BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Living Simply Clutter Clutter Everywhere!

Hey, you guys should have seen my basement! My son and I were ruthless and threw tons of stuff out yesterday. Now just to drag it all to the curb! After we finished he turned to me and said "it looks so empty down here...we need to get more stuff" LOL.....

I got that article written...lucky you can't see the paper on my desk right now <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Clear Your Clutter!

I had been decluttering for over 2 years when I meet the love of my life on line. He moved in a year ago from boston to saint louis. One GIANT truck load of radios parts and radios. ACK!!!!!!! Talk about taking 20 steps backwards. I have been so frustrated.

My husband hangs onto EVERYTHING. I mean, EVERYTHING.
The boyscout uniform he had when he was 12? He has it!

150ish bottles of unopened hot cause bottles he had from an old hobby - he has them!

Empty wine bottles that have cool labels - they are in my kitchen!!

Love letters from old high school girl friends (seriously!) and a tarnished fake-gold id bracelet one of them gave him TWENTY YEARS AGO when he was a kid....he has them all!

Clothing form the 1970s that belonged to his grandfather who died 10 years ago - i just got rid of those!

IT DRIVES ME CRAZY

His entire family is like this. We had deceased grandfather's clothing because his ex-wife felt guilty throwing them out but didnt want them around, so WE got them!

We've moved enough over the past 7 years that a lot had to be weeded out, but not without a fight.

If this is your parent's house I dont think there is a lot you can do except keep your areas tidy and ask them if they'd like help. Some people will complain and complain but won't take the action necessary, so you have to wait until they are emotionally ready.

Good luck,
meg

I spent 2 years in a de-cluttering stage and then met my 2nd husband online. We moved him from Boston 1 1/2 years ago, along with a moving truck full of two-way radio stuff that filled up half my basement and now has migrated upstairs to fill up half my bedroom! The day the movers we hired last minute to help unload (he was scheduled to have his 4th neck surgery)the truck we drove across country from Boston to Missouri he texted me to say "honey I feng shui'd the house."

Ack!

I feel like tackling clutter is my main project in life right now. we have this teeny apartment lacking any real closets and are having to be super creative with everything!!!! Sometimes I want to scream, but all this STUFF in our lives is my own darn fault. humph.

we were thinking of some kind of bed loft, but even just raising our bed half an inch helped. here is the recent article on using bed lifts:

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art46062.asp

this is all such a process! I'll just keep documenting as we go along here. Sometimes i want a bigger apartment, but I am deternimuned that the answer is really just having less stuff, and fewer "needs".