What is your area of doom when it comes to uncluttering?

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What is your area of doom when it comes to uncluttering?

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Started 2 years ago by 365lessthings
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365lessthings
Member

What is that one area in your home that you are having a hard time dealing with in the quest to unclutter. It could be the basement, your waredrobe, sentimental items, resistance from others in the household or even not knowing where to begin. What is it about this area that you find challenging.

I think my area is my childrens wardrobes. One is an eighteen year old male who either doesn't care about getting on board with the uncluttering or has too much stuff with sentimental value. The other is a 20 year old gemale who has moved out to another state making it difficult to get started at all. Maybe I need to start sending her emails with photos so she can start choosing what stays and what goes. She is little too sentimental as well so it is going to be a challenge all round.

Please let us know what area you are having issues with and maybe we can get some great advise from each other on how to get over the hurdles we are facing.

Posted 2 years ago #
chacha1
Member

Oh this should be a FINE can of worms! My area of doom is DH's closets and the home office! He just WILL NOT put in that 15 minutes a day to find that one thing he doesn't use or love anymore.

Posted 2 years ago #
bandicoot
Member

the thing that undoes me is little tiny strange bits of stuff that accumulate on counters.
for instance:
bottle caps, the kind you use to seal a bottle of wine when you've uncorked it. and now i think of it, lots of my favourites now come in screw tops, so that solves THAT.
random allen keys.
twisty ties.
unidentifiable bits of plastic or metal...bolts and screws for who knows what?
little bits of paper.
those small plastic bags for change from the bank.
and so on.

Posted 2 years ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

Great idea for a thread.

One thought about the clothes. Do you have photos with your children in the clothes? Look for the photos and look at them. The outfits are just clothes, but they were special on your kids. Photos of your kids in clothes are better than just the clothes. That said, I remember how hard it was to part with the clothes, but I really do cherish how cute he looked in some of them.

My problem -- sentimental things. I have a granny square afghan that a favorite aunt made. It's not my style at all, but I grew up with it in our house. It was kept on the back of a rocking chair that my grandmother was rocked in when she was a baby, as was my mother, and me. If we were sick or fell asleep in the living room, we would get covered with the afghan. I was given the rocker too. I also have an oil lamp that my father studied by when he was a boy. I have other things too, things from family and things from when I was a kid. I have these things because my parents didn't want them. Together, they don't take up much space.

I gained these things because I couldn't resist their sad faces about letting the stuff go and the stories behind the objects. They went through 2 more purgings after moving into the apartment. I have since gotten rid of most of the stuff, but some things I just can't get rid of. It's crazy because mom didn't want the rocker and the afghan because it doesn't go with anything. Dad didn't want the oil lamp.

I worry about myself after they die. I look at their stuff when I visit and wonder what things will give me trouble.

Posted 2 years ago #
bandicoot
Member

i think my mother is beginning to suspect that i'll be letting most of her stuff go when she goes.....it's my unsubtle hinting finally getting through!

i have my grandmother's kitchen utensils and i use them every single day of my life and it makes me quietly happy to have that connection.
practical useful good quality stuff....i'd never turn that down!
but i don't want her bric a brac! i don't have any bric a brac of my own....why on earth would i want my grandmother's or my mother's?

Posted 2 years ago #
MellieTX
Member

JuliaJayne, I hear you on the sentimental stuff. Both of my grandmother's homes are currently being cleared out by relatives- one to be sold soon, the other within a few years. So, although they both live(ed) out of state, a variety of things belonging to my grandmothers are now arriving in my house. I've limited myself as much as possible to accepting only what I can use. For example some kitchen items I've wanted but didn't own, like a dutch oven and a matching set of glasses have come in very handy so I don't consider them clutter.

My sister is visiting my aunt and going through some of our grandmothers things to see what we want as we are the only grandchildren and she passed almost a year ago. My sis brought a scanner and they are going through old photos together. She scans while my aunt identifies everyone in the photos. The house holds over a hundred years of family history, and to me the real treasure are those photos and documents. Once scanned, more of our relatives can share the info and photos,and there's no fighting over stuff. We're doing this for the other side of the family as well- no comment on the fighting over "stuff" on that side, lol. That's the real clutter.

Posted 2 years ago #
MellieTX
Member

So my real area of doom with respect to uncluttering is use of my time. I just spent time to write about uncluttering rather than do the work I have been avoiding this evening....sigh (hangs head in shame and logs off computer)

Posted 2 years ago #
mayhem
Member

My area of DOOM (that's funny you should use the word DOOM, because my wife and I love that word and use it all the time because of a little show called Invader Zim, sorry, way random) is my school stuff! I have tons of binders (can't throw those away, but I keep buying new ones!), a huge stack of text books I need to sell, volumes and volumes of printed and hand-written notes and old assignments and essays I'm afraid to throw away (what if I need them later, lol). Of course, all the notes are all over the house, stuffed in drawers, etc. (luckily my Mom didn't give me the K-12th grade stuff she has saved)

For as long as I can remember I could never get my educational clutter under control. I hope to put an end to it after finals this semester.

Posted 2 years ago #
Zora
Member

Books. Cloth. Sewing projects and supplies. Books to be digitized. Cloth to be sewn up. But it takes so long!

Posted 2 years ago #
365lessthings
Member

MellieTX judging by this forum you are not alone in spending more time reading about uncluttering rather than doing something about it.

I spend less time actually decluttering with my 365lessthings approach than I do blogging about it. Which just goes to show how well my plan is working because I always had a photo on hand of my item of the day but sometimes struggle finding a topic to write about on my blog.

chacha1 it sounds like you are having the same problem as me OTHER PEOPLES CLUTTER. My husband is on board with this but my kids aren't. Although if I offered to selling stuff on ebay that belongs to my broke unemployed son he may change his mind in hurry.

Posted 2 years ago #
klutzgrrl
Member

LOL @ mellietx - that is SO me!!! I have read every organizing book known to man, watched every video and read every blog. Is my house organized? No. It's getting of my fat lazy behind and putting in the elbow-grease that is lacking around here.

Mostly because it's just SO overwhelming, and I've done it so often - being a military family, we've moved so much that I just get sick of having to deal with 'stuff'. I feel like I've done it all before.

Every time I try to re-organize things my husband asks how the deckchairs are going. (ie, re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic). He's actually supportive and does a lot of work at home though.

My Numero Uno UNCLUTTERING ZONE OF DOOM is my office. All the books that I keep hanging onto 'in case I need to refer to them' and the art supplies and the computers... (I still have a blue-and-white iMac. That's how bad I am at parting with technology.) ... not to mention the overflow from everywhere else in the house that ends up in here (vaccuum cleaner, sewing machine, clothes in closet) and the fact that it gets used as a spare room. *sigh* ...

Posted 2 years ago #
bandicoot
Member

i have spent a lot more time thinking about uncluttering than actually doing it.
i like to have things visualised completely before i begin....and that can take some time.
also....getting into the decluttering mindset is a real process and to really change your brain takes serious time.

Posted 2 years ago #
vjb
Member

Doom! (Mayhem - I love Zim too.) Oh man, for me the doomiest thing is working out where the clutter boundaries are. For example, I have a beautiful costume necklace that I bought years ago at a market but haven't worn for probably a decade. Is it clutter, or do I keep it "in case"? (It's not like I can buy another one!) What about necklaces that my boyfriend gave me that I no longer wear (sentimental clutter?) and cocktail dresses I won't wear again unless another family member gets married sometime? Are they clutter?

On the bright side, all this agonising is making me much more careful about what I buy. I think I'll just hire dresses for special events from now on... and request non-jewellery gifts!

Posted 2 years ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

A little bit on sentimental clutter:

Small items can be used in a shadow box display. A photo, a memento, and things like jewelry can be artfully arranged to make a nice piece to hang on the wall.

Bandicoot and Mellie, I like your idea of taking only what is useful, especially kitchen items.

Posted 2 years ago #
Lori Paximadis
Member

Doom-doom-doom! My studio. Part of it is simple lack of organization and not enough storage for the (essential) stuff I have. The other part is that I'm working with a (long-term) temporary setup and not a lot of surface space. Now that I've been working in the space for a while, I have a good idea of what I need to do to make it work better, so I'm working on that plan and hoping I make enough at my summer shows that I can make that happen this fall. But in the meantime, stuff piles up all over the small workspace because it just doesn't have a good home and because I'm (necessarily) switching from one type of work to another all day long, and it seems silly to put, say, the soldering stuff away when I'm just going to need it again in 15 minutes.

I have hope for this space, however, since I've managed to clean up and organize my office and keep it that way. :-)

Posted 2 years ago #
Sky
Member

Two areas of DOOM....my office which I share with my DH. We share a desk too. The right side is mine and the left side is his and the computer is in the middle. My side is neat and organized and his is piled high with papers, folders, receipts, CD's, etc. I knew it was a bad idea when we scaled back from two desks to one!

My other area is the end of my kitchen counter where we come in the door from the garage. DH drops his wallet, keys, and various other crap. Drives me nuts!!

Posted 2 years ago #
Claycat
Member

Doom area? It's the boxes of sentimental paper that I can't seem to bring myself to go through! Ayyyyyyyy!

Posted 2 years ago #
themusiclivez
Member

My wardrobe is the first area of doom. I won't get rid of clothes/shoes/bags that are still in good shape (although I did sell all but one of my designer handbags on eBay) because I feel like I will just be getting of them only to need to replace them later. However, as I start wearing my summer shoes and find that certain ones are uncomfortable, I have been donating them. I just can't "use up" my stuff fast enough for my liking!

The second area of doom is my husband's stuff. He is on board with the uncluttering but just can't get past the whole, "If I can't sell it on eBay to make money, why get rid of it in the first place?" issue. So a lot of my time is spent helping him to list items on eBay JUST so I can hope that they will get sold (which is the only way these things will leave my house). The strangest thing? My husband isn't a cheap person... so I am not sure why I need to keep listing these things on eBay to make a few bucks in the first place!!!

Posted 2 years ago #
chacha1
Member

bandicoot - because I hate those little plastic tab thingies many commercial bakeries use, I keep twist ties but how I "organize" them is to straighten them out nicely and stand them up in a shot glass in the cupboard. I organize leftover condiments from take-out similarly. :-)

mayhem - in re: school papers, those are SO HARD to part with - it took me years! In which I moved many times and gnashed my teeth at all the paper every time. My final solution was to keep research papers etc. that I was particularly proud of, but to discard all the notes etc from classes.

vjb - a hinged shadowbox from the frame shop may work for your vintage necklace. You could display it that way on the wall or on a shelf, and then open it up to wear when the opportunity presents itself.

In all honesty, I have an Area of Doom that is not DH's fault. :-) It's the computer desk. I throw all my filing, music projects, and photo projects on top of it and oh how it does stack up. Fortunately it is behind a closed door and out of sight of drop-in visitors. (Of course, this is part of what makes it possible for me to be cluttery.)

Posted 2 years ago #
bandicoot
Member

chacha1, that is VASTLY organised! impressive!

sky, i have a husband who drops stuff in the kitchen as he arrives, also.
i hung a little basket made from recycled paper, off the key hook thingie....one for each of us....and sternly encouraged him to drop his keys, sunglasses, wallet in there when he comes in.
and then he can find it all again as he goes out.

if we had to share an office, someone would get hurt.....

Posted 2 years ago #

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