Counteracting the clutter in 2023

[sally maclennane]

I'm fairly ruthless with clothes, and happily give them to charity. Make up and toiletries is harder, I have loads of samples/items from beauty boxes or advent calendars which are barely used but not unopened so I can't give them to charities. Throwing them out seems so wasteful.

We desperately need to clear out our cellar, it has tons of clutter from when we did the extension. It's such an unappealing job though, in the winter. The prospect of lugging stuff out of it and going to the tip in the pissing rain is really not that pleasant.

[Squirrel]

I would leave that, Sal. We cleared and renovated our cellar and it’s amazing now , dry, uncluttered and useful! But no way I would have done it in January.

[Blondiejude]

I agree with squizz, our garage needs a total overhaul (there is literally all sorts in there, all shelves and organised but never used, we have for instance a bottle of archers bought 9 yrsago for xmas as a guest coming liked archers, she had one and the remainder has stood there since) but we both agreed we’re not sorting it when it’s 4degrees in there, January is bad enough!

[Estrella]

I have to do this too. This weekend I’m planning on doing S’s room and clothes with her. Mostly cos she’s had a massive growth spurt so none of her clothes fit. We are going shopping for new stuff but only when we’ve sorted what needs to go to charity first.

Next on the list is our playroom/spare room. We got rid of some stuff when we moved a year ago but weren’t ruthless enough. The driver for this is to have the room re-organised (and potentially re-carpeted) before Mum visits at the end of March.

[Sky]

I've tried that Hazey, and you may come and inspect the bags of clothes I should have taken to the charity shop 6 months ago. The bags are dusty

I see your six months and raise you two years. Why yes, I do have adhd. What gave it away?

[rosy]

I did my wardrobe and the kitchen cupboards/drawers last week, and this morning I tipped out the baskets under the coffee table and only put back the things that really should be there.

Friday or this weekend I intend to tackle makeup, nail stuff and jewellery.

Then at some point I need to empty the shed (again) and chase up the council who are supposed to be replacing the shed door.

[Cosmopolitan]

I've tried that Hazey, and you may come and inspect the bags of clothes I should have taken to the charity shop 6 months ago. The bags are dusty

I see your six months and raise you two years. Why yes, I do have adhd. What gave it away?

[Squirrel]

And me . Not a coincidence we’re all on this thread .

I’ve recently discovered the concept of doom boxes and my new year resolution is to somehow deal with them (arrgghhh) and figure out a strategy to prevent them building up again. Easier said than done.

[Cerise]

Tell us about doom boxes!

[Morganna]

It's not for this thread, but I seriously think I have ADD too. I'm not sure that there is any point in getting a diagnosis other than for my (lack of) self-esteem, but it would explain a lot.

Re decluttering, all of my lovely new cupboards are filled with doom bags and boxes (a concept I discovered as a child being told to tidy my room), as I had to clear at least some of the crap out of the way when the joiner left on Christmas Eve, and it had built up all over the house because of the decorating. The plan was to sort through them one at a time after Christmas, but since then the dining room's been filled again because the decorator's back and everything's getting moved around again to accommodate that. Honestly, if someone had hatched a plan to destabilise my mental health they couldn't have done better than this year

The bookcases can go back on the stairs by the weekend (I'm out on Friday) and when I refill them with the ones covering two double beds ( ) I can thin them out. Then I can start on doing the same with the new shelves downstairs, and let the books fight amongst themselves for a space. Any that fail to get one will go, and I'll operate the one-in-one-out policy that I've yearned for from then on. When that's done (and I keep telling myself that as it's contained it is achievable) I can move onto the doom bags, and create some space in the new cupboards, the whole point of which was to help me get better organised. When I have that cupboard space back, I can start the next phase, which I'm not going to think about yet, as I'd get overwhelmed. I'm setting myself a target of next weekend (ie 21st/22nd) for the books.

By most people's standards that is slow progress, but it will be a huge step in the right direction if I get it done.

[Squirrel]

Tell us about doom boxes!

Apparently it stands for “Didn’t Organise, Only Moved” and it’s when you shove a load of items together to deal with later. But as you don’t know what to do with them, or lack the executive function to deal with it, the box/pile/drawer becomes their final resting place. And repeat.

My house is full of “doom piles” but I discovered that if you Google how to deal with doom piles, you get lots of helpful advice about… piles .

Eta: this is a good explanation although the web site is horrible
https://www.realhomes.com/news/what-is- ... box-tiktok

[bramblerose]

I have at least 5 big storage boxes of books that I need to get rid of as they are cluttering up under the bed and some of the loft. I'm not even sure the charity shop would take all of them, there are that many!

I am trying to sell clothes on Vinted but it's so slow going. I have bags of clothes in the loft and a wardrobe full of things I "might" wear again but I need to be ruthless as in reality, I am never going to wear them again.

I might sort a bag for the charity shop and ask them about the books.

We also sorted some kitchen dishes out before Christmas. They are in a bag in the boot of the car

[Dutchie]

I'm definitely joining in! I have just discovered, thanks to this thread, that I am the Queen of Doom. I have to - need to - deal with the many piles/boxes/bags of doom clogging up the corners of my house. With 3 boys and a husband who are all doom experts too, this is going to be hard going!

[Cerise]

Thank you, Squirrel. It describes my whole “office”.

[Mountain Goat]

How...how do people not have doom boxes? How else do you deal with items filed under "other" ?

I am not cluttered due to moving (and having thrown away anything I couldn't make myself commit to ACTUALLY USING) but I still have a whole bookshelf of boxes containing miscellaneous items and am staring at some containers I got from Ikea but couldn't work out how to build and just left on my office floor to deal with another time.

[Cosmopolitan]

Omg. Doom boxes are such a thing in my life. I cleared out our old car and put everything in a bag. And if it follows what I did 6 years ago when I cleared out the old old car, it stayed in a bag, moved house with us and then was eventually binned without even looking in it. And I still have guilt.

[emma_p]

Cerise! Straighten your lampshade at the very least!

[Cosmopolitan]

It's not for this thread, but I seriously think I have ADD too. I'm not sure that there is any point in getting a diagnosis other than for my (lack of) self-esteem, but it would explain a lot.

Do some of the questionnaires on Additude magazine if you want to know. And also, you don't need a diagnosis to put in place some specific adhd management techniques, they might help.

[Cerise]

Cerise! Straighten your lampshade at the very least!

[Squirrel]

And also, you don't need a diagnosis to put in place some specific adhd management techniques, they might help.

Exactly this. I’m self diagnosed (following my son’s diagnosis) and realised that my whole life is one big string of ADHD management techniques. It really does help a lot, as does the understanding of why I am the way I am.

Sorry for OT, but there is such a strong link between ADHD and difficulty managing clutter it’s no surprised that we turn up on this thread!