problem. I find that if you have empty space, it gets filled. Live in smaller houses and don't add shelves and when you bring something in, take something out.

 

I would like to remove the human clutter in my life within the confines of the law.
All of the weird junk I have doesn't bother me at all.

 

I never get rid of the weird junk. Just the ordinary junk.

 

It's true. Clutter is stressful and there is a sort of liberation in letting go of possessions. Especially for me because, like I said, I do have that impulse to hold onto things. But once you establish that pattern of assessing your environment, making decisions and removing things it becomes just as gratifying as holding onto them. Plus, less dust, less cleaning.

 

View: http://youtu.be/UsRP9EUrXjo


I am torn between two lifestyles. The current one I am living, is the average one with a house and stuff. But, I could easily put it all in a storage shed and live out of my backpack, and I have done this for a few months at a time.

If I ever didn't have a job, one of the things on the list to do is to backpack around Europe, India, and Asia. My home would be where ever I woke up. I wouldn't need to work to afford a house and 'stuff'. I could also see myself owning a boat and sailing it around the coast and down to Mexico/Bahamas. If you don't have a lot of stuff, you can get a smaller boat, and there are fewer problems the smaller the boat.

 

Our clutter mates at night and multiplies. It's one long, ongoing effort to keep it at bay. I think the clutter is winning, however.

 

I have too much clutter. It's a work in progress. I go through periodically and toss things, but I'm always fearful I'll miss things I get rid of. I don't. But I think it's the process of letting go that's hard. I'm not a hoarder, but I do have more stuff than I need.

 

Frankly, I don't think anything short of an airstrike is gonna help us...