Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with decluttering

My Own Personal Thriftstore

mippy — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:00:52 -0800

I have a lot of clothing to get rid of, but am too disorganised to sell online myself. Given that my friends are time-short too, how can I feel better about the money I've wasted when discarding unworn clothes? I went through a big buying binge on Threadless a few years ago (I have more Girly Large tees than I can ever wear) and with high-street sales and charity shopping too, I now have a heck of a lot of stuff to sort through and pare down in order to give myself a wardrobe and room that isn't covered in mismatching items. I know there are companies that can sell things for you on eBay, but I don't know of any that sell for smaller-value items.

I ended up with four big laundry bags full of clothes once I'd amassed everything together - many of which had been bought on a whim, because in my brain I seem to think little of spending £50 on an amazing-never-to-be-repeated-bargain when I'll balk on spending that on a haircut or food, and never worn, perhaps never suited and fit either at the time, still with the tags on. I feel overwhelmed by it all.

For some reason, selling things feels psychologically easier in terms of letting things go - has anyone else found this?

How to stop living in a landfill and get solvent?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:32:28 -0800

I'm drowning in clutter and my bank account is empty. How do I change? I have stuff. Too much stuff. I don't need to buy anything ever again - when I say 'too much stuff', I mean clothes folded in crates under the bed because they won't fit in my clothes storage, striped laundry bags on the floor of my room, and barely enough space to open the door of the bedroom I rent. I find it hard to get rid of things - I worry I won't be able to replace them, or I might miss them, or in the case of practical things, that I'll have to spend more money to replace them. I'm aware that I live in a stressful environment, but it still feels so hard ot get rid of anything. I've never saw it as a problem for years as I've thought 'I'm not one of those people who keep empty milk-cartons' but the situation can't continue.

That's one problem.

The other is that I still keep buying things. I don't want to make it sound like an addiction, but...it's gotten to the point where 'sale' signs make me nervous and I try and avoid going into shops because I know I will spend money I can ill afford. Even museum shops. As a student I would overspend in the sales, buying things that didn't quite fit because they were cheap. Now the 'trigger' seems to be bargain shopping - eBay (thankfully I have no account now - it was dangerous - and sell things through my boyfriend's) thriftstores, planning what activity or scheme I'll take up next. Lots of people describe themselves as 'shopaholics' and there are so many magazines that encourage shopping, but this isn't buying shoes on impulse (well, it is :) ), it's getting halfway through the month and having to budget to the penny.

I earn a reasonable salary (£25k) and should be enjoying having disposable income - or money to save - for the first time. I'm paying off an overdraft at £200 per month so for the next year or so I can;t, or shouldn't, be spending recklessly. It'[s embarrassing that colleagues are buying hardware or going on holidays when I'm either unwilling to buy simple groceries because I think I'll blow my budget, or have only £10 to last the month.

I want to move in with my boyfriend in a year or so, so for that reason alone habits will need to change, but beyond that daily life is much less pleasant and I want to get to a place where I have a sensible attitude about money and my possessions. I'd like to be someone who lives in a comfortable place and doesn't feel guilty treating themselves to a new top or a trip to the theatre *once or twice a month*. At present, the idea of buying something the week before payday seems unheard of.

Help me throw away without guilt!

ocherdraco — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 15:27:30 -0800

Sustainable decluttering: how can I cull my stuff without feeling horribly guilty for throwing it out? Last June, I moved from a beautiful, light-filled, very spacious three-story apartment in Cambridge, MA, to a still very nice but significantly smaller (by two rooms) apartment in Queens.

I've got too much stuff, and I know the quickest way to solve that problem is to just toss things, but I hesitate to just throw things out because, well, landfills are atrocious. I've pretty much done the reuse and recycle part as much as I can, and the excess I'm left with is stuff that really doesn't have a purpose and wouldn't be taken by places like the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

What should I do with this useless stuff? (And I should mention that I don't have the time to craft, etc.)

What to do with greeting cards?

sian — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 13:26:24 -0800

What can I suggest my partner do with a huge stack of greeting cards he kept? I am a fan of spartan living and decluttering. I have only kept a couple of sentimental cards I have received throughout my life. My partner, however, keeps all cards he receives--birthday cards, congratulations cards, greetings from a number of different holidays and stacks of cards from family from three different graduations. More often than not, nothing is written inside them except "Love, (family member)". All the cards take up a considerable amount of space. He doesn't like throwing them out.

Aside from tossing all but the most sentimental cards (my favorite solution), what are some space-saving ways we can organize and keep these cards? I suppose an album would work, but I highly doubt it would ever get opened, and that too would take up shelf space. We are not typically into crafty DIY projects (like creating a card quilt, etc.).

Advice for clearing literary clutter

matildaben — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:27:21 -0800

Suggest practical and creative systems for reducing the number of books I own (rather long exposition inside). Hopefully this is part 1 of an ongoing decluttering and stuff-organizing project. I am really feeling more motivated to get rid of more stuff nowadays. I've read a lot of the decluttering threads and my issue is very specific and practical, and hopefully does not require therapy.

The vast majority of my possessions by weight and volume consists of books. I would like to develop a system for getting rid of them that will have a very practical, behavioral, methodical approach to the emotions that compel me to keep them.

One category of books is the ones I haven't read yet. This is pretty large. One thought that I had for dealing with them in a mostly scientific way was to arrange them in piles according to a 1-5 assessment of how likely I would be to read them (forcing myself to answer honestly for each one), and keep only the 5's. If there's still too many 5's left, I might break it down further by asking myself what my reasoning is for why I might want to read it (e.g., would I learn something valuable, keep up with a favorite author, be entertained, etc.). For partially read books, the question would be similar, "how likely am I to finish this?" So, I pretty much have a system for this category, and mainly am interested in hearing about similar strategies that have worked for you, or refinements or gotchas to this system. For instance, how does one estimate likeliness to read? What sort of questions does one ask oneself about motivation to read a yet unread book?

Books that I have read break down into several categories. The first is books that I have kept just because I enjoyed them when I read them, will probably never read them again, but they gave me pleasure so I keep the book around to honor that. Again, here, I think reason and logic can prevail if I just put them in a pile and say "I honor how much I enjoyed you when I read you" and then let them go. But that will probably be more painful than it sounds. For this category, advice, strategies, tales of similar efforts, and gotchas are welcome.

Books that I have read and may read again are a much smaller category, and once I have determined which ones those are, I can probably use a similar system as with the unread books to weed them out.

Then there is the large, amorphous category of books I hold on to for some sentimental reason - I read them in a great college class, I know the author, etc. I don't want to be too brutal here and rule them out completely merely because they are sentimental tokens - I want some kind of clarity on what questions to ask myself to determine which ones have a meaningful enough sentiment to hold onto and which ones are just emotional baggage. This is probably the toughest category, and the one where I'd probably benefit the most from hearing about "hacks" that have worked successfully for other people who operate in a similar fashion.