I always have a wire sitting out attached to one of my kitchen outlets to charge my phone and it drives me nuts. I would love any ideas for how we could keep a charger out but without a visible wire.

I just ordered this but it makes a sound whenever plugged in so have to return it: https://a.co/d/7OLF7ba

Next step will be installing a shelf with a wireless charger, where they l the wire goes through a cable channel.

Only things I am not considering are moving the outlet or drilling into cabinets. I do not have outlets in any cabinets.

what is a normal amount of tshirts to own?? i’ve been trying to be more mindful about how much stuff i own - starting with my closet as it causes me the most consistent stress! the thing is - i have like five shirts i tend to reach for. i’m neurodivergent and wear the same outfit all the time - and i will straight up forget clothes i own if i don’t constantly wear them - but i also love fashion! i wanna wear more things that i like and not be tied into the same stuff all the time! but also what is a normal amount of tshirts (or equivalent) to have?? i’m sick of repeating outfits all the time but also don’t wanna go too crazy with owning clothes i never wear. i’m just looking for a sort of range to aim for - how many shirts do you own? do you struggle with similar issues and have any tips for breaking out of only wearing one thing?

sorry if this is a little all over the place - i’m a little scattered!!

The holiday season can be busy and emotional, so instead of challenging you to clean out one more thing, we're challenging you to sit down with a beverage of your choice and think. What are your decluttering goals for 2025? A closet? A room? Building habits? Maintenance mode? There are no wrong answers!

Share your 2025 decluttering goals in the comments!

My mom gave me an antique quilt that I do not want. I believe I cannot wash it or dry clean it because it is so old. For a while, she had it laid down on her floor like a rug (people stepping on it with their dirty shoes, which freaks me out). I do not ever recalling her washing the quilt. What do I do with this? I don't want it but feel guilty getting rid of it. She said it was my great grandmother's; this is someone I've never met and know nothing about. She has previously gotten upset with me because I mentioned before that I don't want it. If I could wash/dry/clean the quilt, I would keep it but I just don't see that happening. She said I could hand wash it. I don't really want to do that because it will be so heavy and cumbersome to move and I don't have time! It's just one more possession for me to take care of. Why didn't she handwash it before she gave it to me if she wanted me to have it as a gift? What should I do? Also, she has given me 6 other blankets, none of which I asked for. Most are just like this one: old, tattered, dirty and need to be handwashed. I don't really use any of the blankets she gave me, except to make a dog bed for my outside dog. Should I try to see if any quilt collectors want them or just discard them?

I see a number of posts suggesting that unwanted items be placed near the road so passers-by can help themselves. Please be sure to only do this in front of your own property. We live in a rural area and folks off the "main road" are putting their junk on other peoples' property all the time. Some gets taken, but about half doesn't. We don't have bulk trash pick here, so to get rid of an abandoned item, we have to drive it to the dump and pay the dump fee. Leaving trash by the side of the road is illegal, but the sheriff has to catch them in the act. I am so fed up with this. Any advice ? Thanks for listening.

In the process of preparing my house to host of Thanksgiving I was forced to face how much excess stuff we have.

I own my grandparents old place which came with all of the things. I did a big clean out prior but then I got to the hard stuff and needed to take a break and never went back to it.

I decided we have enough true trash items we can just get a dumpster. However, we do have a fair amount of stuff I'm not touching. I don't like selling on fbook because I don't like people coming to my house and am not going to take the time to meet up somewhere. I'm in the country so donation places aren't crazy far but it's still like a 40 minute round trip. Also there are not donation pick ups in my location either.

I have accepted I just need to throw it away so I can just breath and bring the ease I need. But I can have a hard time throwing away usable items. But I don't have the energy to deal with donating all of the stuff and taking hours to do so. Every place that does donation pickups do not come to my address.

I’m decluttering my stored photos so I can pay less on cloud fees each month. I can’t post the week by week updates here anymore but turned out for the best because I worked my way back through June, meaning that I’m officially half way through and get to make a half way there post instead!

182 days worth of photos left to sort through. I’m now 1.5GB away from downgrading my storage, from 75GB over when I started.

I’m worried about losing steam when the long weekend/holiday weekend is over. On the flip side, this isn’t as overwhelming as I anticipated, so I’m thinking about tackling cloud files, emails, and other digital declutter in the new year.

What are digital declutter motivation strategies you all have used?

As title says, I’ve got a bunch of shirts from high school that I don’t wear anymore. I’m hesitant to donate them because they’re all pretty specific and don’t know if they’d even be something other people would want. I have plenty of sleep/cleaning shirts and more than enough rags, so I genuinely don’t know what to do with them. A couple examples of the shirts I have are honor society shirts, shirts from theatre shows, and some organisation shirts.

OMG... Just sharing... And shaking my head at myself... They are in the recycling bin now.

2 weeks ago I decided to put the most Rangers Apprentice books and Brotherband books in a bag for the christmas fair at church. I am planning to bring the bag to the church when we attend service tomorrow. I decided to keep parts 1-4 of Rangers apprentice and 1-3 of Brotherband. I really enjoyed is as a teen and had all the available books. But I've outgrown it and don't read this books again (and John Flanagan really milks out his book series in my opinion).

During dinner my mom asked me "'Are you sure that you want to get rid of those expensive books?" I explained to her that I don't read those books again and that I do them a service by donating it to the christmas fair to find a new home. My mom told me that she found all those books on my shelf very cool. I feel kinda guilty and considering to wait for a week.

Any un-guilt tripping words or advice is welcome

Hello! I have posted here before, and it was beneficial. Anyway, my uncle gave me ten medium boxes of diecast cars. Some of them are valuable, some not so much. I sold a few on eBay, but it's a long process, and it doesn't seem worth the money after I buy shipping supplies. I feel bad just getting rid of them, but I also can't keep paying storage unit fees for them. The guilt is intense. I just don't want them to end up trashed. I want them to go to someone who will care for them. Is that dumb, or should I just load them up and go to the local thrift shop?

I'm not sure how to phrase this without it sounding a little goofy but I tend to overthink things. I want to get rid of my old stuffed animals and my mom said to throw them out because they're not in great shape. That seems like the logical thing, but it's also awkward because you just kinda put it on the curb and expect it to disappear. I'd feel kind of weird doing that and not even knowing how they'd end up exactly. While if I give them to a specific person I'd know and that would feel better.

I've had this with other stuff too, I'm not really sure what might help. Is there a good way to feel more closure/finality about this sort of thing?

FYI I'm neurodivergent so this might just be me lol.

I spend time every day trying to decide what to do with all the items I have bought over the years with a view to selling them on ebay. I have so much stuff I can't even draw my curtains in my conservatory, my bedroom has a bed in the corner and the rest is boxes of stuff to sell. I have six double wardrobes full of clothes I never wear. My mind goes round and round trying to decide how to get all my money back that I have spent on the items. I am too embarassed to have people in my home because of the clutter. Please advise me what to do I am desperately unhappy.

Over the last few years, I've fallen into the bad habit of buying new boots and shoes every Fall instead of wearing the perfectly good ones I already have. At the same time, I have held on to old favorites, thinking that since they still have wear in them I shouldn't donate them just yet. This year, I decided to go through and wear all my old shoes for at least one day, and it was eye-opening - most of them didn't survive a single wear. I threw away three pairs of clogs that disintegrated during the day, and donated several more shoes and boots that I realized were no longer my style. My shoe rack has room on it again.

From now on I'm going to start each season by revisiting last year's shoes, and if I don't think I'm going to wear them within the next three months they will go straight into the donation box so they don't sit for so long they become useless.

Over the past week I decluttered my closet and office. Our office was so bad it was starting to look like we were hoarding. Tons of unopened packages, weeks old mail, etc. You could barely walk or see the desk. I wish I had a before photo. I donated 8 bags packed full of clothes (some with the tag still on), shoes, and handbags. It was difficult but the more I said yes to the donate pile, the easier it got. It helped that these were very cute plus size items and I know thfifting plus size can be difficult. I hope my donations help many plus size ladies find some cute, new clothes. I also donated 82 books. I'm a book lover and collector and my shelves are still full, they're just not all over the floor too. I feel free and like a huge weight has been lifted. My takeaway is to just start small. We tackled spaces little by little. It can also be helpful to have someone help you. My husband and I had some wonderful conversations while we worked through items. Finally, don't be so hard on yourself. What's done is done. Letting things go that still had tags was rough at first but I have hope they'll go to a good home. Thank you so much to this community for motivating me to finally tackle my clutter!

Hi all

Make sure you also delete emails and digital content that you’ll never use. It consumes space and electricity on a companies servers and has an environmental impact.

All these companies which obsess about getting you to hand over your personal data are polluting the earth, all these recordings and telemetry of your shopping, browsing history all contributing to ruining the planet.

Delete those spam emails, block and tell them off.

I don't know what made me do it, but I tackled one drawer in my dresser that I hadn't really opened in a while. It was full of things that I had just shoved in there and of the stuff I pulled out, I only used three of the things and that was pre-Covid. Most were dumped in a bag to be donated, some things I thought "How'd I lose THAT in such a small drawer?" and some I just tossed out completely. I still have the rest of the things I pulled out to go through, but, at least, it's not NEARLY as daunting now that most of the stuff is gone. In fact, my only thought with most of it was "If I haven't worn it by now, I'm NEVER going to wear it, so in the bag it goes."

I've also been trying to clean up other areas of my house as well, but it's not going nearly as easily as that drawer was, but . . . small steps lead to big successes!

I moved out with my bf a few years ago & started our kitchen from scratch. Overtime his friend gave us a set of 18 glasses, I got 8 mason jars for cooking, & 8 stemless glasses for wine… But we use them for water & soda 95% of the time.

I thought more would be better but yeah I think too many dishes might be my problem, always leaving things on the counter because 1 of the 4 cabinets I can reach is only glasses… anyway, what do you guys think is the ideal amount of dishes for 2?

This might be an odd question or blatantly obvious to some but I’m wondering all the same.

As part of my decluttering mission, I’m trying to work on paperwork. I loathe paperwork. I struggle to keep up with it, to know what to do with it, to organize it. Everything about it overwhelms me. I find other stuff so much easier to go through. But I’m doing a little bit every day or every other day and making progress, albeit at a snails pace.

One of the things I’ve been avoiding but contemplating, is the giant folder I have for every thing I ever took care of for my late dog. This will be my second Christmas without her, and that pile of paperwork is taunting me. There’s no need to keep any of it right? Why does it feel so harsh to do that? The other day I came across the receipts for her cremation and it honestly upset me so much I just shoved it back in the drawer.

But , I do want to make progress. How do you deal with stuff like this?? I KNOW she is not the pile of vet bills and stuff, but I’m struggling with it and I feel like with all the progress I AM making, it’s just looming over me.

A few more bits have left my house today and I'm sad and annoyed with myself in equal measures.

I'm trying really hard to be a more 'mindful' shopper especially where clothes are concerned.

Today I wore a top that I'd bought because I was looking for a nice cable knit cream jumper. It would go with lots that I already had. It ticked lots of the boxes that I needed it to..... Except one! I knew when I bought it that it wasn't quite as long as I would have liked but I bought it anyway. As soon as I put it on today I realised it wasn't quite as perfect as I'd hoped but hey, I can compromise. I love it in every other way and if I have to pull it down every so often, so be it. It's not like it was going to show bare flesh underneath as I had a tank on under it. It's a jumper, right? All was going well (ish) until my dear other half took a look and simply said 'that jumper's too short'. Yes, yes it is and going into denial about it isn't going to make it longer. If anything, I'll probably shrink it in the wash! So as soon as we got home, it went into the donate pile, along with the grey version (unworn obviously)

LESSON NUMBER ONE TODAY: Make sure future purchases tick the most important boxes.

While we were out, we sat and had coffee. "Are your eyes OK? They look really sore" No, I'm just wearing a new colour eyeliner where I'm clearly not seeing the same thing in the mirror as he's seeing in real life. He was right - I looked like I'd got conjunctivitis. I'm not even going to try to repurpose it. It got thrown out as soon as we got home!

LESSON NUMBER TWO TODAY: Stop buying new makeup. You have enough and that's why you're in the makeup rehab sub 😂

Then this afternoon, I was putting some things away and found a couple of pairs of unworn knee length boots. I struggle finding them to fit so I buy them when I see them. Except because I've not worn them, they've perished in areas that would be obvious if I put them on. So I've had to throw them away. I'm so upset with myself but it's another of those life lessons.

LESSON NUMBER THREE TODAY: Stop buying backups. When something needs replacing, you'll find another and get use out of it.

Oh well my fellow declutterers, we live and learn. Hope you all have great weekends.

**Now is a great time to look through your holiday decor and servingware/party items and holiday attire. **

• Declutter broken decor, unmended holiday clothing, etc that broke in a previous year and you still never bothered to fix it. Either fix it this season or get rid of it come the new year.

• Did you just host a holiday meal or plan to? What a great time to declutter excess party items/servingware etc that you have never used and don't plan to use. Pick out the items you know you love and want to use. Keeping stuff you don't plan to use this season is OK if you love it and know you will still want it again in the future. Get rid of the stuff you keep leaving in the boxes year after year because they no longer work with your decorating plans/needs.

• Have some holiday activities/events you are planning to attend? Try on your outfits and declutter stuff you hate, makes you feel unattractive, stuff that no longer fits, stuff that is too worn, etc. Keep the stuff you love and will wear again. Don't go out and buy new outfits until you scan what you already have.

• Go through your crafting items if you plan to make gifts or decor this year. Get rid of those bits and pieces you've saved from old projects but never found a new use for. If you craft food gifts, take a look through your cupcake liners, tags, jars etc and see if you already have what you need.

• Go through your gift wrapping supplies and see if you have enough already before buying more new stuff. Check your tape, scissors, packing materials etc too. Don't go to the store thinking "do I have enough tape? batteries? ribbon?" - check first. Declutter scraps and old stuff you will never use.

Repurposing counts as decluttering

Using something counts as decluttering

Donating stuff counts as decluttering

Throwing out trash/broken stuff counts as decluttering too!

edited for the inevitable typos I only ever see after I hit enter ><

Every year the one special gift that my parents scraped for was a lego Star Wars model for my birthday.

I’m now 32 and have long since moved out of their house. The models are on a makeshift display in their attic where they sit in the dark until maybe once a year when i go up to see the collection. When I do go up there though, I’ll spend a few hours playing with them, revelling in nostalgia.

I am starting a new business and am currently saving up for a classic van. I don’t earn crazy money so it is a slow process, and not having a van slows business growth, there’s only so much you can fit in a car. The van would be great as a brand ambassador and will also be a way of having camping trips and new adventures. I also love tinkering and mechanics so it ticks all of the boxes.

This has lead me to the question of whether it is time to sell my beloved lego collection.

The logical side of my mind says “You’re a grown ass adult swooning over pieces of plastic sitting in an attic 200 miles away that you see for a few hours a year at most”.

The emotional side of my mind holds on to those attachments, birthday memories and the chance just once in a while to relive that childhood magic. I feel that by selling them, I’m abandoning them and giving up old friends.

I also tell myself that the price of lego models increases over time, convincing myself “next year they will be worth more” every single year.

The idea of going back to my parents house and up into an empty attic makes me just feel sad. But is that just it? An idea? If they were indeed that special to me, why are they not with me now in my house? If they were sold, I wouldn’t go into the attic, there would be no need. I’ve sold loads of things that had sentimental value to me (cars, motorbikes, trinkets etc) before and after a while you get over it.

I know that they are not being used but I’m having a hard time letting go of a lifetime of memories held in them.

I guess holding the old lego models compared to the idea of buying a van maybe it is the perfect metaphor of “you’re letting the past hold you back from pursuing the future”

I don’t know, I’m torn and am just getting all my thoughts out there and would love to hear from people who have had similar experiences.

TL;DR - I’m struggling with letting go of old toys that I have an emotional attachment to.

I have a lot of stuff. I have a 6 qt plastic shoebox for flashlights. I went to put a headlamp away and it wouldn't fit in the box. So I spread them all out on the dining table and looked at each one and threw out the broken ones, the chintzy freebies, the empty packaging, the wrist lanyards and the pre-LED maglites.

There was one that was nice enough to donate. And there was one that upon second thought I rescued from the trash pile. But 13 went in the trash. At least everything fits now and I was able to fit my collection of ultraviolet flashlights in the box as well.

I've been reading "Decluttering at the speed of life" and she says the purpose of a container is not just to keep things together, but to limit the size of each collection. 6 quarts is a reasonable amount of flashlights to have. My wife asked me to keep at least 5 and I laughed. I still have at least 20.

Now all I have to do is test and store or recycle all the batteries I pulled. Another day.

I went through my closet a while ago and got rid of quite a bit of clothes, but I still had too many. I had more shirts than hangers. Tonight, I took every single shirt out and tried them all on. Anything that didn't fit, didn't look right, or I just didn't like went into the donation box. I was ruthless. I now have an excess of hangers and room in my closet! I can actually see what's in there, and I know I'll actually wear what I kept.

I still have to go through my dresser, but I'm making so much progress. Thank you to everyone here for the motivation!

I don't drive, and ever since I moved into this place 13 years ago I've dumped the garbage too big to fit into the garbage cans into my shed, naively relying on my mother's promise that she would absolutely come and take away some of the garbage next time she went to the dump. It was so full of garbage you couldn't even open the door all the way, some of the piled garbage fell behind the door.

I just found out that I have mice nesting in the shed, and decided I had to clean it out now. I called around to see if anyone could help me, and found out that the only thing I could do was rent a dumpster. They'd drop it off and pick it up whenever I wanted, but I'd have to fill it by myself. Without access to a vehicle it's not like I had any other real options, so I just said fuck it and rented one today.

The whole thing wasn't as bad as I expected, I filled a 6 yard dumpster almost to the brim with the junk in the shed in under an hour! I have a little grocery cart on wheels that works as a hand cart if you take off the grocery bag, I piled it high with garbage and rolled the garbage to the dumpster instead of carrying it. The cart took most of the weight and since I could stack piles of garbage on the cart, I made fewer trips to the dumpster. Work smarter, not harder!

Once I was finished with the shed there was still a little bit of room left in the dumpster, so I made a quick pass through my trailer and managed to fill another 6 garbage bags worth of junk. Glass can't go in the regular garbage bins but could go in the dumpster, so I tore through the place and gathered up all the glass containers I could find, and now I have a lot more free space in my kitchen cabinets.

Having access to a dumpster forced me to finally throw out my destroyed cat furniture, too. It's needed replacing for years, the cats have clawed clean through the sisal rope and clawed holes in the wood that was underneath it, but I just never got around to it. But, the dumpster is the only thing big enough to take them, so I had to throw them out today or never. I threw them out first so I couldn't change my mind, and I've ordered a nice new tree to replace it. I'm sure they'll love the box it comes in!

All in all, a very productive afternoon! Feeling rather happy and relieved right now. I'm actually looking forward to getting the bill because they charge a disposal fee based on the weight of the garbage, so I'm going to find out exactly how many pounds worth of garbage I hauled out today . . .

For context I impulse bought a lot of body care 2-3 years ago and since last year I started using it as I realized I was buying without using it and the shelf life of body creams (we’re talking bath and body works) is not that good. So I started using them but I realized 2 things:

1. Some of it was giving me rashes, I have sensitive skin
2. I did not enjoy the feeling of it after my shower, it was a sensorial nightmare wearing my pjs after
3. The project pan didn’t feel like a treat, it felt more like a chore, sure it was nice finishing them but between rashes and how slow it was I was not looking forward to using them.

So now they’re gone, not all of them but a good 8/10 of them is, I have only left a few and I’m debating if to get rid of them next week when I have the occasion to again, I have learned to not impulse buy products without testing them extensively first given my sensitive skin and that those collections belonging to body care hoarders (yes they are hoarders) are NOT something to strive for. It still feels weird, but I also feel lighter, I feel more free, it’s silly but it’s something. Next week I’ll be tackling some more regret buys in other fields, I wanted to today but this was already a lot for me mentally compared to other declutterings.

My grandma died when I was a kid. She owned this audacious (real fur) mink coat. It’s not something I would ever wear. But I don’t want the coat to go to waste, especially because numerous animals died to make it. I’m not even sure if I’m legally allowed to sell it. It’s one of the only things I have of hers. What do I do with it?

TW in case you don't want to read a bit about a cancer diagnosis.

Hey guys! So lately I'm thinking about decluttering. My wardrobe is overwhelming me, there is so much stuff. I don't even wear most of it because I don't have a reason to wear my cute clothes. So it's mostly homewear I wear. If it's all clean and folded it probably won't even fit in the closet.

Here is the culprit: The last six month revolved all around the journey to fight cancer, I had surgery twice, I had six rounds of chemo I just finished. So my clothes had to provide comfort and easy access for blood draws and infusions. It's likely that I will go to "cancer rehab" for at least three weeks soon where it's possible that I have to pack comfortable/workout clothes for three whole weeks without the access to a washing machine.

I don't know if I should wait until I'm home again or if I should just declutter the clothes now and maybe invest in some new and cute stuff (lost some weight after surgery and all). My sleeping clothes are old pieces with holes or are out of shape but when I look at them and thinking about putting them in the bins I'm having such intense reactions. Sorting through nice and valuable stuff for possible selling triggers the same feelings.

I feel like I'm giving up on life. This is a fucked up situation, cancer sucks obviously. I might be ok at the moment but we never know what will happen in the future. I want to be positive and looking forward to life after treatment and all the shitty parts.

We heard about the swedish death cleaning but I'm alive now! I don't want to declutter things I can use in the future. We are hoping to become home owners at some point in life, I have furniture in storage I wanna use if that happens. I like my stuff, I want to display it but there is no space right now and storage is sacred too. Our compartment in the basement is small and full and hard to get in our out.

Another issue is all of my sewing stuff. I'm a seamstress and I had to pack up my little sewing shop and move it all to our flat. So much stuff, so much fabric I collected for many years. I couldn't even use it all if I tried.

I want to reduce my stuff but getting rid of it feels like "oh maybe I don't need it, because it's possible that this is gonna end badly for me".

I'm so sorry if this is a bit weird, long and confusing or above reddits pay grade. I don't even know what I want from this, perhaps I just wanted to write it all down to get the thoughts out of my head. Take care!

Tl;Dr: asked for mom’s china when she passed, held onto it for 11 years, realized it was finally time to remove it from my home.

When my mom passed away, the only thing I asked for was her china and crystal. They were things we never used, growing up, because they were fragile and she worried they’d be broken. I did convince her once, to let me host a tea party with my best friends when I was 8 - and she let me use her china to do it. So, there was at least a strong sentimental value placed on her china and crystal.

Fast forward 4 years, and my husband and I were remodeling our kitchen. I insisted on having a glass fronted cabinet so that I could display mom’s china. It looked pretty there with the floral violet patten and gold rims. It never was used, not even when we’d host Thanksgiving and didn’t have enough plates for everyone, because they might be broken.

I remember a couple years ago, a friend who didn’t have such things in his house growing up came over for a party. He needed a bowl for the blueberries he brought. He saw the gravy boat through the glass, realized it was the right size, and then grabbed it to use. I was horrified and he just didn’t understand. It was a “bowl” and he needed one.

That said, for a few years now, when I looked at that china on display in my glass fronted cabinet, all I felt was a sense of anxiety and guilt. Anxious that something might happen to it, and guilt because it’s languishing and taking up space that could be used for something else. So last weekend, after 11 years of ownership, I decided to take the plunge and remove it from my home.

I asked my brother if he wanted it (he can be sentimental about things that used to belong to mom). At first he said no, then changed his mind when his girlfriend said that she wanted to send it to some family in the Philippines. I was concerned about them breaking in transit, but reminded myself that once something has been given away, it’s no longer mine to worry about.

So now, it’s all on my counter. He will pick it up when he comes to cook our Thanksgiving dinner. And I’ve regained functional use of one whole cabinet in my home. I decided to keep one of the serving plates to hang on my wall to remind me of my mom and that tea party. I’m feeling sadness at saying goodbye to something that held such a prominent value in my life for so long, and lightness from regaining physical space.

EDIT: my brother picked up the china last night, minus the platter I chose to keep. I’m glad others feel comfortable using the china they’ve acquired, but I did not use it in the 11 years I owned it and would never use it in the future so it is better that it went home with someone who will. So YAY THE CHINA IS GONE! I feel relieved now, and much less anxious/guilty than I did after reading all the comments saying I should keep/use it.

This is the perfect time of year to declutter your email inbox. Any US-based retail business (and an increasing number of internal ones) that has your email address will be sending you a Black Friday sales pitch. You can quickly see just about everything you are subscribed to and start UNsubscribing. If you feeling super keen, you can also search by sender and delete ALL the emails from that source in one go.

Digital clutter is a weakness of mine. I saw this tip on Reddit this time last year and wanted to keep it going, because I think it’s great.

Edited to add: found the post I got this tip from!