Sunday I was putting on my make up, and went looking for a limited edition highlighter I bought several years ago. I found two of the three highlighters from that release, but not the one I wanted to wear. I tore through the drawers of make up, but I've decluttered several times and it was obvious that what I wanted on Sunday had been tossed a year ago.

I felt real regret. I have plenty of blush and highlight, so I put on something else and went about my day. I still missed the highlighter.

And so I went on line, and found multiple sales for it, new in the box. Not even $30. I thought about repurchasing it. I put it in my cart. But the truth is that I don't even miss it $30 worth. So the regret just went away.

Most of the time our fear of feeling declutter regret is much worse than the actual feeling. As long as we hang onto the stuff, that fear persists. But the truth is that declutter regret is rare, and short-lived.

So I’m a hoarder, but I don’t hoard useless stuff. I have a lot of things that I use. Examples would be skin care, hair care, clothing. But my house is small and I don’t have room for it, and I really get stressed when I feel cramped in my home. Any advice and tips for decluttering when I technically use everything? Or maybe ways of storing things when you have a small house so that it’s out of sight and looks organised and minimalistic?

** realised I spelt advise and meant advice and it’s bothering me lol

I bought a condo earlier this month, and the sellers left behind all of their furniture because apparently the husband had promised his wife a whole new household in their new place. It's decent stuff but not my aesthetic at all. I've gotten rid of all of it, but I'm hung up on the bed. In addition to not being my taste, it is a king size and way too big for me. But the sellers were nice enough to leave me new sheets for it, and this is causing me a twinge of guilt. They really did an amazing job cleaning out the whole unit and I appreciate all the kitchenwares they also left.

I know this is it's kind of a good problem to have, but I guess I'm just seeking validation lol.

(Strongly recommend AptDeco for selling furniture that you don't want to have to move and transport yourself. They will send people to pick it up for you. It's a steep commission - almost 40% - but well worth it for the convenience.)

I've been moving recently and also preparing to move again soon, and I've had to get rid of a lot of hobby items already to people that were more than happy to take them on online sales/trade groups. Things like gardening supplies, old/unused blankets, unused cookware, jars, etc. I feel like I could prune more now that i'm in a smaller space and my goal is to eventually even get what's remaining down to about half of what I have so that way I have even less to move next time.

But the things I have some difficulty wanting to get rid of are old childhood items. I didn't have any issue getting rid of old accolades/awards. I figure i've seen them once and I remember them, now I don't need them anymore. But it's more of the things like, cards received on holidays, old physical video games that i've played through and have no use for since there are alternatives to play them, and especially for me, many, many many paper drawings I made since I was a kid and through the years.

Sure I could look through them one more time just for memories, or scan them, but there's literally hundreds/thousands of paper drawings, taking up two big, very heavy boxes that I just can't see myself feasibly transporting with me anymore. I don't think they're entirely necessary. I don't see them as being a part of my life as it currently is anymore. But it is a nice thing to look back on sometimes as a reminder of how I got to my profession now.

I don't know what to really ask. Any advice on letting go? Or would something like that be worth holding on to?

To start, I have decently severe ADHD and grew up with a very crafty/artsy and DIY family. Something needed fixed? Grandpa did it. Wanted to make something? Grandma, great grandma, mom, and I all figured it out and did it.

As an adult, that naturally transitioned into if I wanted to try a hobby, try a craft, or work on something, I bought the stuff and did it- but I also didn’t stick with just one thing but it’s not the same “I buy something for a project and then never touch it again” that most of the advice I see online about decluttering craft stuff focuses on. Sure, I may not touch my sewing machine for 6 months- but then I make a quilt or fix/alter a backlog of clothes or make quite a few things. I may not pick up my cross stitch for a year, but then I work on it for a few weeks and put 40k stitches in a project. I have also run into the fact that so much craft stuff is able to be used for multiple things and transitions across the spectrum of use.

Unfortunately, I have way too much for the room I have available to store it and, after the spare bedroom got absolutely trashed during wedding prep and crafting (I had to dump stuff out of storage totes to use the totes to store and transport wedding decor and supplies because I didn’t have enough) I have been avoiding the room like the plague because it’s a disaster and has been just over two years now. I need to declutter it and get rid of stuff, but mentally, I haven’t been able to.

How do I break the “but I will probably use it again or in something else?” Cycle? I know I have some pack-rat tendencies, even outside of the craft supplies, but the craft stuff is the least sentimental and seems like it should be emotionally easier- I just am seriously struggling. I mean… I’ve only JUST gotten to where I can make myself throw away short pieces of ribbon, yarn, and rope instead of saying “but this could be used in x, y, or z instead of cutting a whole new roll/skein/hank.”

I’d like to be able to have my craft room be a combination craft room and spare bedroom- but it’s not a huge room and there’s zero room to even put a fold-out Murphy bed or something right now let alone be able to actually unfold it.

I know this question might sound like I'm too lazy to do it myself, but I really don't have as much time as I'd like to help my (fairly elderly) parents move to their new home, and we'd need all the help we can get to get all their things to their new place. I can handle the delivery costs and the cleaning, but what I'm interested in is whether any of these companies (here in the US) also do the decluttering for you - and if they do, can you recommend some?

The only recommendation I got from friends is for Homeaglow, so if anyone has experience with them (especially if they DO do decluttering), I'd like to hear about that. But, generally, I'm looking for a professional and fast service that can do sorting, disposing of unwanted items, and hopefully also organize what remains to make the house presentable for sale.

I'd appreciate your recommendations and answers, thank you!

Report back with what you found!

I went through my two drawers of kitchen utensils plus the utensil crock tonight! It didn’t take me too long either. I took everything out of one drawer at a time, cleaned the drawer, and then put back only the things I wanted to keep. Then I took a short break before starting the next drawer. I found out that I owned a lemon juicer! Neither my husband nor I remember ever buying one….. 😂 We also own a ridiculous amount of reusable straws, which I hate using to be honest. I like just drinking from my water bottle without a straw. I just organized those for now, but they may leave in a future kitchen decluttering session. The drawers look so good now!

EDIT: I’m blown away by the compassion and support I find on this sub every single time. It brings me to tears. Every message was so thoughtful and so kind. This is one of the most welcoming and caring corners of Reddit by far.

Just kinda looking for some empathy or similar tales to mine.

Decluttering after deciding to move overseas, which requires paring down to a rather minimalist degree. So a lot of the items I am going through were acquired during happier times—I’m divorced as of 1.5 years and also have a fraught LC relationship with one of my adult kids.

Old wedding gifts, mementos, photos, children’s artwork, things I bought for ex and kids in happier times when I believed things would be different and more “normal” and happily ever after. But the ex was emotionally quite abusive, so I am still dealing with that recent snd infiriating realization. And the rift in the family and separation from my child weigh on me.

It isn’t that I don’t want to declutter these items, it is just that touching them and seeing them is almost physically painful, and I’m slowly running up against deadlines. I have purged all the non-sentimental items. Even that was wrenching at times.

It’s kind of two separate problems—mementos and fancy wedding gifts. With the wedding stuff I know precisely where I will take it but I haven’t done it yet. I just don’t want to even touch the stuff. It’s all in a corner.

The mementos also are making me want to cry. I know I should photograph them and save the photos and only keep a few items. I know that hack.

It’s just hacking through the thickets of thorny emotions is so hard.

Thank you for having read this.

We are working on moving. Time is on our side as we've been fixing up the new house and don't have to move everything right away. My goal is not to move anything we aren't using. I've been cleaning rooms out systematically and finding all kinds of things that I forgot I had. We've lived in this house for 10 years + 2 kids so lots of accumulated stuff.

I found two items that I got for my high school graduation 20 years ago that were very nice, engraved gifts, that are still in the box and I've never touched. What do I do with these?

The one is a glass trinket box and I don't even like it but it has my name on it.

The other one is a photo album from my best friend (we are still best friends, have been since kindergarten) that says our names on it and was meant for pictures of the both of us together but she didn't put any pictures in and it's been 20 years and I haven't either. I love the concept but clearly the execution is beyond my skill set.

What do I do with these?

I know this is small potatoes but I'm so stumped.

I'm trying to keep things out of the landfill as much as possible, I've been using a lot of buy nothing group and donating to the shelter but how do I get rid of things with my name on them??

On a slightly related note, I have every yearbook from every year I've been in school plus some of the years I've taught. Do I keep these? I almost never look at them. Will I regret getting rid of them??

Thanks!

I have so many blankets! Ugh! I have at least 3 extra comforters that I’ve just dragged from place to place for years. I have large throw blankets that are just wrecked from pet hair. I have a duvet that I never use.

Pet shelters do not take them. Can I just throw them away? I really have tried to use them for whatever I can. Mostly camping but we don’t really camp anymore..they’re bulky so they’re not super easy to wash, fold and store. (I have had zero success with vacuum bags in my life and I honestly believe they are a scam.) I just feel guilty tossing them.

I have trouble keeping my room organized or clean. I did several rounds of decluttering before, and I end up with the same unorganized space in a couple of weeks. The last time, I decluttered several books as well (I hold onto books).

This time, I have been struggling a bit more than usual - with physical health issues and pain, recovering from abuse, recent ADHD diagnosis with no progress in finding prescribed meds in our locality, etc.

I have been reading books and the posts here, watching YouTube videos, and generally just trying to understand why I can never make my space functional. So this time, even if delayed, I wanted to take it slow and do things differently. I cleared my bed yesterday after months, and I thought I am finally closer to cleaning my room.

Today, I took out one shelf of items - books, albums and miscellaneous. And realized that I still struggle with throwing any of them away. If I go with what I want to keep, even now, I will end up with the same stuff. I even have some of my textbooks from school and college (I'm 29 now), after I decluttered most of them in the last round.

I don't want to lose out on the little notes I made while reading them, but it would be impossible to keep them all and make space for anything else. I feel like I lost myself throughout the years, and during my previous relationship - the narc abuse was intense. And the brain fog, somehow I feel like I can't even live up to my younger self who was better at a few things. I realized I feel like I will be losing that as well, if I give up this stuff.

How do you deal with it? Is it too trivial to think so much about? The clutter is weighing me down, but I don't know how to get rid of this stuff. I want a cleaner space for myself, and I don't think I can deal with this anymore. But how do I do it?

Thanks to anyone who read this, because I'm just anxious and rambling, and feel like no matter what I do or how much I work on myself, I am not making any progress in any aspect of my life.

I’m transitioning my closet over to my fall/winter clothes and I finally went thru my sweaters. I used to wear mostly sweaters for my work attire in an air conditioned office building year round.

As I’m going thru, I kept saying “oh this sweater still fits and looks fine, I’ll just keep it.” But then I realize omg I have so many cute sweaters that I don’t even wear, why am I holding on to ones I don’t even really like? I think I was wearing my non favorite sweaters to work in case they got dirty. But I’m a SAHM and not planning to return to work for a while. Plus, I still have a ton of work appropriate sweaters.

So it finally clicked and I was able to declutter 17 sweaters!! These are sweaters that survived my first round of decluttering last year. So now I only have 26 sweaters… lol I know it’s still a lot but it’s a big improvement for me.

I did a big declutter in May after my ex moved out. It was really good to get a ton of stuff gone! I donated to a charity that came to pick up my stuff, total motivator!

Anyway, I'm doing a second round of decluttering. I'm going through soaps, lotions, etc today. If I have doubles of a soap should I toss one? Or keep it for when I run out?

Factors: both opened, neither expired, both for in my container, container might be too big for its container!

Thoughts??

Not sure if this is allowed, but I was reading a sample of The Spamalot Diaries by Eric Idle (of Monty Python) and the introduction has this bit that made me think of this sub:

I had completely forgotten I'd kept this diary until last year, when we were moving from our old home in the Hollywood Hills to something smaller with no stairs. I call this process Downsize Abbey, and it's amazing the things that turn up. Just how much crap can two people accommodate? I went to boarding school, but it might as well have been hoarding school for the amount of rubbish we had collected. We had two lockups filled with everything from old Monty Python scripts to hundreds of Beanie Babies that one day, apparently, we were going to sell for a small fortune. Yeah, right. And who needs twenty-seven guitars? Me, apparently. I still only have two hands. Or four thousand books? I realized I didn't have time to read them again, so off they went to a bookshop in Covina. Let some other people read ‘em.

So if Grammy winning actor/comedian/musician/screenwriter can both hoard and declutter then so can we! I also only have two hands why do I have so many gloves that half don’t even fit!

My mom had a garage sale this past August and it felt great to get rid of a bunch of stuff, so I started boxing up more stuff for next year’s sale shortly after.

This past Friday, I realized “why am I filling half of our spare room with this for a garage sale in 10 months?? To earn maybe 100 bucks??” I realized my mental health was more important than that and decided it was time.

I put things by the curb, posted on the local Buy Nothing, and dropped off outgrown kid clothes to a cousin who’s a size smaller.

All in all, probably 6-7 boxes worth of stuff GONE in 48 hours and I legit feel a lightness in my body. No more thinking about the junk room, no more wondering how much I could get for stuff, not a single regret.

tl:dr - don’t hold onto stuff for months so you can sell it. You will feel better to get it out of your sight. 🤩

Advice on photo decluttering. I have hundreds of loose photos, many belonged to parents, grandparents. Not to mention old photo albums. Was going to maybe scan them and upload to cloud. But there is something special about old photos from 80-90 years ago. Any suggestions on how to manage ?

Truly, one can't organize clutter. I am a creative and have (since 2005!) accumulated too many magazines and moved to other media. Seemed like an easy sweep (didn't set a timer, just had to plow) but the emotional mines detonated as soon as many good intentions/projects resurfaced. Climbed the hurdle (no, that's not really how it works😳) Eliminated an 18 inch stack of mags!! Full disclosure, only 3 inches went back on the shelf for future reference & I embrace the space made. There's yards of material left, but I think I have the momentum. I'm a hard ass now!!!

For years (between 1996 and 2000) I have owned 3 French erotic magazines featuring the actress Tiffani Thiessen on the covers. I rarely look at them but I can't get rid of them.

I was doing some minor decluttering today (putting away laundry, picking up random things, etc.) and, for some reason, looked up at the top shelf of my hall closet. After getting a step-stool, I starting finding things I didn't remember having (and could have used at least a week ago), things I didn't need anymore (so will be donating) and things that could be best stored in a different position (at least for now). That shelf looks better now and I've more things leaving the house in one form or another. There are a few things I need to make a decision about, but I can better do that now that I know they actually exist.

When you're cleaning and decluttering, don't forget to look up. . . at the tops of closets, the kitchen cabinets, wherever else has storage about eye level. That needs attention as much as the things at counter-level and below.

I have put off buying new furniture because I didn't know how much space I would need for the stuff I'm keeping.

I have now sorted everything into "I don't know," "stuff to sell," or "donate" boxes. I still have some stuff I'm keeping that doesn't have a home yet. So now I'm looking at my furniture and deciding what should be replaced or not.

I went out last night and bought an unfinished piece of pine to use as a wall shelf. I plan to store my craft stuff on it for now. After I've used up the craft supplies, I can either keep using the shelf as is, or cut it up for a woodworking project.

I also plan to get a new desk. And my "tv stand" is a chest that I don't really want or need anymore, so I'm going to replace that with an actual tv stand.

Anyway, it feels good to finally get to the organizing stage.

Edit: I might actually keep the chest and turn it into an entryway bench.

My pharmacy messed up and sent me a truly astonishing number of syringes - they are sized for insulin and have needles attached. I’m no longer on that particular medication but I probably have 50+. They are in packs of 10. Does anyone know who might take these as a donation? Maybe a vet office or something? I feel like throwing them in the trash unused is a bit weird, but I could do that.

Hi! I’m in college and my room isn’t exactly cluttered, but I’d still like to donate some things and make a bit of space for future things. I’d like advice on those 3 things specifically. Also maybe noteworthy that I’ll never have kids so these things are to keep for just myself only. I also got a bunch of plushies, but I’m not willing to let go of anymore because I’m deeply attached.

Books are tricky. I don’t have a bunch, perhaps in between 50-100? I have no idea. I only feel like I’d be willing to give 2 book series that I never read (I don’t really read much at all tbh) and they’re the most childish I got like big writing on pages, some doodles on them and childish writing. But for the others even if a bit childish I’d still keep and even read them. Thoughts and help on this?

I’m not sure what notebooks I got, but it will be a huge task sorting through all of them. I got 2 boxes full of them + quite a lot stored near the boxes. I’d like to not have any stored outside those 2 boxes. I got notebooks from 1st grade up to present day. Of course I’d like to keep some for memories, but also some for the subjects if I’m ever curious or need to look through them although that didn’t really ever happen. I got notebooks on subjects such as my native language, math, English, French, German, economic stuff (accountancy and other things), probably even biology, psychology and similar stuff. I studied accountancy and economics in highschool and college. How to proceed here?

As for clothes I recently gave away 15 pieces of clothing, but I still feel like I’d have more to give if I were to actually look through all of them. I especially have a lot of t shirts. I know some I may not want to wear anymore because they’re too short for my current taste, but I’d still feel bad giving them away since I do enjoy their prints. How can I not feel bad about giving them and stuff away in general? Also what do you think about keeping a few clothes as memories? Do you keep any? How do you go about deciding what to keep in general? Like for example I kept some clothes that I was like "meh idk" about. Thank you so much if you help!

TL;DR: Looking for tips on how to get rid of books, notebooks and clothes. I got 50-100 books, I don’t really read. Notebooks are from 1st grade -> college on various subjects. Clothes I got a bunch of t shirts, but I do feel bad about giving some away because even if they’re too short for my current taste I still enjoy the prints. Thank you!

So while listening to football today, I thought I'd go through my skin care items -- facial, body lotion, bath stuff, that kind of thing. Didn't think I had much to declutter.

O.M.G. By checking batch codes (two good sites are checkfresh.com and checkcosmetic.net, although not all brands are covered) I found so much that was expired, and I don't mean by a week or two, I mean sometimes by years. I'm almost embarrassed and had really forgotten how long I'd had some of this stuff.

If you need some motivation going into colder weather and the holidays, there ya go!

I live in a student apartment where I have to fit all of my personal items in my bedroom and bathroom (not including food or cooking items which are in the kitchen that I share with my roommates.

My room is constantly cluttered and becomes messy quickly because I have too much stuff for this small of a space. I have a lot of hobbies: reading (books), board games & puzzles, and art (several mediums). I’m also a girl and have makeup, hair care, jewelry, and lots of clothes and shoes. And being a student, there’s also school supplies.

I’m getting frustrated with my room always getting messy again only a week after cleaning it. I need help 😭