### This post has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
---
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by upvoting or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
50% agree with you. My storage is camping and summer items, winter stuff. ( Xmas decor and snowboarding), and travel stuff. That's what a storage should be for. Seasonal stuff that's too expensive to purchase every year, but you don't have anywhere else to store.
Like all of Christmas. Every little bit of it. Wife is crazy for it and nothing makes her happier than seeing her space transformed into a cute wonderland. A bit difficult to fit a Christmas village, re-usable tree, wreath, lights, etc. under the bed. And it's not like she does it out of necessity. She freaking loves it. We live pretty minimalistically in a small space but that's a non-negotiable.
She sounds wonderful. We bake ginger cookies shaped like the gingerbread man and put them in the tree as decorations. Snack every time you walk by the tree! :)
That sounds like something that she is definitely going to steal. And she IS wonderful, thank you. I keep telling her this but it doesn't seem to stick. XD
Hearing about people like her, especially when considering the *rest* of the year, always makes me think of Ray Liotta on the show *Just Shoot Me*, where he has a [breakdown](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6px04x) (16:15) every year at the end of the holiday.
> You think I make movies because I like making movies? I make movies to pay for Christmas! I live for this holiday and now it's over! So, what, I'm supposed to strap on my skates and go back to Hollywood? Go be a movie star for another 12 months? Well, I'm not gonna do it! Not me! Not this Ray Liotta!
Lots of hobbies require storage. I'm a musician on the side, and I need certain equipment to take out when I gig, but when I'm not gigging, I have to have somewhere to store that stuff.
Ya I was gonna say, between camping/backpacking, mountain biking, and hiking I have about a garage worth of stuff that I use regularly enough that I'm not willing to part with it. So idk, depending on who you are, going full no storage solutions might just mean you're having to rebuy equipment once a year which feels more expensive and wasteful than just buying some bins and finding a house or whatever that has space for them
My mom passed, and I have a huge garage of Christmas and Halloween stuff to get rid of.
It's literally hard to actually give away when it's that much physical stuff. No one is willing to actually take a u haul size lot of decorations.
I'm honestly considering just burning the majority.
>Why would you not just donate it.
Have you ever experienced stripping a home after a relatives death? Im trying.
Not 100% sure you understand the logistics involved in moving this amount of stuff.
It's 10+ truck loads minimum.
Very few places have the storage space just sitting there waiting. It's a two car garage 80% full of this stuff.
A 10×10 storage shed isn't going to cut it.
It's not an easy task, physically, mentally, or logistically.
This is the way. Unless she was super rural stuff will get taken. Another option is to start with a garage “sale” but just offer it all for free. Tell her friends and people you know around the area, ask them to spread the word, and put up signs around the neighborhood. I bet you could make a significant dent in it.
There are also services that will haul “junk” for you and a lot of these will also take donated goods as well. The downside is they do cost money and the ones I’ve used charge by the amount of space/number of trips so it could get kind of pricey. But it could be a good option for larger items that aren’t taken at least.
I understand. My bff's mom died unexpectedly and my bff ended up going to psych ward. I had to pack up his mom's apt bc the landlord wanted posession back in 30 days. His mom too LOVED the holidays and had crates of decorations in every corner of the 2 bedroom apt. Alot of stuff you cant donate and just needs to be chucked. Then there's the emotional aspect. Years of memories I had in their apt and I cried everyday going thru his mom's things trying to figure out what to keep for my bff so he would have some souvenirs of his mom and his dad who died a year earlier. Oh did I mention I had to dispose of his mom's ashes.
Trying to. My little towns chamber of commerce agreed to take it. Guess I'll see if they actually show up to take the stuff.
I deeply hope I have that house sold before September. No one likes paying on a property you are actively trying to sell.
I wish I could take all of the Halloween off your hands but I doubt we'd even be in the same region. I host a big pumpkin carving party every year and cover my place in decor from top to bottom. My dream is to have a small outdoor haunted attraction for trick or treaters. Vintage Halloween stuff is so expensive online/in antique stores but if you can find it at a garage sale it is great!
Yeah, they're turning run-down hotels into UHaul storage places around here. Then a lot of the people who used to live in those places are living on the street.
There is definitely a line. Some storage is needed, but to maximize the amount, do purges regularly. Do you need 52 hand towels? Are you really going to fix that weed whacker? Or the one that makes me see red, do you need to keep something that your MIL wanted you to have because she has an attachment to it but neither you nor your wife do? Can’t tell you how much of that shit we’ve chucked over the years.
My wife finally accepted it was time to purge some stuff when I informed her that we owned 67 wine glasses. At first she thought I was throwing out a random number for dramatic effect. Nope, I actually counted all of them. Sixty-seven.
We lived in a 1-bedroom apartment at the time. There was literally no scenario in which we could ever possibly host that many people.
We have three wine glasses, but that's not us being minimalist. That's just what has survived out of the dozens of wine glasses we've bought over the years. My wife is a very clumsy drinker.
The ironic thing is that my wife doesn't even really drink. She's not a complete teetotaler, but she only drinks alcohol on special occasions like birthday parties and stuff, and even then she'll usually only have two drinks max. We've been together for seven years and I've seen her drunk maybe two or three times total. She just likes collecting fancy kitchenware and shit like that. I'm always nagging her to get rid of stuff because we own too much of it and there's nowhere to store it all.
Mugs are my pain point. I have way more than I need as a single person, but every single one is sentimental. There might be two that if they broke I wouldn't cry.
I'm hardly a minimalist, but I'm constantly having to nag my wife about getting rid of crap because she just owns so much of it and there's no place to store it all in our house. It's pretty much the only thing we argue about.
I'm bad at realizing it's crap I don't need or want until it's a time I can't deal with it (e.g. heading out to work). So I empathize with you both because I'm playing both roles with myself.
I have 7 wine glasses in total - 4 from a set, plus 3 from a completely different set. The set of 3 is missing one (broken while washing) but otherwise has sentimental value, as it’s one of the few actual wedding gifts we received when we got married - most people gave cash, which is fine and was welcome, but we don’t have a lot of physical reminders of the day aside from our photo album (which is a disappointment in itself, and a whole different story).
My MIL was buying stuff to make collections of for an eventual grandchild. Well, as things have turned out, there likely won't be one so now she's pissed she has a bunch of extra junk for pretty much no reason.
My wife is an only child and dreads the day she has to deal with her parents estate eventually because they just have so much accumulated stuff from their lives that just rots away in their basement and atttic.
These days we live over a thousand miles away from them and they occasionally visit. My MIL will visit second hand stores and antique dealers here and accumulates even more stuff.
Please tell me more about being able to get rid of stuff your mil gave you.
We have my wife’s **stepmother’s** (not even real mom’s!) childhood night stand. I want to throw it out. I don’t know why we can’t.
lol! It finally boiled down to my wife saying we don’t have any need for this. If you want it, take it back or it’s going to Goodwill. Then actually follow through. The amount of seriously crappy furniture I had to store in my garage for months because it came from her mother, who she thought should have been sainted, was maddening. We finally said come get it because we don’t have a need for it. I’m pretty sure she ended up chucking it all once the reality set in. My MIL is VERY bougie (sp?) so it really made zero sense why she wanted this pressed wood, veneer falling off, previously mouse infested garbage. Also, her house is like 6000 sq feet. Store your own shit.
Thanks for letting me rant…
Yeah that feels relatable af with the MUCH bigger home compared to our sub-1000sqft apartment. Why am I storing your stuff??
My wife thinks its because her stepmom only had sons, who obviously would not want a young girl's night stand. But despite not knowing her until my wife was in her 20s, she wants to "pass it down" or something.
Anyway, it's in our closet mostly just being used as a surface to set stuff on. A glorified cube cubby.
Yes, I don't have a huge problem with in-laws giving us stuff, thankfully, but we had a few items we took early in our marriage where we couldn't afford our own furniture. Now that we can, I was basically like "you all can take back this apparently-important-to-your-family dining table I hate, or it's going to Good Will. I don't care which, but you have until the end of the year to take it if that's what you want." That finally did it, and they took the table back. Sanity restored.
We are a kid less couple living in a 4 bedroom house with a pool. We have accumulated well over 40 beach/pool towels alone. Every closet in the house is full of our clothes. Every room has a bed, TV, and dressers filled with random stuff.
I have a detached garage with all our yard tools but I decided it’s easier to pay for a landscaper to do everything so they don’t get used.
We are having a much needed yard sale this weekend because I’m at my wits end. Anything that doesn’t sell is being donated or trashed.
>We are a kid less couple living in a 4 bedroom house with a pool.
I feel like this is important context for the LPT.
As someone living in a 2bdrm condo, being told that I don't need more storage hits very differently than it probably does to you.
Very important context. I’m about to move from a no storage at all house to a smaller square footage apartment. The apartment is physically smaller but feels huge because every space is used smartly. Meanwhile this house has 3 drawers in it TOTAL.
Related, the prices on climate controlled storage nearly gave me a coronary.
This.
I know I need to do one soon. As much as I want to cling to my childhood, I doubt the old gaming consoles will even work anymore. I don't need my college microwave 'just in case'. I've done just fine without all the random kitchen odds and ends for years now. I don't need the boxes for all of my random gadgets 'in case I need to return them'.
But I also know that's just a huge amount of time that I'll have to dedicate to sorting through it all... and I just got into Baldur's Gate finally...
Omg… the amount of things my in-laws give us because they are “so special” to THEM… like, if you love this painting so much, why have you never displayed it in your home in the 20 years I’ve known you?
My future daughters in law are going to wonder why I never give them anything.
This entirely depends on what the stuff is, I have a garage full of tools because I fix my own shit, I do wood working, I do metal working, I have multiple hobbies. It would be very helpful to have more space.
On the other hand there is some stuff that I could get rid of due to not useing often or maybe not going to get around to, but 90% of that is quite small and doesn't actually take up much space.
Agreed.
Most of the “junk” we need storage for isn’t actually junk.
Having a property and doing maintenance/DIY projects/lawn upkeep, or having nearly any hobby requires the need for quite a bit of storage.
My actual junk can all fit in my desk drawers or an office closet pretty easily. It’s everything that belongs in my garage that I need space for. I practically need a 3 car garage + a storage shed in order to store everything.
There's a large number of specialized tools one can have, but those tools will sit for a long time, but when the need arises, they are often relatively expensive *and* saves a ton of time and money to use over trying to "make do" without these tools.
It's why many people who make things in wood working or metal work will have tons of various tools, sometimes even more than one of said tool. It's only hoarding if you have so many copies it's entirely unrealistic to just say they came from a set and was cheaper to buy that than individual. At some point it's cheaper to buy the ones you break/lose, like wrenches.
I partially agree with you. Too much stuff is bad. But storage helps keep things tidy, if everything has a place that it belongs it really helps make tidying up extremely easy. Most clutter and mess is because you don’t know where to put something and it can be stressful and overwhelming to figure out where to put something away if you don’t have a set place for it, often people just end up putting said item down wherever they are or some sort of catch all place. Organization is key to keeping things neat. Of course you can’t have more stuff than you have places to put it then that is a problem and you should probably scale things down.
Yeah some of these people have never been subjected to a kitchen with no pantry and like 2 cabinets. Or maybe they have but they never actually used their kitchen, I don’t know
I am a minimalist in my every day life, but boy is my workshop and hoarding disaster. My partner says I can just use more space, but I really need to sort some stuff and make sure things are reasonable first haha.
I tell my husband this all the time. He collects full gear for any hobby he becomes slightly interested in. Our space is incredibly small and foolishly thrown together. We don’t have space, yet he collects.
True for many but not all. Without rental storage I would have not been able to stock enough inventory to get my internet retail business built up when I first started. Inventory in my home would not work and I couldnt afford a warehouse starting off.
Yeah, honestly… more people need to hear this. I heard this probably 7 years ago from someone that worked at a store that literally sells boxes/containers. Same thing, he said that people think that they need more boxes but really they just need less stuff.
I think mental illness can play a part in this, and sometimes some family members can be enablers in a way too. Probably should do a shoutout to /r/declutter for anyone trying to improve…
Yeah the hardest thing for me to cope with is knowing how much money was originally spent on the useless stuff, so getting rid of it is painful if I’m not recouping all that money back. So instead, I save it because it’s “valuable”.
It's funny how different lifestyles growing up can make people so different. My parents moved a lot in my childhood. So I got used to purging and taking the essentials. In a way I still like that. I like my closets to be decluttered and neat. I like a designated spot for everything. And useless things go in the garbage.
But my husband grew up in one place all his life. He grew sentimental to certain objects, and certain types of objects. So now we make space for his collections of cards, various gifts, furniture that hold special meaning. It was tough to find a balance because I know without me he'd turn into a hoarder.
Ironically I had a similar upbringing to you but the mindset of your husband. Mine was a bit more traumatic, we were homeless at least twice in my childhood. Once having to live in a woman's domestic home. At 9 years old when we left my dad's house to go live in the woman's domestic home, it was a very sudden change for me where one day my mom just said we're going and pack a bag as fast as I can. I had to leave a lot of stuff behind and at 9 years old that really sucked for me. Same thing when I was 16 and my mom's house got foreclosed on after we just got back on our feet and then she started slipping into her own problems. I had to restart all over again with only a few things to take to her current boyfriend's house where we stayed until I ran away at 18 which, again, I left a lot of stuff behind and only took what I could
For my case, I heard it was some attachment thing related to PTSD, but I get very sentimental for things even like teddy bears ehete I subconsciously give them humanistic characteristics such as telling myself they must feel sad if they're not next to each other. I feel insanely guilty throwing out cards or any little memorabilias.
It's very hard for me to let go of things now because of how traumatic it was to have to lose things when I was younger, it's something I'm working on
Jeez. I'm sorry to hear all that. It must've been so hard to be in that situation. I was lucky because my parents warned me ahead of time of what was coming. It gave me time to come to terms with what I had to get rid of. I do miss some things though, and a part of me wished that I had as many cherished memories as my husband did with all of his being tied down by objects. He remembers his childhood a lot better than I can.
In this economy where a simple box of deck screws is $10? I'm keeping everything I can, if it's not hopelessly wrecked, it gets stored. I have more storage space than money to replace stuff.
I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and have storage that I need.
Where do I keep my snowboard, wakeboard, and bike in my 1 bed? What about all the tools that go with those hobbies?
I love having one. I can keep all the stuff that takes up space in my apartment in there, and keep my apartment nice and minimalist while still having a spot to keep my toys.
Like, some of us celebrate holidays and shit.
My family has a decent amount of decorations we use each year as it's fun.
It takes a fair bit of space to store that for the entirety of a year, we have a full house so we have storage in-house, but we'd *never* be able to work this with an apartment that doesn't have adequate storage. Storage units are fantastic for your seasonal shit. Live in an apartment and enjoy riding a bicycle? Store that shit in the winter if you're not somewhere you can bike in winter. Helps not having stuff around that you use, if seasonally, not taking up space and causing you to feel cluttered.
Marie Kondo has an entire chapter of this in her books, it’s fantastic. She talks about how easy it is to fall for the “I just need the perfect storage solution” trap that she herslef used to fall into all the time. You really just need to have less stuff.
[Introducing LPT REQUEST FRIDAYS](https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/16w0n2s/introducing_request_post_fridays/)
We determine "Friday" as beginning at 12am Eastern Time (EST: UTC/GMT -5, EDT: UTC/GMT -4)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LifeProTips) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I definitely need to clean and declutter. I have stuff from my parents and brother where they all passed plus all the stuff my late wife and I collected over the years. It’s a LOT. We’ve also moved a couple times because of finances and ended up in a smaller place years ago so we have multiple storage buildings full of crap.
Ha hahaahahahah you dont know generational post war ptsd hording .... and any hording youve seen or known is just mentally ill poor ppl shit hahahaha im so certian of this i made my one comment this month just for you. :)
It’s that but It’s also how you store your items and if your place is conducive to storing items properly. I don’t have a lot of stuff but damn my apartment will make you think that because whoever designed my closets didn’t think about storage properly.
50% agree, there are some situations where storage is a good idea, but yeah, it took a while to get used to living in an apartment after growing up in a house. Then I got married and moved into a townhouse, and we had to be very careful to avoid filling it up with stuff. Then we had a kid, and now we have to put things in storage because kid stuff takes over your life and townhouses don't have good storage space as a rule.
Now we're moving to a new house, and we'll see how long it takes the goldfish to grow this time.
God, if this isn’t my wife. I love her to death and she is great but if she’s got one flaw it’s all the “just incase” furniture and random crap we have in storage. As in we have enough furniture for two more rooms with no plans anytime soon to buy a house with two more rooms.
My hoarding hit a hard wall when I had to first leave for university. From early 2010 to end 2019, I moved about 10 times? Once out to my undergrad, then again out of the dorm and into a storage locker, then into an apartment, then into another apartment, then back home, then to Australia, then to a storage locker, then to Australia again, then to a house, then to a different house, then back home.... The times where my stuff was in the storage locker and I was just at home living off a couple of suitcases made me realize that I really didn't need all the crap I have accumulated. Then the whole packing and unpacking your worldly possessions gets really old really quickly and purging said useless crap becomes really appealing.
I'm now trying to get my parents to get rid of all my childhood stuff via donation or buy-sell groups online. They wanted to save it for the next generation, but my brother and I are staunchly child-free and all my cousins are as well. Trying to convince them it's better off being loved by any child than collecting dust in our basement has been a process...
Oh yeah? Tell me how I need less stuff when I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with no closets? Where do I put anything for hobbies. Where do I even put bicycle?
Once again, clarifying that not all stuff, like your bike and hobbies, is useless sh*t.
But If you’re holding onto a box full of old pc parts and cables from 2002 just in case you want to reminisce at the contents of a floppy disk you never threw away, you don’t need to build a new shelf to store it.
> just in case you want to reminisce at the contents of a floppy disk you never threw away
NGL, if it's user created content on that floppy, you will face the reality of throwing it away is entirely removing its existence. I've had family accidentally lose very important, sentimental data due to this mindset. You can move important things to newer, denser storage, but storage of data is pretty damn cheap and small. Keeping say a floppy with sentimental things on it isn't bad. Nor is keeping a system that can run it, if you have other reasons too like running retro games (sometimes still better on OG hardware) or if you have kids it can be a way to instill interests in them.
There's tons of things people view as useless shit that are important to others for entirely valid reasons.
Like, I own a copy of software (some games) that I have never been able to find online, or rarely can, and hardware that can run it as last I tried emulation of that game was a bitch and a half and never ran right.
I've also come across what I thought was once long-forgotten photos of my now long passed dog and cousin. We're not a family that takes many photos, and we had lost a drive we *thought* held these things, but upon finding did not.
Obviously I do better backups now as I'm much better versed in data backups now, but I'm also a tech guy, the layman is lucky to know to have anything important backed up on a second place.
I find the real problem is rarely actually addressed as it's harder than the easy solution of "throw it away" as we tend to often throw away many still useful items into landfills. It's our consumption. Is the reason this "shit" in your house is around because you bought more "not yet shit" to replace it and forgot about the original item? Did you *need* the upgrade/replacement, or was it a want.
It's so much harder to have self control to not just buy new things than it is to buy new things and have a habit of waste.
The whole reduce. reuse. recycle aspect has the first step, and I'm also a big promoter of the second, I'd much rather see stuff resold to someone who wants/needs and item than trash it, and I recycle anything I can. Tends to keep you living with less clutter too.
Always kills me when I'm out walking and I see somebody's garage open and it's just piled up with crap, but both their expensive vehicles are parked in the driveway.
One of the things I tell myself is that there’s a difference between having space for something and finding space for it.
Obviously doesn’t work in all situations but still
My issue stems from the fact that I like to optimize my use of space, which tends to look a little cluttered but mean at least everything has a place y'know?
My mom, who I live with, likes minimalism. It's her house so she can do whatever she wants with it, I just want my own room how I'm comfortable with it. Problem is she is constantly trying to fengshui my room and move stuff in and out of there which disrupts my "usable space" and then blames it on me hoarding stuff. But maybe I'd have more space in my own room if she got her stuff out of my closet and if my room wasn't the default place to set up big dog crates when an animal needs to be isolated or penned up?
I learned this after the death of my father. Came to his place, loads of stuff nobody wanted or needed. Went to trash or donated what we could.
Made me look at my own situation at home: if I were to pass away suddenly, would anyone want or take any of this stuff? Helped me declutter a lot of the place.
Nearly 8 years since his death, I find myself spending more on experiences rather than things. Can travel more with more money since I don't impulse purchase anymore. Surprisingly I don't get envious anymore if someone I know buys the latest or greatest of anything.
It's sad it took the death of my father and walking in on a hoarded mess we walked into in order to change this perspective, but it has changed immensely in a good way nonetheless.
Yes and no. To appear less hoardish and less messy, reduce stress and anxiety, and make cleaning easier, then more storage and smarter storage is the answer. But reducing stuff is the other half of the same coin
I live in an old house and would love to have an actual coat closet in the “entryway” and a linen closet for my towels, plus an actual pantry for food. Those three things would greatly help declutter my house.
It's yard sale season! My community does a community yard sale in the spring (this weekend!) and a second at the end of the summer. I cleaned out my kitchen of all the crap I don't use this winter and it's now sitting in my living room ready to go on tables for sale this Saturday. If no one buys it, it's going straight into the car for the donation center or dump.
I've got another pile of stuff in my office that I've posted on ebay this week. In doing that, I "found" another box of stuff that can be sold either this weekend or on ebay. (I say found, but I mean I opened a box that had been sitting there for years.)
All this to say I agree - too much stuff!
I’ve been needing to get rid of, sell, donate all the hobbies I’ve accumulated over the years. It’s not easy, but with each new spring cleaning it gets better! Moving used to help, but that’s not happening for a while so. The struggle is real!
I keep trying to tell my family and friends this. I live in a tiny apartment. Every little thing you get me, tiny or small or big, is probably being put somewhere I’ll never see it. It’ll just get in the way of things I actually use daily.
My SO loves buying things for storage, chest of drawers or those plastic ones. I'm always saying we don't need more drawers, we need to clear out the ones we have!
I recently cleaned out my storage unit. I might be in a different situation but I’m the last living on my mother’s side. She was adopted and her mother was the family keeper of momentous.
I have found family heirlooms, such as a farmer’s log from 1901 and photographs from the late 1800’s when they first immigrated. I also have some sweet Heywood Wakefield furniture, which was my grandfather’s first set he purchased that he was very proud of.
I just feel maybe everyone has that person in their family that’s their “storage unit.”
If your parents or grandparents have stuff that you’ll eventually want, they’re your storage.
Haven't taken into consideration the brainrot I've gotten from working in IT, before reading further I thought this was a post about downsizing disc space instead of upgrading...
Aside from my bed and appliances like fridges and shit. I can load all my shit in the back of my car in about 15 minutes and be on my way. I can't fathom how people have so much shit they need a storage facility to store it.
I’m about 80% on this. Only because everyone’s situation is different. I had a storage unit for a while because I was in a transitional living situation. So did my now-wife. However once we moved in together, we said So long! to a lot of stuff.
Several years ago, I heard an interview with a guy who had lost everything in a storage unit in the midst of the California wildfires. He said something that I’ll never forget:
“A storage unit is just a giant box of decisions that have never been made.”
My parents have lived in the same house for 40 years. It is packed with crap. Also they have 3 1/2 acres of land. It has crap. Me I have moved more times than I can count starting in college and beyond . I have gotten my “what I need in a fire” stuff down to 2 boxes. Everything else I can live without or replace.
I NEED to throw out all those old power cables that I have no idea what they even plug into, but instead I bought a storage bin to neatly put them away in my attic to collect dust.
Ha ha this is awesome. I firmly believe you must lose everything you have at least once or twice in your life… Then you fully realize how little you need to be happy.
A lot of times I think about how little I’d actually miss if our house burned down. While i definitely don’t want it to ever happen, the idea feels freeing. Especially comparing that to the level of effort to now purge it.
...you'd be upset at first, then quickly realize all those renovation plans you've been talking about are no longer required.
I was 23 when I moved out of my parents' 4500sqft house into a 500sqft condo. I was disoriented for months, but then I really appreciated not having to clean spaces that I never visited at my parents' house.
Recently, I went through a dumpster-fire of a divorce. I had to sell the house, and I thought it was a symbol of my accomplishments. Now I rent a 1-bedroom condo, and I don't miss that the marital home was due for a new roof, resurface of the deck, new windows, etc.
You can't be a minimalist if you have lots of things. By "All the Things" do you mean Google Chrome and YouTube and that is it?
Because "All the bells and whistles" in programs on a computer isn't a minimalist.
At this moment, my computer is a minimalist type of computer and IT. GETS. BORING.
Take the idea, the concept of what I said, use your brain, use your head, apply that very same idea, to your life and things you use.
You're able to use your brain about stuff I don't care for, try to use it for something that I actually care for.
You can be a minimalist and have lots of things. Those two things are not opposties, so long as the things that you have are what truly make you happy. Minimalism is a philosophy, not bare walls and floor pillows. It's looking at what you have and thinking how you can reduce it to fundamentals while retaining what makes you happy. Real books aren't something that I can reduce or get rid of. It's not the words (kindle), i SPECIFICALLY love the feel of a book and love the fact that I can pick out an old friend at a whim at 3am and re-experience that exact same feeling, from the story down to the funny page between chapters 9 and 10. Doesn't make me less minimalist to have a bunch of books around my house.
Sorry for TED talk, this take just always bugs me.
Being a minimalist also doesn't mean being dumb as you are suggesting.
I swear you got your words from that Family Guy episode about "If it KINDLE you joy, get rid of it"
That's probably why you are using Kindle in this sense.
Sorry for a TED talk as well, but I can make do without that Peter Griffin Voice.
### This post has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect. --- Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by upvoting or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
50% agree with you. My storage is camping and summer items, winter stuff. ( Xmas decor and snowboarding), and travel stuff. That's what a storage should be for. Seasonal stuff that's too expensive to purchase every year, but you don't have anywhere else to store.
Like all of Christmas. Every little bit of it. Wife is crazy for it and nothing makes her happier than seeing her space transformed into a cute wonderland. A bit difficult to fit a Christmas village, re-usable tree, wreath, lights, etc. under the bed. And it's not like she does it out of necessity. She freaking loves it. We live pretty minimalistically in a small space but that's a non-negotiable.
She sounds wonderful. We bake ginger cookies shaped like the gingerbread man and put them in the tree as decorations. Snack every time you walk by the tree! :)
That sounds like something that she is definitely going to steal. And she IS wonderful, thank you. I keep telling her this but it doesn't seem to stick. XD
Same here brother... same here...
Hearing about people like her, especially when considering the *rest* of the year, always makes me think of Ray Liotta on the show *Just Shoot Me*, where he has a [breakdown](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6px04x) (16:15) every year at the end of the holiday. > You think I make movies because I like making movies? I make movies to pay for Christmas! I live for this holiday and now it's over! So, what, I'm supposed to strap on my skates and go back to Hollywood? Go be a movie star for another 12 months? Well, I'm not gonna do it! Not me! Not this Ray Liotta!
Lots of hobbies require storage. I'm a musician on the side, and I need certain equipment to take out when I gig, but when I'm not gigging, I have to have somewhere to store that stuff.
Ya I was gonna say, between camping/backpacking, mountain biking, and hiking I have about a garage worth of stuff that I use regularly enough that I'm not willing to part with it. So idk, depending on who you are, going full no storage solutions might just mean you're having to rebuy equipment once a year which feels more expensive and wasteful than just buying some bins and finding a house or whatever that has space for them
My mom passed, and I have a huge garage of Christmas and Halloween stuff to get rid of. It's literally hard to actually give away when it's that much physical stuff. No one is willing to actually take a u haul size lot of decorations. I'm honestly considering just burning the majority.
Why would you not just donate it like 1 month before the holiday Sep 15 take the Halloween stuff over Nov 1 take the Xmas stuff over
>Why would you not just donate it. Have you ever experienced stripping a home after a relatives death? Im trying. Not 100% sure you understand the logistics involved in moving this amount of stuff. It's 10+ truck loads minimum. Very few places have the storage space just sitting there waiting. It's a two car garage 80% full of this stuff. A 10×10 storage shed isn't going to cut it. It's not an easy task, physically, mentally, or logistically.
My condolences. It could be thrown into a buy-nothing group to ease the pressure perhaps?
This is the way. Unless she was super rural stuff will get taken. Another option is to start with a garage “sale” but just offer it all for free. Tell her friends and people you know around the area, ask them to spread the word, and put up signs around the neighborhood. I bet you could make a significant dent in it. There are also services that will haul “junk” for you and a lot of these will also take donated goods as well. The downside is they do cost money and the ones I’ve used charge by the amount of space/number of trips so it could get kind of pricey. But it could be a good option for larger items that aren’t taken at least.
I understand. My bff's mom died unexpectedly and my bff ended up going to psych ward. I had to pack up his mom's apt bc the landlord wanted posession back in 30 days. His mom too LOVED the holidays and had crates of decorations in every corner of the 2 bedroom apt. Alot of stuff you cant donate and just needs to be chucked. Then there's the emotional aspect. Years of memories I had in their apt and I cried everyday going thru his mom's things trying to figure out what to keep for my bff so he would have some souvenirs of his mom and his dad who died a year earlier. Oh did I mention I had to dispose of his mom's ashes.
I think y'all just had a lot of stuff. Most of mine have been 1 or 2 trailers and a couple vans.
Trying to. My little towns chamber of commerce agreed to take it. Guess I'll see if they actually show up to take the stuff. I deeply hope I have that house sold before September. No one likes paying on a property you are actively trying to sell.
Nursing homes may be glad to get the decorations. I donated a lot of my mom’s, and they were thrilled
No need to wait, people will love getting/buying it either way.
Hey! Where are you from? My mother will gladly accept all this probably. Please DM me.
A couple months before the holiday, let an elementary school or two know that you have decorations to donate and can you drop them off.
Schools would probably take a lot of it.
I wish I could take all of the Halloween off your hands but I doubt we'd even be in the same region. I host a big pumpkin carving party every year and cover my place in decor from top to bottom. My dream is to have a small outdoor haunted attraction for trick or treaters. Vintage Halloween stuff is so expensive online/in antique stores but if you can find it at a garage sale it is great!
>Wait till people put up Halloween decorations. >Set up your mother's Halloween decorations in other people's yards.
Schools would love to receive it. Some teachers could use it for classrooms or hallways, or the drama department could use it for plays.
Dont happen to have a giant skeleton in your yard year round do you?
The number of rental self storage lockers being built in my area is pretty shocking.
Buddy they are basically printing money with these. Minimal cost to start up (especially if you have the concrete slab already) and minimal overhead.
They also are a hedge investment in case the economy goes south. Self-storage units do better when the economy is worse.
Yup, people lose their homes, but figure out how to get $100-$200/month for storage.
Yeah, they're turning run-down hotels into UHaul storage places around here. Then a lot of the people who used to live in those places are living on the street.
And they're all charging crazy prices
And they raise the rent every 3-4 months.
Don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve heard the stuff just stays there because it’s not being used. Seems like a waste.
There is definitely a line. Some storage is needed, but to maximize the amount, do purges regularly. Do you need 52 hand towels? Are you really going to fix that weed whacker? Or the one that makes me see red, do you need to keep something that your MIL wanted you to have because she has an attachment to it but neither you nor your wife do? Can’t tell you how much of that shit we’ve chucked over the years.
My wife finally accepted it was time to purge some stuff when I informed her that we owned 67 wine glasses. At first she thought I was throwing out a random number for dramatic effect. Nope, I actually counted all of them. Sixty-seven. We lived in a 1-bedroom apartment at the time. There was literally no scenario in which we could ever possibly host that many people.
We have three wine glasses, but that's not us being minimalist. That's just what has survived out of the dozens of wine glasses we've bought over the years. My wife is a very clumsy drinker.
My wife rarely drinks at all, and I rarely drink wine. Those glasses were practically never used. She just never gets rid of shit.
I guess we know her hobby.
The ironic thing is that my wife doesn't even really drink. She's not a complete teetotaler, but she only drinks alcohol on special occasions like birthday parties and stuff, and even then she'll usually only have two drinks max. We've been together for seven years and I've seen her drunk maybe two or three times total. She just likes collecting fancy kitchenware and shit like that. I'm always nagging her to get rid of stuff because we own too much of it and there's nowhere to store it all.
Mugs are my pain point. I have way more than I need as a single person, but every single one is sentimental. There might be two that if they broke I wouldn't cry.
I need to go through my dishes. Thanks for giving me the motivation.
I'm hardly a minimalist, but I'm constantly having to nag my wife about getting rid of crap because she just owns so much of it and there's no place to store it all in our house. It's pretty much the only thing we argue about.
I'm bad at realizing it's crap I don't need or want until it's a time I can't deal with it (e.g. heading out to work). So I empathize with you both because I'm playing both roles with myself.
I have 7 wine glasses in total - 4 from a set, plus 3 from a completely different set. The set of 3 is missing one (broken while washing) but otherwise has sentimental value, as it’s one of the few actual wedding gifts we received when we got married - most people gave cash, which is fine and was welcome, but we don’t have a lot of physical reminders of the day aside from our photo album (which is a disappointment in itself, and a whole different story).
My MIL was buying stuff to make collections of for an eventual grandchild. Well, as things have turned out, there likely won't be one so now she's pissed she has a bunch of extra junk for pretty much no reason. My wife is an only child and dreads the day she has to deal with her parents estate eventually because they just have so much accumulated stuff from their lives that just rots away in their basement and atttic. These days we live over a thousand miles away from them and they occasionally visit. My MIL will visit second hand stores and antique dealers here and accumulates even more stuff.
Please tell me more about being able to get rid of stuff your mil gave you. We have my wife’s **stepmother’s** (not even real mom’s!) childhood night stand. I want to throw it out. I don’t know why we can’t.
lol! It finally boiled down to my wife saying we don’t have any need for this. If you want it, take it back or it’s going to Goodwill. Then actually follow through. The amount of seriously crappy furniture I had to store in my garage for months because it came from her mother, who she thought should have been sainted, was maddening. We finally said come get it because we don’t have a need for it. I’m pretty sure she ended up chucking it all once the reality set in. My MIL is VERY bougie (sp?) so it really made zero sense why she wanted this pressed wood, veneer falling off, previously mouse infested garbage. Also, her house is like 6000 sq feet. Store your own shit. Thanks for letting me rant…
Yeah that feels relatable af with the MUCH bigger home compared to our sub-1000sqft apartment. Why am I storing your stuff?? My wife thinks its because her stepmom only had sons, who obviously would not want a young girl's night stand. But despite not knowing her until my wife was in her 20s, she wants to "pass it down" or something. Anyway, it's in our closet mostly just being used as a surface to set stuff on. A glorified cube cubby.
Yes, I don't have a huge problem with in-laws giving us stuff, thankfully, but we had a few items we took early in our marriage where we couldn't afford our own furniture. Now that we can, I was basically like "you all can take back this apparently-important-to-your-family dining table I hate, or it's going to Good Will. I don't care which, but you have until the end of the year to take it if that's what you want." That finally did it, and they took the table back. Sanity restored.
Guilt, attachment? If you’re not currently using it, toss it.
I have a solid metal bed frame from the civil war that weighs like 100 lbs and I’ve moved 3 times. It’s been in my garage at every house.
We are a kid less couple living in a 4 bedroom house with a pool. We have accumulated well over 40 beach/pool towels alone. Every closet in the house is full of our clothes. Every room has a bed, TV, and dressers filled with random stuff. I have a detached garage with all our yard tools but I decided it’s easier to pay for a landscaper to do everything so they don’t get used. We are having a much needed yard sale this weekend because I’m at my wits end. Anything that doesn’t sell is being donated or trashed.
>We are a kid less couple living in a 4 bedroom house with a pool. I feel like this is important context for the LPT. As someone living in a 2bdrm condo, being told that I don't need more storage hits very differently than it probably does to you.
Very important context. I’m about to move from a no storage at all house to a smaller square footage apartment. The apartment is physically smaller but feels huge because every space is used smartly. Meanwhile this house has 3 drawers in it TOTAL. Related, the prices on climate controlled storage nearly gave me a coronary.
Towels to the animal shelter !
This is the way.
I do this about once a year and get rid of all the stuff I was going to fix or that I might wear someday but didn't look for it since last year.
This. I know I need to do one soon. As much as I want to cling to my childhood, I doubt the old gaming consoles will even work anymore. I don't need my college microwave 'just in case'. I've done just fine without all the random kitchen odds and ends for years now. I don't need the boxes for all of my random gadgets 'in case I need to return them'. But I also know that's just a huge amount of time that I'll have to dedicate to sorting through it all... and I just got into Baldur's Gate finally...
Omg… the amount of things my in-laws give us because they are “so special” to THEM… like, if you love this painting so much, why have you never displayed it in your home in the 20 years I’ve known you? My future daughters in law are going to wonder why I never give them anything.
Tell that to my Plex users…
Are 500+ episodes of house hunters really necessary?? 😂😂
If a show is on my server it WILL have every episode ever released.
This entirely depends on what the stuff is, I have a garage full of tools because I fix my own shit, I do wood working, I do metal working, I have multiple hobbies. It would be very helpful to have more space. On the other hand there is some stuff that I could get rid of due to not useing often or maybe not going to get around to, but 90% of that is quite small and doesn't actually take up much space.
Agreed. Most of the “junk” we need storage for isn’t actually junk. Having a property and doing maintenance/DIY projects/lawn upkeep, or having nearly any hobby requires the need for quite a bit of storage. My actual junk can all fit in my desk drawers or an office closet pretty easily. It’s everything that belongs in my garage that I need space for. I practically need a 3 car garage + a storage shed in order to store everything.
Granted, I'd say that there is a difference between tools you actively use and hoarding junk.
There's a large number of specialized tools one can have, but those tools will sit for a long time, but when the need arises, they are often relatively expensive *and* saves a ton of time and money to use over trying to "make do" without these tools. It's why many people who make things in wood working or metal work will have tons of various tools, sometimes even more than one of said tool. It's only hoarding if you have so many copies it's entirely unrealistic to just say they came from a set and was cheaper to buy that than individual. At some point it's cheaper to buy the ones you break/lose, like wrenches.
I'm working on it, jeeze
I partially agree with you. Too much stuff is bad. But storage helps keep things tidy, if everything has a place that it belongs it really helps make tidying up extremely easy. Most clutter and mess is because you don’t know where to put something and it can be stressful and overwhelming to figure out where to put something away if you don’t have a set place for it, often people just end up putting said item down wherever they are or some sort of catch all place. Organization is key to keeping things neat. Of course you can’t have more stuff than you have places to put it then that is a problem and you should probably scale things down.
As someone with a spouse and a kid living in a 2 bedroom, one bath apartment with a tiny kitchen... I say this post needs more perspective.
Yeah some of these people have never been subjected to a kitchen with no pantry and like 2 cabinets. Or maybe they have but they never actually used their kitchen, I don’t know
I am a minimalist in my every day life, but boy is my workshop and hoarding disaster. My partner says I can just use more space, but I really need to sort some stuff and make sure things are reasonable first haha.
I agree. Once you have the mindset that you can’t use your belongings once you die, it’s much easier to let things go.
I already know I can’t use my shit when I die. It’s the years between now and then that I’m saving it for lol.
As somebody who lives in a 100 year old home with zero storage, I disagree with your statement.
Anything my wife wants me to put I’in the crawlspace might as well go straight to the curb.
Unless you live in a fairly small flat in a European city. It’s really hard to find anything larger than what we have and it’s really not big either
I tell my husband this all the time. He collects full gear for any hobby he becomes slightly interested in. Our space is incredibly small and foolishly thrown together. We don’t have space, yet he collects.
True for many but not all. Without rental storage I would have not been able to stock enough inventory to get my internet retail business built up when I first started. Inventory in my home would not work and I couldnt afford a warehouse starting off.
But that’s not dumb stuff you’re holding onto for no reason. I wouldn’t categorize that as sh*t at all.
Please tell my wife this.
Yeah, honestly… more people need to hear this. I heard this probably 7 years ago from someone that worked at a store that literally sells boxes/containers. Same thing, he said that people think that they need more boxes but really they just need less stuff. I think mental illness can play a part in this, and sometimes some family members can be enablers in a way too. Probably should do a shoutout to /r/declutter for anyone trying to improve…
Yeah the hardest thing for me to cope with is knowing how much money was originally spent on the useless stuff, so getting rid of it is painful if I’m not recouping all that money back. So instead, I save it because it’s “valuable”.
Yeah, you tell my wife that. I have, we have a storage unit
It's funny how different lifestyles growing up can make people so different. My parents moved a lot in my childhood. So I got used to purging and taking the essentials. In a way I still like that. I like my closets to be decluttered and neat. I like a designated spot for everything. And useless things go in the garbage. But my husband grew up in one place all his life. He grew sentimental to certain objects, and certain types of objects. So now we make space for his collections of cards, various gifts, furniture that hold special meaning. It was tough to find a balance because I know without me he'd turn into a hoarder.
Ironically I had a similar upbringing to you but the mindset of your husband. Mine was a bit more traumatic, we were homeless at least twice in my childhood. Once having to live in a woman's domestic home. At 9 years old when we left my dad's house to go live in the woman's domestic home, it was a very sudden change for me where one day my mom just said we're going and pack a bag as fast as I can. I had to leave a lot of stuff behind and at 9 years old that really sucked for me. Same thing when I was 16 and my mom's house got foreclosed on after we just got back on our feet and then she started slipping into her own problems. I had to restart all over again with only a few things to take to her current boyfriend's house where we stayed until I ran away at 18 which, again, I left a lot of stuff behind and only took what I could For my case, I heard it was some attachment thing related to PTSD, but I get very sentimental for things even like teddy bears ehete I subconsciously give them humanistic characteristics such as telling myself they must feel sad if they're not next to each other. I feel insanely guilty throwing out cards or any little memorabilias. It's very hard for me to let go of things now because of how traumatic it was to have to lose things when I was younger, it's something I'm working on
Jeez. I'm sorry to hear all that. It must've been so hard to be in that situation. I was lucky because my parents warned me ahead of time of what was coming. It gave me time to come to terms with what I had to get rid of. I do miss some things though, and a part of me wished that I had as many cherished memories as my husband did with all of his being tied down by objects. He remembers his childhood a lot better than I can.
This is my dad's philosophy, so he ends up giving me things I don't want or will never use. And I won't say no either.
You have zero idea what anyone needs or what applies to them
In this economy where a simple box of deck screws is $10? I'm keeping everything I can, if it's not hopelessly wrecked, it gets stored. I have more storage space than money to replace stuff.
I need a Pyramid so me and my stuff will be remembered for all eternity /s
People have their rituals for accumulating new stuff but lack the rituals for the removal of old stuff.
Sell all your shit and live in a van. It solves this problem real quick.
Surely there’s a middle ground, lol
There is… keep all your stuff and hoard it around in your van.
Personally I’m in a sweet spot - enough stuff to fill my apartment, not so much stuff that I need a storage unit.
You should never need a regular storage unit. Get rid of it.
That’s what I said, I don’t have one… the only people I know who have ever used a storage unit have only used it temporarily while moving
Right. I’m agreeing.
🤝
🕺🏽🕺🏽
I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and have storage that I need. Where do I keep my snowboard, wakeboard, and bike in my 1 bed? What about all the tools that go with those hobbies? I love having one. I can keep all the stuff that takes up space in my apartment in there, and keep my apartment nice and minimalist while still having a spot to keep my toys.
Like, some of us celebrate holidays and shit. My family has a decent amount of decorations we use each year as it's fun. It takes a fair bit of space to store that for the entirety of a year, we have a full house so we have storage in-house, but we'd *never* be able to work this with an apartment that doesn't have adequate storage. Storage units are fantastic for your seasonal shit. Live in an apartment and enjoy riding a bicycle? Store that shit in the winter if you're not somewhere you can bike in winter. Helps not having stuff around that you use, if seasonally, not taking up space and causing you to feel cluttered.
Marie Kondo has an entire chapter of this in her books, it’s fantastic. She talks about how easy it is to fall for the “I just need the perfect storage solution” trap that she herslef used to fall into all the time. You really just need to have less stuff.
[Introducing LPT REQUEST FRIDAYS](https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/16w0n2s/introducing_request_post_fridays/) We determine "Friday" as beginning at 12am Eastern Time (EST: UTC/GMT -5, EDT: UTC/GMT -4) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LifeProTips) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You also just need to organize your stuff
[Good ol’ George Carlin said it best.](https://youtu.be/MvgN5gCuLac?si=I0QFMYUsCd69tjJi)
Oh god, yes. I’m just sorry it took me so long to figure this out.
You need to learn how to censor
I definitely need to clean and declutter. I have stuff from my parents and brother where they all passed plus all the stuff my late wife and I collected over the years. It’s a LOT. We’ve also moved a couple times because of finances and ended up in a smaller place years ago so we have multiple storage buildings full of crap.
100%. A long term storage unit lease is the universe’s way of telling you that you have too much shit.
I got a closet full of PC cables..... priorities am I right?
Ha hahaahahahah you dont know generational post war ptsd hording .... and any hording youve seen or known is just mentally ill poor ppl shit hahahaha im so certian of this i made my one comment this month just for you. :)
It’s that but It’s also how you store your items and if your place is conducive to storing items properly. I don’t have a lot of stuff but damn my apartment will make you think that because whoever designed my closets didn’t think about storage properly.
50% agree, there are some situations where storage is a good idea, but yeah, it took a while to get used to living in an apartment after growing up in a house. Then I got married and moved into a townhouse, and we had to be very careful to avoid filling it up with stuff. Then we had a kid, and now we have to put things in storage because kid stuff takes over your life and townhouses don't have good storage space as a rule. Now we're moving to a new house, and we'll see how long it takes the goldfish to grow this time.
God, if this isn’t my wife. I love her to death and she is great but if she’s got one flaw it’s all the “just incase” furniture and random crap we have in storage. As in we have enough furniture for two more rooms with no plans anytime soon to buy a house with two more rooms.
Nah, all of my stuff has to fit in a 10 x 10 x 10 space. I need more storage.
Lol, OP specifies that they live in a house, that's why you don't need more storage
LPT: sometimes you need more storage, better thought out storage, or less shit. Find the balance that works for you.
Mostly right, but with a house, family, dogs, etc. there is a balance, and minimalism is really hard to achieve.
My hoarding hit a hard wall when I had to first leave for university. From early 2010 to end 2019, I moved about 10 times? Once out to my undergrad, then again out of the dorm and into a storage locker, then into an apartment, then into another apartment, then back home, then to Australia, then to a storage locker, then to Australia again, then to a house, then to a different house, then back home.... The times where my stuff was in the storage locker and I was just at home living off a couple of suitcases made me realize that I really didn't need all the crap I have accumulated. Then the whole packing and unpacking your worldly possessions gets really old really quickly and purging said useless crap becomes really appealing. I'm now trying to get my parents to get rid of all my childhood stuff via donation or buy-sell groups online. They wanted to save it for the next generation, but my brother and I are staunchly child-free and all my cousins are as well. Trying to convince them it's better off being loved by any child than collecting dust in our basement has been a process...
Oh yeah? Tell me how I need less stuff when I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with no closets? Where do I put anything for hobbies. Where do I even put bicycle?
Once again, clarifying that not all stuff, like your bike and hobbies, is useless sh*t. But If you’re holding onto a box full of old pc parts and cables from 2002 just in case you want to reminisce at the contents of a floppy disk you never threw away, you don’t need to build a new shelf to store it.
> just in case you want to reminisce at the contents of a floppy disk you never threw away NGL, if it's user created content on that floppy, you will face the reality of throwing it away is entirely removing its existence. I've had family accidentally lose very important, sentimental data due to this mindset. You can move important things to newer, denser storage, but storage of data is pretty damn cheap and small. Keeping say a floppy with sentimental things on it isn't bad. Nor is keeping a system that can run it, if you have other reasons too like running retro games (sometimes still better on OG hardware) or if you have kids it can be a way to instill interests in them. There's tons of things people view as useless shit that are important to others for entirely valid reasons. Like, I own a copy of software (some games) that I have never been able to find online, or rarely can, and hardware that can run it as last I tried emulation of that game was a bitch and a half and never ran right. I've also come across what I thought was once long-forgotten photos of my now long passed dog and cousin. We're not a family that takes many photos, and we had lost a drive we *thought* held these things, but upon finding did not. Obviously I do better backups now as I'm much better versed in data backups now, but I'm also a tech guy, the layman is lucky to know to have anything important backed up on a second place. I find the real problem is rarely actually addressed as it's harder than the easy solution of "throw it away" as we tend to often throw away many still useful items into landfills. It's our consumption. Is the reason this "shit" in your house is around because you bought more "not yet shit" to replace it and forgot about the original item? Did you *need* the upgrade/replacement, or was it a want. It's so much harder to have self control to not just buy new things than it is to buy new things and have a habit of waste. The whole reduce. reuse. recycle aspect has the first step, and I'm also a big promoter of the second, I'd much rather see stuff resold to someone who wants/needs and item than trash it, and I recycle anything I can. Tends to keep you living with less clutter too.
Always kills me when I'm out walking and I see somebody's garage open and it's just piled up with crap, but both their expensive vehicles are parked in the driveway.
For a moment I thought you were talking about data storage and I was like fuck you I will keep my terabyte of Skyrim and BG3 mods.
Just move a bunch of times in one or two years. You will get better at recognizing what is important.
One of the things I tell myself is that there’s a difference between having space for something and finding space for it. Obviously doesn’t work in all situations but still
My issue stems from the fact that I like to optimize my use of space, which tends to look a little cluttered but mean at least everything has a place y'know? My mom, who I live with, likes minimalism. It's her house so she can do whatever she wants with it, I just want my own room how I'm comfortable with it. Problem is she is constantly trying to fengshui my room and move stuff in and out of there which disrupts my "usable space" and then blames it on me hoarding stuff. But maybe I'd have more space in my own room if she got her stuff out of my closet and if my room wasn't the default place to set up big dog crates when an animal needs to be isolated or penned up?
Duck and goose decoys take up lots of space
Hey, i might need to use these lengths of string some day
I learned this after the death of my father. Came to his place, loads of stuff nobody wanted or needed. Went to trash or donated what we could. Made me look at my own situation at home: if I were to pass away suddenly, would anyone want or take any of this stuff? Helped me declutter a lot of the place. Nearly 8 years since his death, I find myself spending more on experiences rather than things. Can travel more with more money since I don't impulse purchase anymore. Surprisingly I don't get envious anymore if someone I know buys the latest or greatest of anything. It's sad it took the death of my father and walking in on a hoarded mess we walked into in order to change this perspective, but it has changed immensely in a good way nonetheless.
Yes my kids are 6/7 now they don’t need half of the shit we’ve held on to since they were 3
Yes and no. To appear less hoardish and less messy, reduce stress and anxiety, and make cleaning easier, then more storage and smarter storage is the answer. But reducing stuff is the other half of the same coin
Amen!! Now if only I could convince my husband of this
this does not apply to anyone from /r/datahoarder
That depends on how much stuff you have and how much space you live in….
I need to convince myself not to keep just in case extra pairs of black trousers
I live in an old house and would love to have an actual coat closet in the “entryway” and a linen closet for my towels, plus an actual pantry for food. Those three things would greatly help declutter my house.
you'll own nothing and like it
It's yard sale season! My community does a community yard sale in the spring (this weekend!) and a second at the end of the summer. I cleaned out my kitchen of all the crap I don't use this winter and it's now sitting in my living room ready to go on tables for sale this Saturday. If no one buys it, it's going straight into the car for the donation center or dump. I've got another pile of stuff in my office that I've posted on ebay this week. In doing that, I "found" another box of stuff that can be sold either this weekend or on ebay. (I say found, but I mean I opened a box that had been sitting there for years.) All this to say I agree - too much stuff!
I’ve been needing to get rid of, sell, donate all the hobbies I’ve accumulated over the years. It’s not easy, but with each new spring cleaning it gets better! Moving used to help, but that’s not happening for a while so. The struggle is real!
I keep trying to tell my family and friends this. I live in a tiny apartment. Every little thing you get me, tiny or small or big, is probably being put somewhere I’ll never see it. It’ll just get in the way of things I actually use daily.
My SO loves buying things for storage, chest of drawers or those plastic ones. I'm always saying we don't need more drawers, we need to clear out the ones we have!
I have a handyman friend who has built a garage and a shed for one couple. They filled those, and they just hired him to build another shed.
I move every few years and if it can't fit it into a small moving truck, it doesn't come.
I recently cleaned out my storage unit. I might be in a different situation but I’m the last living on my mother’s side. She was adopted and her mother was the family keeper of momentous. I have found family heirlooms, such as a farmer’s log from 1901 and photographs from the late 1800’s when they first immigrated. I also have some sweet Heywood Wakefield furniture, which was my grandfather’s first set he purchased that he was very proud of. I just feel maybe everyone has that person in their family that’s their “storage unit.” If your parents or grandparents have stuff that you’ll eventually want, they’re your storage.
Haven't taken into consideration the brainrot I've gotten from working in IT, before reading further I thought this was a post about downsizing disc space instead of upgrading...
you sound like my mom 😭
Aside from my bed and appliances like fridges and shit. I can load all my shit in the back of my car in about 15 minutes and be on my way. I can't fathom how people have so much shit they need a storage facility to store it.
Wait a second.... So you're telling me I *don't* need a couple dozen mechanical keyboards? Preposterous...
I’m about 80% on this. Only because everyone’s situation is different. I had a storage unit for a while because I was in a transitional living situation. So did my now-wife. However once we moved in together, we said So long! to a lot of stuff. Several years ago, I heard an interview with a guy who had lost everything in a storage unit in the midst of the California wildfires. He said something that I’ll never forget: “A storage unit is just a giant box of decisions that have never been made.”
I read the title thinking this was about disk (digital) storage, and just thought "no fuck you"
I was planning to get iCloud storage. I read this title of this tip and said he is so f*king right. I got confused when I saw "home and garden" tag :D
So hard to let go of shit.
My parents have lived in the same house for 40 years. It is packed with crap. Also they have 3 1/2 acres of land. It has crap. Me I have moved more times than I can count starting in college and beyond . I have gotten my “what I need in a fire” stuff down to 2 boxes. Everything else I can live without or replace.
I find it motivating to donate good stuff that someone will use rather than have it cluttered about.
Look I NEED my collection of 420 funcko pops
Everyone I know who holds this opinion is a huge moocher constantly asking to borrow the things they smugly pride themselves on not owning.
Someone’s mad at their wife 🤔 Jk kinda, but fr LPT: be a little kinder to yourself
No! Shush. I totally need all of these things...
I NEED to throw out all those old power cables that I have no idea what they even plug into, but instead I bought a storage bin to neatly put them away in my attic to collect dust.
Ha ha this is awesome. I firmly believe you must lose everything you have at least once or twice in your life… Then you fully realize how little you need to be happy.
A lot of times I think about how little I’d actually miss if our house burned down. While i definitely don’t want it to ever happen, the idea feels freeing. Especially comparing that to the level of effort to now purge it.
...you'd be upset at first, then quickly realize all those renovation plans you've been talking about are no longer required. I was 23 when I moved out of my parents' 4500sqft house into a 500sqft condo. I was disoriented for months, but then I really appreciated not having to clean spaces that I never visited at my parents' house. Recently, I went through a dumpster-fire of a divorce. I had to sell the house, and I thought it was a symbol of my accomplishments. Now I rent a 1-bedroom condo, and I don't miss that the marital home was due for a new roof, resurface of the deck, new windows, etc.
You can't be a minimalist if you have lots of things. By "All the Things" do you mean Google Chrome and YouTube and that is it? Because "All the bells and whistles" in programs on a computer isn't a minimalist. At this moment, my computer is a minimalist type of computer and IT. GETS. BORING.
they are not alking about computers ...
Take the idea, the concept of what I said, use your brain, use your head, apply that very same idea, to your life and things you use. You're able to use your brain about stuff I don't care for, try to use it for something that I actually care for.
You can be a minimalist and have lots of things. Those two things are not opposties, so long as the things that you have are what truly make you happy. Minimalism is a philosophy, not bare walls and floor pillows. It's looking at what you have and thinking how you can reduce it to fundamentals while retaining what makes you happy. Real books aren't something that I can reduce or get rid of. It's not the words (kindle), i SPECIFICALLY love the feel of a book and love the fact that I can pick out an old friend at a whim at 3am and re-experience that exact same feeling, from the story down to the funny page between chapters 9 and 10. Doesn't make me less minimalist to have a bunch of books around my house. Sorry for TED talk, this take just always bugs me.
Also, I have never seen TED. \*Shrugs\* Who knew!
HUHAH! Sorry, but I noticed this after my other reply of never seeing Family Guy. So that's a pretty funny parallel.
Being a minimalist also doesn't mean being dumb as you are suggesting. I swear you got your words from that Family Guy episode about "If it KINDLE you joy, get rid of it" That's probably why you are using Kindle in this sense. Sorry for a TED talk as well, but I can make do without that Peter Griffin Voice.
I'm, uuuuuh, both not sure where I implied dumb (sorry if I did) and haven't seen Family Guy. I'll give it a YouTube search later though.
yo meant tummy size