Hi princess
I find myself in the same boat as you. I am a deeply disorganized person at heart; so I need to be super strict and organized or it all falls apart. To get going, I assign a room a day. I go in with one large trash bag, one very big container and the lots of small boxes. I am ruthless as I go through the room: trash in trash bag; container for goodwill, recycling and out of house use; next boxes are either what stays in the room or what needs to to go another room. I then take each box to its respective room to be dealt with when I get there.

I understand and we recently went through the same thing, but in reverse. We decided to build our retirement home smaller than our old home. Take the stuff you know you want and if you have a garage, pack up the rest and store it in there. If you haven't missed it in a few months, you know you can live without it and get rid of it.

I agree with michegammemom. FlyLady.net (Marla Cilley) is a very helpful site.

Thanks everyone! I just need a push when I hit a block. I appreciate the link as well. I will check that out now.

Everyone goes at the process differently; bottom line is to get rid of everything which has no purpose ( living, breathing things which can grow a beard can be the exception.)

I do it the opposite way. I go in with the box and take what I want first. Then come the trash bag and Goodwill boxes.

It is such a great, liberating feel. Why do we continue to bring stuff into our lives?

ez and michi, did not know flylady. Will take a look. Thanks.

Here is an update: I have been decluttering my basement and am about 70% done. The last 30% seems a little overwhelming! This is probably because I have run out of steam. Any suggestions?

Also, any tips on selling things and garage sales would be greatly appreciated :)

I'm going to be decluttering next month. I've only been in this house for a year and a half and already I feel overwhelmed. My sister is forcing me to hold the family garage sale this year so I'm in a corner.

When I do it, I turn on music, pick a spot and go. One box for garage sale, one bag for garbage and that's it. It usually helps to clean off the shelves first (which wouldn't apply to you if you're moving) so you have room to put things away. And only touch things once.

What do you do with old framed photos when you have too many odd shapes and sizes and no where to display them?

For photos, you can buy a digital photo frame, and scan the odd-sized pictures to display in the frame. If you put in a lot of them (mine is now full), then it's a pleasant surprise when one comes around that you haven't seen for awhile. As for the old frames, if you don't care for the style, then donate them. I have a box where I store some frames, but I am thinking that I need to purge them. Option two is to have them professionally copied into all one size, say 5x7 and buy matching frames to group together. Good luck with your project, whatever you decide to do.

De-cluttering can be a daunting task. I like to take a step by step room by room approach to make things feel less intimidating. One good strategy is to take an area that is very cluttered and put everything into a box. Throughout the next few weeks everything you take out of the box to use, put it back up on a shelf. At the end of a 2 week period, anything left in the box is probably unnecessary and can be thrown out.... or sold! There is an excellent book on kindle with many more tips and tricks like this. I think it's only $0.99.

www.amazon.com/Decluttering-Handbook-eliminate-organizing-minimalist-ebook/dp/B07PBFGX3K/