OMG this is so timely for me. We are emptying my grandparents home, which they built about 50 years ago. I have come to realize my pappaw didn't through much away. As the executor of his estate and now my grandmother's POA, I had already gone through all financial type materials, kept what I needed, got rid of the rest. I do believe he kept every receipt, every manual, every cancelled check since they lived in that house. We found a receipt from around 30 years ago where my hubby and bought some car part for him. My pappaw raised beagles, chickens and iris. We found old leather beagle COLLARS, with the little metal nameplates that had my pappaw's info on it. Of course kept one of those, would be great in a shadow box with some of his things. Found every poultry magazine he ever had. There are two bookcases downstairs filled to the brim with NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC! LOL And notebooks with his notes of cross-pollinating iris, diagrams of how they were planted in the huge garden, etc. In the closet in the master bath, which is like an additional bedroom closet, the whole top shelf is packed with magazines. It's crazy. Thankfully we do clean out periodically. After going through this, I would advise everyone to do so. If for no other reason, think of your family one day having to go through it all. LOL

Neither. I try to shop thoughtfully these days to avoid extra chores of storing/purging

I could have written what you wrote, especially the part about your DH! He doesn't want to throw away anything! I'm pretty good about purging stuff on a regular basis (at the end of every year), but not him. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do if we ever move. He has boxes of stuff in the attic he swears he's going to go through but never does.

Some things I am really good at purging like clothes and papers. Other things I let pile up. Currently, I have three "junk" drawers. Every time I try to purge, I look through the mess for a few minutes and then close the drawer and walk away. :)

Hmm, I keep my dogs collars, and some hair, but I know that is not the same thing!

Yes we have too much stuff. We have about four households worth stored in the barn! Long story - we've had deaths and needed to clear out apartments fast. I am also storing for my 20 something kids. Who are also transitioning to more permanent digs. We are in the process of moving but will be purging all of it over the winter and putting the little farm up for sale next spring. I may have to have an auction. Seriously. Some days I just can't hardly grasp how I will get it done as I'm looking at hip replacements... I come visit GW til my pain meds kick in ;)

I'm trying to do one room per week. But the accumulated antiques...Just can't do the yard sale til spring.

I work very hard on purging. I blame kids. They are magnets for STUFF.

We have a large box on-the-go at all times for Goodwill. When it is full, we drop it off.

I try to avoid keeping thing we "may need someday". That is very hard. I have had some regrets with that. But you can fill your house with that category of item.

I also have a rule for my girls' clothing. They must get rid of (usually donate) 3 items before they can buy one. How do they not have shrinking wardrobes? Gifts, school uniform clothing, special events, etc. But at least it helps stanch the flow.

We have been really working on this the last 2 months. We have way too much stuff. I get to a point I don't know what to do with things. I swore I would always park in my garage. For the last 4-6 weeks I have not as my spot is filled with stuff I do not want any longer and I am trying to figure out what do to with it. The toys and kids things I give away once a week. The pictures, decor items etc is what I am struggling with .

I am reading that KM book. My husband is not, but he is really pushing it forward too.

I have to tackle clothes next......

I'm definitely a purger. I have no storage in my house, so I have to be very careful about what I buy as there may well be no place to store it when it's not needed. I'm also not much of a shopper and don't have the shopping bug, thank goodness.

I, too, am storing a lot (too much!) of my adult kids' things. Childhood toys (Ghostbusters, Legos, dolls, and books, mainly), that they tell me they will want when they have kids. I've also started to store a few end tables, some dishes, kitchen utensils, lamps, etc. that DD will need (I tell myself) when she heads off to grad school and gets her new place. I actually killed my last shredder getting rid of years of accumulated receipts, tax forms, etc. that DH had been saving just in case we were audited. I did save the more recent stuff, though. At the moment I'm digging out the accumulated stuff in the guest room's walk-in closet. DD's beautiful evening gowns that she has no room for at her house at college. Many boxes of photos I've taken and never put in albums. Framed art that used to be hung someplace, but has since been replaced with others. DS's mementos from high school and college. One of my sisters was born a great purger. I admire that gene in her so much. I did not inherit it myself, but I'm working on it.

I'm starting to purge, because I can't find the things that I need, and it is ridiculous to keep buying new ones when I know I already have the items.

When we moved from our last house 9 years ago, having lived there 20+ years there was a lot to get rid of - even though I have always been good about donating. Had a huge yard sale, donated a good bit that didn't sell (wasn't that much left) and kept a few things that didn't sell (vintage, antiques). Problem with our current house? I have too much storage space and over the years it gets full, even though I purge now and then. I love to purge and donate!

With DD2 having a DS (now 4yo), I store his outgrown clothing, high chairs x 2, swing, bouncer, etc. Might have another one, you know! Then DS and his family (DGD) moved to our state, so I had her outgrown clothing until recently. They bought a house, so they have room to store now. While I have gotten rid of a lot of things, I still have Ninja Turtles, dolls, COPS and a Keep Box for each of them. Most of that is in large closet under stairs. We have a storage room under our DR that has my Christmas decorations and house things I am not using, but won't get rid of - yet. The downstairs laundry room is also a storage room. It didn't help that DD1 moved back here after leaving CA, so one entire bedroom of mine is now in that storage room and a guest room double door closet (sofa up on end, FULL of things and flattened boxes in case she moves again).

Recently we started looking at a lakehouse (yes, we live on lake now, but it is small and you cannot swim/ski) so I started purging more in case we put our house on the market. Now that has been postponed but DH and I are in purge mode - and boy is it hard to get him in that mood!! Everything has gotten more manageable now, but if/when we do move/put the house on the market, more needs to be gone. Luckily, we rent to a large antique store and he will let me consign as much as I want to send over.

I do not look forward to the day my parents are both gone and I have to start going through their house. I am hoping my sister will be more help than I imagine and DD1 was great when my parents sold their house across the dam from us, so it will be nice to have her lend a hand also. Dad has every receipt, bank statement, canceled check, credit card statement from the last 50 years.... Ugh.

The worst "invention" ever........the basement! It's nothing more than a repository of "junk" (the polite word) you don't know what to do with and kids' stuff. Ditto what Lynn said....and I have 30 years of it.

We started to clear it out about a year and a half ago and have never gotten back to it. I despise the basement so much I almost never go down there, but I had to last week to look for something. It's in even worse shape than I remember. I was just telling DH that we can't even begin to start sorting out again until we clear a large space so we have a spot to cart unwanted items to!

We will have to do it in the next few years in order to sell and downsize. And we need to do some work down there to sell.....a new slider, paint, new carpet, etc (when the time comes I'll be asking you all for paint colors...don't hold your breaths...it will be awhile!).

DH is worse than me about pitching and I have a hard time parting with stuff too...I'm definitely in the "I might need it someday," " it belonged to my mother," "the kids might be able to use it," "too sentimental" category for sure. DH saves paper.....you just never know when we might need the receipt for that chair we bought in 1989.

Good grief.....I get a headache just thinking about it.

My rule of thumb is, if I haven't used in in the last five years, I don't need it around any longer.

Also very timely as I work to finish cleaning out the items stored in moms house and reduce from mine since I will be taking care of her. They bought the house from some one who pretty much took what they wanted and left when they sold. The garages were packed the storerooms packed the attic packed and 2 rooms in the house all packed to the ceiling with stuff. Even the yard and garden was full. Clearly some hoarding issues with my parents I periodically panic and get rid of stuff (to the thift store) but this round of cleaning up has been much deeper. The house seems to thank us for lightening the load.

It's amazing how much stuff accumulates, isn't Gibby? Much of it stems from out of sight, out of mind. So when you do decide to look at it for assessment, it's a shock to see all of it.

DH tends to hang on to things for sentimental reasons -- old licence plates, for example -- and because of "you might need it someday." I find that things do NOT have sentimental value for me, so I'm happy with a picture of it or at least the memory of it. I'm gently working on getting DH to change his attitude, but he sure enjoys his junk.

Well glad to hear I'm not the only one. I was shocked by the out of sight out of mind stuff. I purged thousands of cancelled checks when we moved to a new lake home this summer. I couldn't believe it when I found yet another box of cancelled checks. I thought I got rid of a lot at our other place this summer. It had the dreaded basement storage area so it had a lot of stuff plus deceased parents' and siblings stuff. I even had a garage sale.

I think we don't have much storage space in our current house but it's amazing how much is stuffed in every nook and cranny. I've made it through two rooms so far - office and guest room. Since we remodeled our kitchen relatively recently it shouldn't be too bad. Our bedroom doesn't have extra stuff except a couple drawers. Living room and dining room are good. DH has a few areas that are really bad. That will be a challenge.

I really do not want to ever have all this junk again. It bothers me that someone will have to get rid of it when we're no longer here. And who knows who that will be since we have no kids. I want it to be lean, mean and clean. Just have an estate sale and you're done. No boxes of junk to go through.

I'm a purger and have to keep after DH to purge.

We REALLY need to purge the basement and the shed.

*shutters*

Nightmare

*shutters*

deee_gw, "Every time I try to purge, I look through the mess for a few minutes and then close the drawer and walk away. " Yep!

I've moved a lot in the last 30+ years, but seldom purged. The moves were for work and as soon as it was determined, the house was on the market and I was living in a different state. I had no time to go through the stuff and moving it didn't cost me anything (poor excuse and waste of money, I know).

Now I am planning a move I have to pay for AND I'm downsizing considerably. I've spent the last 8 months purging: papers incinerated at town steam plant; separated junk drawer(s) wheat from chaff; sold all but 3 pieces of excess furniture on CL; and sold decor items, household furnishings, gardening equipment, and holiday decorations on consignment. Last to go will be kitchen items. I feel almost ready!

Now I want my grandmother's passport back along that partial roll of quilt batting I tossed.

In the last year i've become *somewhat* of a purger. Most of what I have are things i've purchased to sell in my space at the antique mall. Some of it needs fixing, repurposed, used as spare parts, painted, and since i've invested money in it all, just can't give it away. Most of it, such as the beautiful 'collection' of vintage drawer handles would be useless to most people. And vintage linens/aprons~who wants them these days? I'm selling/using things little by little, but there's always the thought that as soon as I get rid of something, i'll need it! In the house i'm not too bad, unless you open the cabinets that hold the vintage glassware. My kids aren't into that 'old' stuff, so if I dont get rid of it eventually, it could all end up in the trash. I've mentioned having a 'living estate sale', so that may be a big time purge.

I can empathize with you as my husband is very much like yours. He hates to throw anything out with the thought it "might" be needed one day. I got tired of fighting with him over it. Now our good sized basement is filled with 10 year old monitors, printer cartridges, endless amounts of computer parts, screws and what nots, even ALL of the scraps from when we installed our wood floors and trim are down there (I still don't get that one). Now that it's filled up and he can't find anything, he's agreeing we need to toss it all out. Really? ugh! My only saving grace is that it's limited to the basement. I hate clutter and use those hoarding shows as back up. We have ample storage for what we need and we can park both our cars in the garage. If I can't find a place for something new, I toss or donate something old to make room for it. I still have one area to work on though and that's when it comes to keeping our records. I keep our bills and history in plastic filing boxes. Once a box is filled up, I start the next year with a new one. I don't like paperless billing, I'm just old fashioned that way.

And nobody wants your old yearbooks, either. Our kids, for sure, have no interest in that. There is no interst in polishing silver or collecting fragile crystal.

Boy, is this timely. I have been in purge mode since I finished cleaning out my Dad's house last year. I vowed never, ever,, ever! We don't have kids, and I will not leave that kind of stuff for some unfortunate relative. Also, we're on a 5-10 year plan to downsize, and it will be drastic. Might as well start now!

With that mindset, I am attempting to get each room (well maybe not the kitchen) to where it could be packed for donation in an hour. If you were just to go in with bags/boxes and not have to sort, it should be easy. Currently my LR, DR, den, spare BR and master BR are done. I have never been a collector of gewgaws, so there is very little decor type stuff. Very little sentimental stuff, I'm not much into that, either. I need to do my office, but it's a working space.

But .. then there is DH's space. His office and the entire basement. I've always said I'm married to Messy Marvin. I don't go into those areas unless desperate. Maybe when we get to moving, everything else will be done and we can join forces. Hahaha, I dream!!!

We moved out of our house last year for a gut remodel of our kitchen, refinishing of main floor wood floors and replacing upstairs carpeting with wood and painting of walls & trim throughout. We were able to store some things in our attic during this time, but all our furniture was in a storage pod.

It was exhausting cleaning this place out. Not the big stuff, but every closet, cabinet and drawer. We had just cleared out my parents' home of 30 yrs. when my Mom passed and set my Dad up in an apartment nearby. So our energy gauge was depleted from the start. We had to do it, though, as I'd been without a working range for 2 yrs. and the refrigerator had begun to fail.

I swore I would never, ever buy anything else for the house that wasn't essential. I have always kept a clutter-free home in my living spaces, but my closets and cabinets and attic were where all the overflow stuff lived.

Our DS moved overseas 6 yrs. ago so we have most of his accumulated worldly treasures in our attic. And DD has a fair share up there, too, as her little Cape has little storage. Aside from a few indulgences - like new glass pieces for my BD - I've managed to live by the "one thing in/one thing out" rule for the past year.

This post is further incentive for me to keep at it ;)

Having a lot of storage in your home sounds like a plus but it is actually the enemy. Storage encourages you to not deal with disposal or gives you an excuse to keep something "just in case". Our last house had enormous closets and storage space. Our living area always looked great so I thought we didn't have an issue. When we moved, clearing out all that storage space was a nightmare and a good portion of the stuff never should have been stored.

On Yearbooks - there is a website that gets them somehow and scans. I ran across one that had belonged to a girl I graduated HS with, complete with full page written by her then boyfriend. I grabbed a few photos from it to share, and people started asking where it come from. Either she or the BF said something about the note he had written her. She said she thought her mother had it, but I guess not! The website must buy them from people since they in turn scan and sell copies to the public.

westsider40... our kids will have to deal with our yearbooks as well as my parent's since I kept those!! (and a ton of old, old photos...and the silver and fragile crystal...and, and, and...)

you are not alone gibby!!

Yesterday I dropped off a bunch of donations at three charities. Put out a load of recycling and trash. All gone except the trashman rejected my little black and white Panasonic TV from college. Let's see....I graduated from college over 30 years ago....

I think you can drop off old electronics at best buy... I think...

Fortunately my husband owns a business that regularly has to dispose of all kinds of stuff so he can take anything the trashman doesn't take - including the little TV and a bunch of paint and such toxic type stuff that hasn't made it outside yet.