I’m 7 months pregnant (first time mom!) and have been trying to make room in our 1000sqft 2-bedroom apartment in anticipation of a massive influx of baby stuff.

Yesterday I tackled the kitchen pantry and ended up throwing away about 60% of the contents! There were things in there that had been expired for YEARS.

My inspiration was the container store, where I got clear plastic bins that were exactly the depth of our pantry cabinets (I had some previous pantry organizers that were too shallow and too small that were not helping at all), and a quote from a professional organizer that was >> $1000 that suddenly motivated me to do the cleanout myself (with a generous budget for getting organizing bins!).

Today’s plan is to tackle a couple of bottom cabinets in my kitchen as well as the under-sink area!

Here is a before & after:

https://imgur.com/a/BLBKqgW

I will start by saying that having two homes is not better, it allows clutter creep. One way is all the books that pile up. I like having a few books for friends to pick up if they want something to read. But people leave stuff and never take stuff. So I clean up around the place and have a bin of books to take home to donate. No there is no place here.

Hello all! I'd love your advice on a situation I've been stuck on for a while. I am in the very fortunate position of having both too many clothes and appropriate space to store them. I have a decent sized closet outside of my bedroom and a large hanging rack in my bedroom; both could hold all of my clothing but would be inconveniently tight at the moment. I don't need or wear all the clothes and want to downsize this area.

Throughout the summer, I've kept all the warm-weather clothes on the garment rack in my bedroom. I've paid careful attention to which items and which types of items I actually wear. This process has been very helpful, and I have gotten rid of some of the unreached for items already.

With the approaching change of season, I'd really appreciate some outside perspective on how to move forward.

By dividing my clothes into two groups:

Group A: "active clothes"

Group B: clothes I'm not sure about yet

Does it make more sense to:

Keep Group A in the bedroom where I will see them and interact with them each day and add to it with seasonally appropriate items from Group B stored in the closet as needed? (Then ideally get rid of anything in the closet somewhat objectively after a period of time)

or

Keep Group A in the closet and add to it from Group B in the bedroom (in hopes I'll get tired of looking at the clothes I don't wear and get rid of them more quickly)?

I hope this makes sense, and thank you for taking the time to read this and for any advice you might offer.

I've been listening to Dana K White - De-cluttering at the Speed of Life (It's great - highly recommend it).

She talks about de cluttering the visible spaces first, to motivate. And asking - if I was looking for this, where would it be? And would I remember I had it.

I've done that part, so moved onto the hidden areas.... before I open a cupboard / drawer / box, I've been asking myself sort of the reverse of her questions - what's in there, is it important, do I need to keep it.

I've discovered I've kept (since I moved to this house 10+ years ago) so much stuff, seemingly just for the sake of keeping it. Never used, never looked at, completely forgotten about - but kept anyway, because when I see it - I like it / it might be useful / it belonged to x/y/z.

I've been making myself consider - if I didn't even remember I had this - Do I *need* to keep it???

So far - a Mah-jong set (belonged to my grandmother - I thought it was backgammon, which I also never play), a scrabble set (also never play this), the flute I played in 1993-5 but haven't touched since, 2 "pop up" children's books, 2 Emma Bridgewater cake tins, the accessories for the Magimix food processor (I am never going to use the egg whisk or the citrus juicer...)

So the donate / vinted pile is getting larger!

Hi all, looking for some advice on how to reach a compromise with my husband so we are both happy and comfortable in our home, while I work on my decluttering journey..

We grew up in VERY different households, so we have different expectations for how a home should look. I grew up in homes with lots of empty space, think empty wall/floor space between all the furniture, a very few carefully chosen knick knacks per room and one or 2 framed pictures per wall (less is more), so that is what I am most comfortable with and trying to achieve in our home. My husband grew up in very filled homes, think furniture crowded in touching with no space between it, every surface covered in knick knacks, and walls crowded with tons of photos (more is more).

So basically since my comfort level is minimalist, and his is maximallist, we seem to be going in circles. I empty a space, he starts filling it, I'm not really getting the home decluttered, I'm just giving him more space to clutter in. A good example is the fireplace mantle, I fully decluttered it, leaving 3 framed photos (5x7 each), and 2 pieces of carnival glass. It now has those items, along with about a dozen small bear figurines, since "they are cute and now we have room".

This isn't malicious on his part, it's a matter of comfort level, he thinks something looks perfect, and I think it's too cluttered so you can't appreciate the things on it, or I think a space looks perfect, and he thinks it looks too empty and sterile. I don't want to take over and just do it all my way, I want us to both be comfortable in our home, but we just can't seem to find a balance without driving each other crazy. Any advice from others with a similar spouse?

Going through something and have been feeling down for the last few weeks. Took 3 days off work and did a massive deep clean and declutter of my closet! Donated so many clothes, shoes, heels and bags!
Feels refreshing!

Sometimes it just seems like all my decluttering leads to nothing much, aside from clearing a little bit of mental or physical space. I'm just curious if anyone's decluttering has actually improved their lives in more than just a small way. This is what I would love to achieve, but it just seems like a nebulous goal at the moment. Not trying to diminish the small improvements, every bit counts.

I found a place about four hours away and out of state from me that takes art and craft supplies, as well as other items. I've been decluttering and sorting those items for a couple of months, and today was finally the day I drove down with my items. My car was packed: trunk full, back seat and passenger seat, too. I came across a bag of items that I was unsure about donating--maybe I would pick up that hobby again? Then I decided, nope, not going to do it again! It's resin molding, and it's not a cheap hobby, and the resin doesn't set up properly most of the time in this apartment anyway.

I didn't have room for one box of stuff, plus some other things. I think I might try to sell a couple of things that I didn't have room for (fairly new and hardly used). I still have some craft things in the garage to declutter once it cools off, so I will make another trip. I finally have some space in my closet so I can start getting that decluttered!

It was worth the $50 in gas and the day trip. I also forgot to take a pic of my car full of stuff--I got there early, and they took me early!

Hi Everybody,

I am trying to think of ways to declutter my desk for the vitamins and supplements I need to take to get my health in order. Right now it is 5 different things daily. I keep them on my desk as it is the best reminder for me to take them, as I have ADHD. (so having them right in front of me is nice, and I been consistent taking them)

Right next to them is as needed stuff, and it is becoming a bit much.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

I've just moved, and motivated to get rid of (more) stuff. I don't have, and don't want to make, space for all the kid art projects from elementary school. Flat art seems doable to keep. But the ceramics, etc.

Please give me permission to put these in the landfill. I don't have out of the way storage, like an attic. So nowhere to store for decades .

I had one of those enormous blue ikea bags full of fabric scraps and ends. Like. the leavings of years' worth of projects. Finally, after months of intending to this, went through and decluttered it! I kept a roll of fusible interfacing i didn't know was in there, a handful of bigger quality cotton pieces I really like to make hexies, some bigger pieces of denim for utility projects, and a little book of sashiko needles I'd been looking for for several months. I really did touch every piece and there was almost nothing I wanted or could imagine a use for in my sewing paradigm. Everything else is going on curb alert. I don't know why I saved it! I am astonished at the amt of mental space it was taking up just lurking under my sewing desk like that. Declutter ruthlessly and feel freedom!

The title says a lot 😅😅

But my partner and I live in a small home and we have a small child. I feel like I’ve been purging and decluttering and getting rid of things for MONTHS but somehow we just keep having more and more things??

We’ve both gotten a lot better at not buying or otherwise obtaining more items, so instances of items coming into the house have decreased greatly. But I still feel like we have sooooo much stuff!

It doesn’t help that we enjoy different hobbies, particularly ones that involve lots of items like video games, trading card games, anime/nerdy figures, plus one of us is an artist so we have lots of art supplies. This was certainly a problem prior to having children too 😭

I would greatly appreciate any advice in general, though I also have some specific questions:

• What are some good ways to make a small home feel less cluttered? It’s like no matter how much I clean and organize it still feels suffocating!

• For those of you who are also ADHD and/or have rotating hobbies (like, get really into something and buy stuff for it just to get burnt out on it and it goes into storage, but I usually eventually come back to the hobby again at some point and would have to buy stuff again if I had gotten rid of it to begin with!) how do you manage figuring out what to keep or get rid of with your hobbies?

• What kind of rules do you personally use in deciding to keep something or not, ESPECIALLY with sentimental stuff?

Thanks in advance for any feedback/advice given!!!

Edit: thanks everyone for the suggestions!

Hello, I'm new to the sub. I'm in the process of decluttering and have things such as clothing or objects that specifically represent a moment in time.

For example, "ABC Company 2015" items from a place I used to work at or "ABC Festival Experience 2019" with the box the tickets came in and other goodies. I'm probably just holding onto these things for nostalgia or the good times, but they don't serve use in my daily life. Have you let go of things like this and regret it?

I want to try to sell a bunch of childhood toys on eBay (Disney plush and dolls) but I know that will likely take a while to sell, and it really bothers me to have the clutter at home.

Please. How do you navigate feeling like you need the money but also can't keep stuff around until it sells.

Most of the bottles are the same brand and type. I have SO many bottles just taking up space so I was thinking of buying those big shampoo dispensers and putting them all in one and I can recycle all of the bottles and everything's all in one space.

My question is shampoos are made of a lot of chemicals, would this be a bad idea mixing them? I'm resistant to throw away most of them as they were gifts from a high end salon. Some are half full some are full or only a quarter left. Obviously I wouldn't mix purple shampoo with normal but for general hair care would it cause a problem to mix them?

I decluttered a lot. Some things are in bags/bins near my door for leaving to a thriftshop. They have been standing there for days. Seems like I have a hard time letting go, eventho I allready have said goodbye to the things. It’s mostly childhood things. My first shoes (my parents saved them. I feel obligated to keep them but I have no relationship to them etc). I feel emotional about it. But maybe my emotions is not about the items. I feel a bit confused and need advice.

Decided to start with my bookcase, because I figured I read everything on my Kindle these days so there can't possibly be anything on there that I'll keep and therefore that's an entire piece of furniture I can get rid of... Right?

Nope, I have photo albums, OS maps, notebooks and all of my college stuff that I'll probably use for reference for the next five years, as well as my hymn book, music books and signed comics that I just need someone to tell me to let go of...

I thought this would be the easiest thing to start with, and if this is the easiest thing, then I'm terrified of the rest of the journey!

Edit: Thank you for all the tips! Music books have gone in the donate pile, and comics have been kept until I can look up the current trajectory of the artists career and if they're worth selling or not! Still in the middle of my training (accounting) so I can't get rid of the textbooks yet, but I will probably get rid of the workbooks on my namext pass through that area. I've got three bags for the charity shop, a bag of rubbish and a printer to the tip, and I'm down to just one shelf! Feeling a lot better about this whole thing. Might clear out my sock drawer this afternoon.

In our house, we rotate toys. My goal is for the play area to have few enough toys that they can all be put away in less than 10 min. So, a fair number of toys are stored in clear bins in the basement.

We recently added some shelves to the play area, because certain toys were awkward to put in bins. Ever since the shelves were put in, my kiddo only puts one item on each shelf. It's kinda cute to see a deck of cards all by itself on a shelf. I love that my kiddo appreciates the open space and ease of access. My kiddo is learning what decluttered looks like.

The other win was when my toddler asked for a toy from the basement. I asked them to identify a couple toys that could be taken out of circulation and they did! No fuss, no melt down, no big deal. I was so proud. It's definitely challenging to teach a child to clean up after themselves, but it's really nice to see that some of the lessons are starting to stick.

My husband and I are in the process of buying a home and while the new home is a little larger square footage wise it has less rooms than we have. Now here’s the fun thing our house is a family home with generations worth of furniture and items so it’s in need of a decluttering but now we’re also needing to downsize the items drastically (I’m pumped about this lol) but I’m also pregnant so by the time we’d end up moving I’ll be nearing/in the 3rd trimester.

All this to say I’ll gladly take any advice, articles, resources, etc. thank you all!

This week, take 15 minutes to clean out your purse or wallet. It's time to:

• Shred old credit cards and fading receipts.
• Move excess change to somewhere else.
• Enter contact info from scraps of paper into your phone or address book.
• Make sure make-up you're toting around is under a year old and not getting gross.
• Shake out crumbs and make sure snacks haven't crumbled to dust.

What's the weirdest thing you found while cleaning out your purse or wallet?

Hello! :D

Due to a weird situation, I have to move, and couldn't move to a place with a garage, I ran my very niche business (custom cad 3d printed then painted fish figures lol) out of my garage. I've since for all intents and purposes shut it down as of today. But guh! This feeling that I must keep this equipment I spent years building up, but that I won't have a use for or be even allowed to use in my condo! (airbrush stuff and spray paint), I will be keeping my printer, that's a small but big bucks item and I love it, even named it haha. I was aiming to sell everything, but what if I do end up needing it, I also started this business back right out of high school, it went great, but I think I'm probably just too connected, D:

Thank you!

Just a vent, and also to see if I'm not alone here. I am not food-insecure. Loads of food in the cupboards, freezers and too much in the fridge. 😒 Boy, do I ever have food clutter.

I am the child of a parent who grew up with one citrus fruit a year - it was her favourite Christmas gift. One of her parents was even poorer than she. So it was drilled into my head from an early age - don't be wasteful! Scrape every jar clean, just cut out the rot and the mould, save all the leftover cooked rice and pasta. Oh, the horror of a wasted egg, which of course is relatively cheap.

However, I also thrive on variety and I suspect it has something to do with ADHD. Love trying new recipes, which mean new jars of different pastes and sauces, and then too much food leftover that I refrigerate or freeze. Then feeling guilty when I forget about the little Tupperware container of rice, or thawing something that was appetizing when first made but now turns my stomach.

Has anyone else had this conflict of not wanting to waste, but wanting to be culinarily adventurous, and then clinging to leftovers far too long? I'm thinking that maybe I need to be less spontaneous. Have a simple, set menu of Monday - Friday meals (with no leftovers unless planned for lunch the next day!) and then on the weekend, "Cooks gone Wild!" And then share with friends whatever is left?

I am chronically ill and can’t often manage to do anything… however… before I was so ill I learned to knit, crochet, sew, paint and repair furniture, cook/bake/preserve, make soap, etc. Essentially I am an arts and crafts all rounder, and always was. But my family are on my case about items I have for those crafts, some examples:

• I started crocheting a sunflower blanket a year ago. I haven’t finished it. I got particularly ill for a while and then when I got better it just sat there. My family are side eyeing my yarn basket asking “are you going to ever finish that”. Yes. It just takes ages to do a square because they are complicated and need 4 colours and a blanket requires literally hundreds of them.

• I have soap making supplies from before last Christmas that I wasn’t well enough to do at the time and they now live in a box in my kitchen. Actually I just identified some saucepans I don’t want to keep using, so that’s likely to be made up within a week or two.

• The cyanotype printing chemicals for making blue flower prints using sunlight are waiting for some flowers with emotional meaning to me - worst case scenario my wedding in 2 years time will deliver that opportunity. I did wonder if there would be flowers with my engagement last week but there weren’t, and that’s fine, but I want to make meaningful prints, not just any prints.

Am I wrong? Really? It’s not clutter if I can’t finish all the tasks quickly is it? Or am I the problem and I am the only one who can’t see it?

For context all of this stuff is “away” in the sense it isn’t blocking them from doing anything and doesn’t have to be moved or stepped around or anything. The yarn basket is in my wardrobe, ok it’s a tight fit, but it’s in there. The soap is on a box on a side in the kitchen that isn’t used and can’t ever be any use for food prep (because it’s half the normal height for a worktop/countertop/kitchen side). The cyanotype stuff is in the living room bookshelf on a shelf I have set aside for art material.

My mum was a hoarder. I live with fear I am going to slide that way. With the kids on my case I’m starting to wonder, is it me? Is this clutter and I am unable to see it? I really think it’s works in progress?

Pretty much the title, and it's really starting to frustrate me. His reasons are typically because he wants to try and "sell it," or that he doesn't know why he wants to keep it. These are my possessions, not his and not ours. Explaining to him that it means a lot to me to declutter these items and let them go hasn't worked.

Just looking for any advice :/

First, let me say that I am blown away by the vulnerability, optimism, and support everyone here has shared. It’s in that spirit that I want to share a bit of where I am and hopefully offer a glimmer of hope for someone who is at the bottom.

Five years ago, while nursing my newborn baby, I discovered my husband had been having multiple affairs. We had three other little ones that I homeschooled. My home was my life. When it crashed, it crashed hard. I had a nervous breakdown and barely functioned. Survival wasn’t even on my radar. Dirty clothes stacked up, so I just bought them new ones. Guilt about not being present had me buying anything for the kids to compensate.

Our house became a complete disaster. Emotionally, physically, mentally. No one was allowed to visit. Kids couldn’t have friends over. People couldn’t drop in. I was hopeless and guilty. I felt trapped. Overwhelmed. Everyone told me to take a break and enroll them in public school even if for a short time. I resisted, sure that they were so much better off at home with me. Until it clicked. They weren’t learning well at home. Sure, they were receiving an amazing education in school, but their brains were chaos due to the state of our home and how it affected me. Something had to give.

Last week they started public school. That scared the crap out of me. But guess what? They are coming home to find the house being unearthed, half rooms at a time. And the joy and surprise they show when they see our home slowing coming back has been priceless.

I started hopeless. But I literally started by telling myself, “Clear 20 sq ft at a time. One load of laundry a day. Throw away one bag of clutter a day.” And for two months now, I have my laundry room, my bedroom, and their play space back.

You have value. You are more than your mess. Baby steps if you have to. And never forget that your best looks different on different days, so don’t get discouraged if you have a bad day. Soon you’ll have a mountain you’ve conquered.

So im going to start this shit today. I am diagnosed with ADHD and OCD as well as ASD lvl 1, and I accumulate so much stuff over time it’s starting to become hoarding.

I’m working with a therapist now as I’ve kinda ignored this my whole life. My OCD is the reason I can not let go of anything. The demand avoidance comes through and it just becomes a vicious cycle.

My own bedroom has become extremely overstimulated and I’ve started sleeping with things on my bed, this can not continue.

Advice is welcome and encouraged, thank you.

I lost my best friend a couple of days ago. Beyond the normal (and often more than normal) grief I feel, I can't help but worry about what will happen with all of the stuff in his apartment.

See, he lived in a town where he had no family members and only a few close friends. His Mom has never traveled to the city he loved most, the city I lived in with him and it doesn't sound like she's going to come help with his stuff as she is pretty immobile. He always trusted me to check-in on his apartment when he was away for extended periods of time getting treatment for his cancer. While, he may have a couple other people in town that have access to his apartment, I think I'm the one who will need to take on the project of going through his stuff.

He has lots and lots of valuable items. First edition and regular books galore, gaming consoles, supplements and healthy vitamins, work out equipment, furniture, and more. There are even packages of stuff he ordered before he died that still sit in his entryway. He has a taste for the finer things in life and him and I shared that together.

It feels so fucking weird being the one to determine where his items go - What is garbage, what is donation, what do I sell and if I sell where should the money go? Do I reach out to other friends and see if they want anything? There are definitely some items I'd like to keep of his as I want a part of him with me while I have them. His old Nintendo that we used to play on for example. After talking with him Mom, she essentially said she doesn't want to ship his stuff across the country to her house, but she'd like to see photos of an heirloom stuff. I want to send her as much as possible.

Anyone able to help me figure out how to go about this?

I have several large plants that drop or grow "babies" or I need to give a chop to every so often.

I feel so guilty just tossing these-they're living things! For awhile I was keeping them in jars and gifting them to friends who wanted plants but everyone is planted out now...I have seriously given plants to almost everyone I know.

What do you do other plant people? Do you just toss them? Try to rehome them?

We DO have plant swaps/flea markets in my city but everyone wants the rare/expensive plants, no one is interested in "basic plants everyone has."

In the past few months, I've donated and recycled SO MANY shirts. Shirts from over a decade ago, shirts with holes, shirts I forgot I had, etc. I've cleared out boxes from my garage with clothes, one of my closets, and a dresser of shirts and other clothes. I feel so refreshed to have them gone. I never have to see these old shirts ever again! I still have a considerable amount of shirts, and have bought new ones to replace some of the old ones. I bought 5 new shirts - 3 were from Goodwill (which makes me feel less guilty about buying 'new' shirts) and 2 brand new. 5 is NOTHING compared to the massive amount of clothes I've gotten rid of.

I feel like i'm just restarting my 'too many shirts' collection when I do this, even tho I need a wardrobe refresh. I have new clothes, which is great! But now I also have 5 new shirts when I still feel like I have a lot. I'm trying to buy from places like thrift stores so I feel better about not contributing to 'fast fashion' and clothing waste.

How do other people allow themselves to refresh their wardrobe without feeling bogged down after decluttering?

For me it's receipts from stores. No matter how tidy I keep them in my wallet, no matter how fast I toss them, I end up with a ton of them in no time. And I'm not a shopping addict or anything. Does this happen to you with other items?

Edit: In my country it's mandatory to take the receipt, and authorities are allowed to ask you to show it to them as you're walking out of a store, to check that the purchase happened legally