r/declutter

Today is day 100 of my countdown to retirement, and I’ve hit a very important milestone: staring at my corporate wardrobe like it’s a museum exhibit of a former life.

I currently work somewhere jeans are acceptable, so my “C-suite armor” (aka serious suits that mean business and possibly emotional damage) are seeing less and less daylight. At this point they’re basically just hanging around waiting for a reunion tour that may never come.

So I’m wondering—when did you start clearing out your work clothes? Did you wait until retirement, or start slowly releasing them into the wild like emotional support garments?

My current plan is to keep about a week’s worth of “I might have to pretend I’m important” outfits and let the rest go.

I’ve had mixed luck with donations—local options are inconsistent, and my attempts to pass things along in buy/sell groups basically confirmed that corporate wear has entered its “nobody wants this but it’s too nice to bin” era.

So what did you do with yours? And how long did it take after that last day of work to say enough, time to live somewhere else?

These are the three things I’ve struggled to dispose of because it seems like no one will take them, and my understanding is it’s not safe to throw them out (especially batteries).

I got rid of old human prescription meds, and brought my old OTC meds and pet medications to the medication drop off site. The pharmacist saw me putting them all into the drop off and got so frustrated that she opened the drop off bin and pulled out all the pet meds and OTC bottles to give back to me! These apparently cannot be turned in at my local medication drop off. I called other local places that have medication drop offs, and they won’t take these either. My vet hospital told me to bring them to a human med drop off because they don’t have one.

I’ve also accumulated AA and AAA batteries because I can’t find a battery drop off that’ll take them. We wound up needing to get rid of some at work, too, but my coworkers and I ran into the same problem: there’s only one battery dropoff nearby, 12 miles away (and I don’t drive so I can’t get there), and they only take certain batteries that don’t include standard AA or AAA.

If we’re not supposed to throw these things out, but no one will take them, what do we do with them?

I am considering getting rid of 50% of my wardrobe in one go.

If you have done a majority declutter like this, can you tell me what you found out from that process? We're there any cons?

Was there anything you didnt expect to come from the experience? If so, would you recommend it?

Did it take longer to declutter than you thought? Is there more stuff to get rid of that’s even harder?

It’s like I have to get like everybody’s approval to get rid of crap and there’s more stuff to declutter than I thought.

I’ve heard of container theory. But is there any reason why I couldn’t just buy a larger clothes dresser?

Six years ago, we moved across the country for a job. While we did some decluttering then, it was COVID, and we were all on edge, so we took a lot more with us than we needed to. Then, the job ended three years later and we decided to move back across the country to be close to my family. We decluttered again, but not as much as we needed to because again, we were freaked out about things--job loss, our dog died. For both of those moves, I felt a little numb.

We're now moving again, back across the country to be near our kids, who stayed in the area when we moved six years ago. After living in two fairly large houses and expanding our stuff, we finally recognized the burden it was. We sold almost all our furniture--keeping two beds, a couple of desks, and a dining room table. We sold pieces we'd gotten when we were first married more than 30 years ago. I've donated glassware, sheets, towels, clothing--so much. We've thrown away random things that we've hauled around for twenty years plus that we never used, got ruined at some point, or no longer work. Once we got started, it got easier.

And yet, there is still more to do. We *still* have too much stuff. My husband, especially, has a lot of hobby things he needs to get rid of. But he recycled a lot of electronics he'd been hoarding, and when we dropped them off, he said it felt like a burden had been lifted.

Part of our inspiration was wanting to reduce our cost to move. Having done it twice, we know that more stuff=more money. Another part of our inspiration was me seeing all the stuff in both of my parents' houses. I probably won't have to deal with my dad's as his wife is currently clearing it out (we live down the street but are NC--story for another day). But I will have to deal with my mom's and every time I've visited, I'm overwhelmed with anxiety about all the stuff. I don't want to do that to my kids.

There are future moves for us and probably more downsizing. I want the rest of my life to be about experiences and people not stuff. This group--while I haven't posted much--has been helpful. Seeing the ups and downs of everyone's journey is comforting. This isn't easy and it's never over, really.

I just replaced a "temporary" (11 yr) shelf with the actual shelf unit I always intended to have.

However I have lost about half the space I had for displaying my Pop Vinyl collection.

I have curated the collection pretty hard, the ones I have left I definitely want to keep.

What would you suggest as a way to display these or is it face facts time and I get rid of half even though it will hurt.

Fiber people, you know how any scrap of fabric/clothes/thread/whatever can theoretically become any functional fabric item/art piece. You can find it all for free & keep everything under the sun and feel justified in your thrifty, scrappy, reuse-y, no-spend-y creativity.

Lately feeling like it is maybe not justified if I'm not using it. Starting to get that guilt from unused stuff. Also seem to have an injury that might mean I can't sit to sew. Pretty sad because I'm good at it & I have beautiful stuff. Anyway, I guess I'm supposed to either use it or lose it, right? I haven't used it. So what would it feel like to lose it?

I am interested in hearing from creatives who pushed past feelings of resistance & majorly got rid of the ✨someday-I-could✨ supplies. How do you feel now that the stuff is gone?

And before anyone mentions container concept, I gotta be honest with you - just doesn't do it for me. I say hey brain, this is our limit. My brain says no it's not, you just made that up

I don't wear them except for more formal jobs because they're less comfortable than my usual clothes. I'm currently not working much because of a disability but I want to get back in the workforce

What do you do with them? I get them all the time from Target. I feel bad just throwing them away but they take up so much space. Is there somewhere to donate them?

I finally retrieved my various college diplomas from my mother’s closet, threw away the frames, and put them in a storage tube. Not quite ready to throw them out. This was my last such item!

Oh yeah - forgot to mention that I am 60 years old. Making progress!

It took some courage, but I decluttered the biggest item in my house. No sofa, just open floor.

I can lie flat on the ground to chill. The absolute best part is watching my robot vacuum clean the entire room without bumping into anything. Highly recommend the sofa-free life.

Has anyone else successfully decluttered huge "default" furniture?

I’ve been feeling at a crossroads in life the past 6 months. I realize part of it could be sadness and a little bit of depression from various things (deaths of family members, some developing ailments of my own, etc). And I want to give up some of my crafts that I’m starting to feel no longer serve me. I am an avid crafter; I have dabbled in most everything, but the two hobbies that stuck throughout my life are sewing and paper crafts. I’ve been doing both since my 20’s and I’m 61 one now. It’s the paper crafts that I want to let go of, but I get stuck because of all the joy it has brought me in the past. I’ve made some really fun things, and have been on design teams for various paper crafting companies. My fear is that I will let it all go and regret it. I have an entire shelf of metal cutting dies, 2 large under the boxes of Sizzix, a shelf of findings, and an 8 cube storage of nothing put paper pads. I also have several die cutting machines and all the tools you need to paper craft. About a month ago a culled some tools and don’t regret it, and am ready to take the next step. Part of me what’s to just call a company to just come take it all, but I’m so afraid I will have deep regret! Has anyone else struggled with this? I need my house to have less. All my stuff is starting to smother me. Advice?

I have hired someone to help me declutter my room and the professional helped me declutter my medications.

So I’m hoping this awesome group can help me determine the ‘best’ way to cull the accumulation of clothes that I have (and deal with the various emotions I’m feeling about the whole thing).

For context I have a walk in wardrobe and two additional double plus wardrobes that are completely full with either hanging or boxed up clothing. This clothing includes current rotation and goes back to probably 2008. It spans sizes 10/12 to 18/20.

Where I need advice. I have been contemplating this decluttering task for sometime and have done some mini episodes however I want to really attack it and I’m unsure if the best way is to hang everything and group it by item e.g all the striped dresses I have or sort it by size and cull from there?

I will say I tried the Marie Kondo method in early 2019 and it nearly drove me to drink and weep simultaneously. I pulled all my clothes out and put them in a pile and it broke my will to live.

I feel I am about as mentally prepared as I can be although I have turned away from the task due to the enormity in the past couple of months. I also worry about throwing away (whether that is donating or selling [pretty unlikely]) things I haven’t worn, things that still have tags on them, clothes that fitted previously and I love but don’t fit now but might after I start taking medication.

I have been looking into what happens when clothes are donated so now I feel even more guilt that I’ll be adding to the problem if I manage to actually cull anything as part of this clothing declutter.

And finally I brought all of these clothes with me on this overseas posting (husband is military) and promised myself that I’d go home slimmer than I arrived and that I will free myself of the boxes and boxes of clothes before I leave to return home (four years later). I haven’t worked while my husband and I have been overseas but I will return to work when we go home so I have a whole bunch of work clothes (various sizes) that are in a holding pattern until they come back into rotation.

I have until the end of the to reduce what we pack to take home and I realised that a few iterations is likely the most productive way to do this. Any advice with the starting point and method would be so so appreciated.

Help. Thank you 🙏🏼.

Electronics seem to get shoved in drawers to be forgotten.I found two cell phones that we had after we upgraded a few years ago. I factory reset them to wipe any info then, advertised them on a Buy and Sell site for $15 each. They were sold in about 10 minutes. Yay $30 that was sitting in a drawer was set free.

Sorry if the flair should be a different one, I wasn’t sure which to pick!

So we’ve all likely seen the videos of people decluttering and professional organizers recommending their declutter “kits” or “guides” or “roadmaps” or whatever term they each use… and I know the whole goal for them is to make money off selling that product, but I guess I just can’t help but wonder how much new information or what new suggestions could be in those that aren’t already available on every “help you declutter” website or video?

I’m just starting to work on this massive undertaking—and it truly is massive for me, with mental health issues and a parent passing whose things I just stuck in my house a few years ago to deal with “later,” which has finally come. I know a big part of it was getting myself to a point where I felt like I could do this, declutter and organize, and part of it has been watching videos and reading things about doing it in a way that won’t overwhelm me.

I don’t plant to purchase any of these guides, but I’m really curious about what is in them that makes them something people can sell. If you’ve purchased one or have seen them, do you have any insight? *Are* they worth buying?

Failure is part of life. Share your decluttering challenges and failures here. Examples include:

• Emotional clutter
• Not enough time
• Getting overwhelmed
• Routing (recycling, donating, trash...)

If you're just venting, or don't want advice, please let us know in your comment.

This is a low-stress place to share challenges and failures for those who might not want to create a new discussion.

My parents moved back to the country we originally came from.

I’m living in yet another country myself, and now with all the years of my life, stacked into moving boxes, like growth rings on a tree, filling my already tiny apparent in nostalgia fueled clutter.

I’m trying since years to reduce my belongings, an insanely hard task for an emotional hoarder like me. I suspect some ingrained feelings of instability being the driver to this, I’ve moved some 20+ times in my life, cross-countries, beginning from before I started to form memories. Things would always change, so I learned to claw to the things I had before they disappeared again.

It’s almost comical how all those boxes laugh at me now, like the manifestations that came back from previous failures of letting go of those emotional hold-on-to’s.

The house from the village where I spent most of my childhood and teenage years is gone. And all the demons are here, in my tiny city appartement I share with my boyfriend.

How do I even start to attack this?

I’ve successfully collected a bunch of stuff I want to get rid of. Now I just need it out of my apartment. I have disabilities and don’t drive, so it’s impossible for me to accomplish this on my own unless I want to sell items online, one by one, and ship them out individually.

- Yard sale: I don’t have a yard, garage, or space to host. One of my friends does, and said we can host one together at their place. But that hasn’t happened, and they’d need to help me haul my stuff over.

- Donating to thrift stores and charities: the local charities near me don’t do pickups for any donations. Not even furniture! This means I have to walk with heavy bags of stuff to the donation centers. With my physical issues, this is painful and dangerous for me, as well as ineffective because all that pain for such a small amount of stuff. I’ve asked loved ones for rides to donation centers repeatedly, and it never happens despite follow up.

- Buy Nothing groups: too many no-shows. Not a single person has picked up something after arranging to meet. For my safety, I won’t meet someone at my apartment, so I’m wasting so much time bringing items to public places to be ghosted.

- Facebook Marketplace/Nextdoor/Buy-Sell local platforms: see above, same thing.

- Gifting or regifting to friends: I’ve set so much stuff aside for people who don’t pick it up.

It seems like I can’t do this independently, but no one will help. How do I get this stuff OUT?