BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Newbie - may I introduce myself?

I go through everything I own at least once a year. It's amazing how much better one can feel with less stuff. In the last 6 years, I've cut my personal storage (nostalgia and paperwork) by about 80%. It was gradual and painless. I just weeded out a little each year. I find that a less full (read: crowded and cluttered) home is more important to me than physical reminders of memories. So I keep very little. Huge chunks of my past have been donated, recycled, or just thrown away. That bothers me less every year.

We have 10 years worth of junk, between the two of us. Each year, we keep things we should toss, so by now, the house is full. Time to demung.

You know, I think I like decluttering so much because every time I visit my parent's house, I almost drown in dusty junk. Plus, once I stopped myself from buying so many 'cute little things,' it saved a ton of money!

We went to visit the parents-in-law in Florida a couple of weekends ago...they are real pack rats. My husband and his brother and sister all inherited that gene. I looked at their house, closets piled high with "stuff", knick-knacks everywhere (tchachkes is more accurate)and thought to myself "One day...they will be gone, and my husband is going to want to KEEP a lot of this stuff!" Scary thought!!!! Scarier is the thought of hauling the stuff he wants from Florida to Texas...that is the one thing that might save us from inheriting the LARGER pieces...

At our house, every few months I go through stuff, and donate what I can convince my husband to give up! He likes the idea of hanging onto old ticket stubs and sports programs! Arrrggh! Of course, they just sit around on desks and dressers, not put into any sort of organized scrapbook or anything!

Cindy

My dad is a packrat - we had a 2+ car garage growing up that never saw a single vehicle (not true... bikes, two motorcycles and a moped, not all at the same time. and the bikes were hung from the rafters). My brother's garage is the same way. I resist that gene with all I've got - sometimes better than others - and I HATE clutter. I HATE garage sales/auctions (why do I need other people's krap?). DH hates knick-knacks but has a tendency to drag old computer/office equip. home or keep things that "can be fixed!"

My husband is terrible for hanging onto things because "there's nothing wrong with it!" even if we don't use it anymore and it's just taking up space! He's gotten better though...a little. I actually talked him into getting new living room furniture...it's a miracle. "But there's nothing wrong with the old stuff!" No, just that the glass top tables are about 20 years old (his, not mine), and the fabric sofa and loveseat are hard to keep clean of dog hair and I bought them used 8 years ago when we moved to the house...it's nice to have nice things sometimes, you know?

Cindy

I have a glass table top...hrm...at what point is something "vintage?"

I don't know if the glass top makes them vintage, but I think the brass trim on them does! LOL! I'm just tired of the dust and fingerprints showing on the glass. Plus, they don't match the entertainment center we got a few years ago (we had to get that when we got the big HDTV, you know. Otherwise, there was nothing wrong with the old plywood entertainment center, except that there was no way it would hold a 50 inch TV!).

Cindy

My fiance is notorious for bringing home dead computers. His plan is always to strip them for parts and "frankenstein" together a new machine. Sometimes that actually happens. Some of the parts in the computer I'm using this minute are from previous salvage operations. But most of the old machines and parts just gather dust and drive me nuts. I hate living in a cluttered environment. The contents of his home office earned a nickname from the friend, "Refugees from the Borg Collective." I'm working on him, though. One day, he'll be organized and clutter-free. It may not happen until he's 80, but at least I've got a long term project to keep me entertained! :P

My mother is a pack rat. You can't convince her to get rid of anything. Her "stuff" and knickknacks were the subject of many of the arguments she and my dad had when I was a kid. I grew up in mortal terror that I'd be like her and need a home with lots of storage space and have every wall and table top cluttered with "cute" things.

This fear has worked for me so far. When our finances got really tight a couple of years ago, I had purged so much junk that we were able to take a cheaper apartment with very limited storage space. We still have too much furniture, so my goals for the next two years are to continue to get rid of little things so we don't need as much furniture-based storage, allowing me to get rid of some pieces and to replace others with smaller, functional, nicer furnishings.

(example: my current end table and coffee table set in the living room are secondhand, 30 years old, kind of ugly, and WAY too big for an apartment living room. The end tables have large deep drawers full of unorganized photos and miscellaneous junk. I need to get the drawer contents trimmed down and organized, and replace the tables with smaller, prettier ones that either do not allow storage, or are designed to specific storage -like an end table built to hold DVDs or a coffee table that is actually a blanket chest.)

The ultimate goal is to have lots of open spaces in even a small home and have that home filled ONLY with things we love or genuinely need. I will NOT be my mother!

Hello everyone! I thought I would jump in here and quickly introduce myself. I am 30, married, and very proud to be owned by 2 cats. I love reading this site, it has been close to an addiction for the past few months. I have never wanted kids, they have always made me nervous. I really never enjoyed being a kid myself. Remember the girl who had the signature "I hated being a kid, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, let alone a relative"? That is totally how I have always felt. Anyway, I look forward to participating in this forum. Cheers!