It also keeps you from thinking you have to do a huge clean-fest. If you think you have to have 15 garbage bags full before going to Goodwill, you end up never doing it. Plus, I can’t carry that much by myself!
It irritates me, but I try not to let it be too big of a deal (it’s only stuff after all).
YAnyone have ideas on dealing with an uncooperative DH in relation to de-cluttering? DH cannot understand why I want to get rid of things - he says “we might use that someday” and “we have the space, so why not?”. (Fortunately for us, he’s right - we do have the space right now, as we just moved into what we hope will be our home for good, and since we think God will bless us with many more children, we have room to grow.)
But the extra junk drives me nuts! He has a HUGE rubbermaid tub full of VHS movies. I made him sort through the movies 2 years ago and that tub hasn’t been opened since (I tried to make him get rid of it then to no avail). Now he wants to put it in storage here - he might want to watch one of them someday! Really? He hasn’t watched any of the 100 + movies we have in the house in years either, so I’m thinking it’s never gonna happen. When I talked to him about it, we ended on the note of me not being able to understand collections and him planning to put it out of my way, so what’s the harm?
So, do any of you have an SO who isn’t on board with decluttering? How do you deal?
MJ
Yes he does and he even still goes through all of his stuff the day after Thanksgiving (he is 20 yo)! There are only two things he would not and still will not give up. 1) His books (not text books, the fun reading books), he hopes to pass them on to his children. 2) He has a collection of John Deere tractors and stuff. Right now it is all in boxes, although he has “plans” to do something with them someday. He has also found ebay, so there are some things that he cashed in on this year, although he still donated a lot of items and he still takes a gift to Toys for Tots each year.
My hubby and I are neither “pack rats”, nor are we completely “clutter free”, but we keep different kinds of things. He tends keeps large items, while I like sentimental little things. We let the other decide what old personal stuff to keep. Neither of us likes clutter, (although the other person’s clutter bothers each of us more than our own.
) but we both keep things tucked away where we don’t have to look. If the house is big enough, designate a closet or storage area to store the stuff he wants to keep.I just throw it away or give it away regardless of DH thinking he needs it. I do all the decluttering.Anyone have ideas on dealing with an uncooperative DH in relation to de-cluttering? DH cannot understand why I want to get rid of things - he says “we might use that someday” and “we have the space, so why not?”. (Fortunately for us, he’s right - we do have the space right now, as we just moved into what we hope will be our home for good, and since we think God will bless us with many more children, we have room to grow.)
But the extra junk drives me nuts! He has a HUGE rubbermaid tub full of VHS movies. I made him sort through the movies 2 years ago and that tub hasn’t been opened since (I tried to make him get rid of it then to no avail). Now he wants to put it in storage here - he might want to watch one of them someday! Really? He hasn’t watched any of the 100 + movies we have in the house in years either, so I’m thinking it’s never gonna happen. When I talked to him about it, we ended on the note of me not being able to understand collections and him planning to put it out of my way, so what’s the harm?
So, do any of you have an SO who isn’t on board with decluttering? How do you deal?
MJ
This is a great idea - thanks!My hubby and I are neither “pack rats”, nor are we completely “clutter free”, but we keep different kinds of things. He tends keeps large items, while I like sentimental little things. We let the other decide what old personal stuff to keep. Neither of us likes clutter, (although the other person’s clutter bothers each of us more than our own.
Discuss together and agree upon a certain storage space or certain number of storage containers. Then he can decide what he wants to keep and how to organize it. Since it bother you, select an area for him that you won’t have to view regularly and avoid his storage area. Discuss what he keeps only if the area/boxes start to over-flow from his designated storage.
My motivation to get rid of things often comes when I want to store something else in the container or space, like how I wanted to use the linen closet to store books away from my toddler. If your husband has a limited amount of storage space and he finds something “better” (to his mind) to store in that rubber maid container, he might sort through those old videos without you saying a word.
. Next time I won’t keep stuff in the garage for so long before I get rid of it. I also went through several old boxes and threw away lots of stuff. I got rid of numerous old magazines too. I keep giving myself little pep talks, “I can throw this away.”Call your local nursing homes. One of several of them may be interested in the mags. I took a slew of popular novels over to them once and was very polular myself! LOLOld magazines–yikes! I often save them in neat stacks on bookshelves and I do re-read some from the same season of previous years, but my toddler likes to get to those too. There’s nothing like a destructive toddler to help declutter the house.It’s probably time to save whatever magazine I have worth saving and donate them somewhere. Every month, new magazines arrive in my mailbox to take their place.
I just noticed that Goodwill has put a bin for clothes right next to the entrance to my favorite grocery store. Smart folks there!
Be careful with nursing homes. If the magazines are too old, the nursing home could get in trouble with the state inspectors. When you have a huge calender and activity schedule on the wall, and announcing over the PA what day it is, hows the weather, what’s the next important event, etc. it doens’t look so great to have 3 year old magazines on the coffee table!!
I’m so thankful for FlyLady…I’m working on itMoving 1000 miles helped usSeriously, though, moving will cause one to toss anything unncessary.
We gave a lot of things to good will, clothes mainly…
I would recommend larger items be sold in your local paper, or if you are up for a garage sale…that is always a good idea. (but garage sales are WORK)
Something I learned from ‘the fly lady’ is she recommends spending 60 minutes cleaning one’s home, and throwing things out, etc…for the average procrastinator. While cleaning is not so bad for me, I dislike (loathe) organizing and throwing things out…making piles of clothes to give away…bla bla If you spend 60 minutes (using an egg timer for example) you will get a lot done…and perhaps even after the 60 minutes, you will want to keep going. She says that by setting a time limit on cleaning, most people CAN commit to that time period. It’s when we look at a room or our garages, and say…holy smokes, how am I going to clean this whole thing out!!!It has helped me greatly to becoming more organized and time efficient.
Happy Epiphany! I think my post count would have dropped too, except that I keep posting on this thread for encouragement and a little accountability.…Yesterday I was blessed with an epiphany of sorts regarding staying on top of housework! …I don’t mind doing most any chore, but I absolutely HATE putting the things away. …It’s really great that I have had this realization. I think I hate putting things away because we have lousy closet space in this house and so many things just don’t **have **a place. …
Bad news is that this is going to be a lot of work. Ah well! So my post count will slow down a little bit, but it will definitely be worth it!
Well, I would never keep mags for 3 years anyway! I was thinking more along the lines of a friend who buys tons of magazines when they go on their “road trip” to the beach. She takes them to places with waiting rooms (like kids activites, nursing home, etc) afterward. So they might be last months, but they aren’t last years.