I, 63F, let my hair go natural during the pandemic and kept it that way. For about four years, it was my brown hair with grey temples. Lately, my brown hair has turned dark pewter. In addition, I've been really sick for about ten years (thyroid cancer, gradual heart failure leading to open-heart surgery a few months ago). I'm recovering well and want to go out...but my clothes are mostly pre-2020-- and nothing looks good. I decluttered last month, but I felt I still had nothing I wanted to wear. A closet full of 'meh'.

So I took everything out of my closets, dumped the clothes and scarves onto the middle of my bed, and I held each fabric up to my face, one by one, and took a selfie. Every 'yes,' I put in a pile to the left of my bed on the floor. Every 'No' went in a pile on the right--out of sight. No looking back. With all of the selfies side by side in my phone, I could see what colors work and which don't.

What I learned: I've gone from an Autumn palette to a Summer (gray hair + skin losing pigment). The 'No' pile was really big. Going through my collection of linen scarves was excruciating because I bought each one of them after oncology/cardiology appointments. I'd go straight from the hospital to the store with the nice stuff.

I grabbed it all and took it downstairs, really fast, without 'but...but...' and I left it in a pile out of the way. I will eventually go through and fold them and try to find them, homes.

I was exhausted by the end of it, and emotionally scarred, lol. It felt like a cataclysmic event. It was more than a declutter. It was a reset. Now I can go shopping and buy some things I can actually wear and feel happy about.

Which is great to know! Now, when I go shopping for the new wardrobe, I'll know what colors to look for.

I let go of jeans I'd had since 2010.

I let go of a giant, apple-green hoodie from the hip-hop era!

And my poplin bathrobe, from...1999!!

I was chatting with some friends about decluttering. One friend said she loves decluttering a specific area, such as a single cabinet, because the Before and After gives her so much satisfaction. But another friend said she can't handle that kind of concentrated decision making, and does more of a random picking up of things, like instead of emptying a drawer out, she'll open it, see a few things to declutter, close it again for another day. Stuff is always leaving but it maybe doesn't always look like it...and then on Instagram, I was watching some videos of people who do it all by category or color. Like, just the blue shirts.

None of these are bad approaches! I think I tend to fall on the more random approach side of things. But given any option (and assuming you're not decluttering due to a life change like needing to move), how would you prefer to declutter?

EDIT: And this is meant to be more of a discussion than anything, but Discussion wasn't a flair option, so I went with Motivation, lol!

I’ve spent over 10 years decluttering the basement. Still I have at least 75 boxes of stuff. I’ve thrown away a lot. But now I’m getting to items that I don’t want but are too valuable to throw away. I’m talking about 1960’s Mickey Mouse dolls, 3 broken trumpets, 3 grandma’s set of dishes, 2 100 year old paintings I was told not to throw away, Disney VHS, 30 photo albums of my late husband (kids want this), 2 violins. Selling items take a lot of effort, as well as scanning photos, old books.

I’m overwhelmed. Any advice on what to do with the more valuable stuff that I inherited?

Let me preface this by saying I have lived in the Midwest my whole life in Tornado Alley and I am used to multiple times a year sirens going off and we head to the basement. We have always had an emergency kit in the basement and the kids have always been told no matter how messy their room is, they MUST have a clear path to the door and window in case of fire/emergency.

The last 4 weeks we have been brutal in declutterring and putting things away. Way more aggressive than we have ever been in the past. And it paid off. This morning at about 1:30 am the sirens went off. It was very wicked looking outside and the trees were bent sideways from the winds.

My husband and I were able to get up, he went to get the kids up and I was able to fully remember where I put my pjs from last night (been putting them in a new spot and away, so out of sight, nothing to trip over). I was able to put on my robe, grab the pjs, go to one end of the hallway, my husband was at the other end, wake up all the kids and grab the animals and get downstairs. Absolutely no fear or panic of not getting downstairs in time because everything was put away and not trip hazards. Didn’t have to worry about stubbing toes in the finished basement (that is where are family room is and we spend the most time, so it’s always the biggest mess).

Never in my life have I ever felt more prepared for a good ol’ Midwest storm. Except I forgot my glasses upstairs and did go back to them so I could see the tv/radar.

I have a long 5 day holiday weekend starting tomorrow and I am going through every room again for one more pass of “is this item sitting on my floor worth me tripping over or not getting out in an emergency” clean through.

We were fine, no damage here, didn’t even lose power, but reports have that we had 80-90 miles per hour straight line winds which causes more damage than tornadoes.

I hope this post helps someone find their motivation or their ‘okay’ to declutter and let things go.

So I am the type of person who doesn’t see the point in putting something away when you’re going to need it tomorrow anyways (I’ve since learned the keeping within arms length rule), but there’s the spot I sit in the sofa then next to me on the sofa is things like my purse, mail, paperwork, Kleenex, hairbands etc. and to the other side on the side table I have all of my daily medications, lotions, prn medications etc.

I’ve had a hard time with decluttering this area specifically because it’s all of my “daily use” things but I’m wondering what you have found success in to clear areas like this while keeping it in arms reach and either out of sight or organized in sight.

Should I look to buy a side table with lots of storage?, a coffee table with storage?, how do you guys find a home for needed things that don’t have a home 😭

I have two big bags of paperwork that I probably don't need but have a hard time getting rid of it. it's taking up precious under desk space but I can't get myself to go through it. I know I'll want to keep some of it. Any advice on how to get started?

Hi Everyone - Happy Hump Day! I'm cleaning out the very deep, very wide junk drawer where old tech goes to die. Save for my precious ancient Palm Pilot and beloved Crackberry, it's all wiped and ready to go to the e-cycler. Does anyone know of a resource for old cases before I bin them? I have cases & screen protectors dating back to the first Pixel or before. It seems like most cases are too device-specific to donate but damn I hate sending all this plastic crap to the landfill. While I'm asking, are chargers e-waste or trash? Edit: I am in the US

I'm not asking if I should, for the record. Please do not suggest other avenues for donating or giving away these books - we're talking out-of-date materials for specialized fields, outdated science textbooks, guides to using obsolete software, stuff like that. Though even if I weren't- books are a mass-produced item like a CD or a plush toy! Not a sacred object. I love books a lot but I don't think they're a protected class.

I've seen people here talk about recycling books, but I always get hung up on the method. We have city recycling where I live - do I just chuck them in the blue bin as is? Rip the covers off? Do the spines present a problem? Can you recycle children's board books, or picture books with glossy pages?

Curious if anyone else does this as Youtube seems to be a major trigger for me. The cycle is so familiar at this point; new item is released, a bunch of reviews flood my feed, I convince myself I need it and all of a sudden I'm planning my purchase. I obviously need the latest and greatest.

Rather than spiraling down more and more reviews for that item, I may watch one from a source I trust then I pull up old reviews for the item I'd be "upgrading" and it rekindles my interest and love for that item and remind me why I bought it in the first place. Reminds me that most improvements, if they are improvements at all, are marginal at best year over year.

If after a week or two, the upgrade feels significant and worth the upgrade price then I'll start the process again.

i completed the challenge! more than 500 items have been decluttered. i will probably keep decluttering in the following days to throw away anything i might have missed, but i already feel so much better, house feels cleaner and emptier (good thing) it's also really easy to locate my things and put them away because everything has a place and i put 1000% the effort to make sure that things had their place in the path of least resistance (or the path with less friction) i actually like being in my home now, so i highly recommend doing it!

all items have been either trashed or gifted to friends and family

I had success last year so I’m doing it again this year - now is a great time to declutter costumes for Halloween. I realized my daughter will pick her own costumes from now on and I don’t need to save group or kid costumes for “some day” which is years away. I posted in my fb mom group for kid/family group costumes and buy nothing for dog costumes. All got taken right away. Early September is a great time for people starting to think about Halloween, before they buy something!

Failure is part of life. Share your decluttering challenges and failures here. Examples include:

• Emotional clutter
• Not enough time
• Getting overwhelmed
• Routing (recycling, donating, trash...)

If you're just venting, or don't want advice, please let us know in your comment.

This is a low-stress place to share challenges and failures for those who might not want to create a new discussion.

I’ve been struggling with how to get rid of some things that are too good to be trashed, but not accepted by my local donation center.

Case in point, a fully functional handheld vacuum. The local donation center and vacuum repair store wouldn’t take it. But it was out of my home 15 minutes after posting it to the Buy Nothing group.

It feels so good being able to give decluttered things another life, while also avoiding the lines at the donation center!

I really like decluttering YouTube but a lot of the channels have gotten on my nerves because they have ads in their videos. It's kind of weird seeing them doing an ad to buy something when their videos are about getting rid of stuff and I just find ads really annoying. It's totally fine if they want to do that, but I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on good channels without this. I know there is Midwest Magic Cleaning but am not sure who else there is

Outside of our kids tool boxes I cannot recall ever purchasing a hammer so how did we end up with ELEVEN??? Someone much have been sneaking them in or they bred. Anyways off to the thrift store they go.

I think I’m addicted to the feeling of decluttering! I started with my closet and have been slowly working my way through my apartment. I feel physically lighter as I go through every spot and ditch the expired products or clothing that I no longer like. Even though I’ve decluttered a good bit there’s still so much to go, but I’m excited to keep the momentum going tomorrow 🧹🧽

It's a public holiday weekend in the UK. It's raining down a storm. The family are all away. Heave ho-ing to it, eating microwave chicken korma and whacking all the unsentimental kids clothes online. I'm actually running out of used packaging for sending it back out into the universe its so scary!

Will indulge myself with at least one episode of Pride n Prejudice cos THAT is what bank holidays are for.

Anyone else at it today?

Share your wins here - big or small. What did you declutter this week? Examples include:

• Digital Clutter: emails, digital photos, digital music or video collection...
• Storage: cupboards and closets, drawers, storage boxes...
• Toys: ether for your child, or your own that you've been hanging on to.
• Spaces: kitchens, workshops, hobby rooms, storage lockers...
• Routing: sending items to where they need to go, like donation centres, trash, or recycling

This is a low-stress place to share wins for those who might not want to create a new discussion.

i wanted to do the 31 days, 500 things decluttering challenge, where you throw away 1 thing the first of the month, 2 the second and so on, but i was on a roll for the first two days so i decided to catch up with the days because keeping decluttering six things a day wasn't really engaging. so i figured that on day three i was gonna skip to day 26 the next day, cannot wait to declutter things tomorrow.

i found out that 40-50 things a day is the perfect amount of things to declutter. enough to make a difference but not enough to give you decision fatigue or get you extremely tired.

anyways, good decluttering to all of you! i will update when i complete the challenge!

I rarely buy shoes and when I do it’s to replace ones I’ve worn out, so I didn’t think I had shoes I could part with. However we’re having a yard sale in two days so I figured I might as well go through my shoes just in case. I found 5 pairs that could go, 3 of which I didn’t even remember I owned.

I’ve been living in a decent sized bedroom for the last 3 years, which has been great overall. I get to have a mini living room area with a couch and TV, a queen sized bed, and there’s room for my two cats to hang out comfortably. However, as I’m preparing to move to a new apartment with a smaller bedroom I realized I accumulated so much furniture in there simply because I had the space for it, and because a lot of it was free. For example, I had a second desk that was really nice that I found for free outside. I had a vision of turning that second desk into an art area. Instead, it sat mostly unused for a while before it became a place for me to dump stuff onto when I got home.

I also have this wooden bookcase from my childhood bedroom that is really nice quality, but is also very heavy. I’ve dragged this thing around through several moves, but I finally decided it’s being given away rather than going with me this time. The reason is that I successfully declutterred a lot of my books that I accepted I wasn’t going to read again, so all the empty slots on the bookshelf just turned into yet another space to accumulate junk. The more I thought about it the more I realized there is likely enough space to display my books between the display shelf on my dresser and an organizer on the desk I actually use.

I thought that because I had a large bedroom the best way to use it was to fill it with more furniture, but in hindsight I would have preferred to have more room to walk around. I’ve been wanting to start doing yoga at home but never did, partly because I would have had to move big pieces of furniture around in order to have room. At my new apartment my room is big enough to fit the things I actually need without feeling claustrophobic, but small enough to make me consider what items I truly need, and what I was just holding onto in hopes that eventually I would need whatever it was.

Since so many of these items I got for free off the curb or local Facebook groups, if I truly did need them at some point I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to obtain a new one for free or cheap secondhand, without it taking up space for years in my apartment. I’m also considering implementing a rule when getting items from my local buy nothing group that I have to give away an item for every new item I receive, that way I’m not just accumulating stuff that I have no space to store. Even though moving is very stressful, I’m glad it gave me the motivation to get rid of items that were really just junk.

My email is totally out of control. Can anyone recommend a method or software to help me with it? I'm honestly considering just getting a new email address at this point. The thought of going through it is overwhelming. Thanks!

Hello guys,

I am coming back with my decluttering journey for my craft room.

Thanks to your advices in my last post ( https://www.reddit.com/r/declutter/s/jRnFpMaelh ) , I have now succeded to fit all my fabrics and yarn in their intended shelves.

What really worked for me is thinking about * What end product can I make with this fabric/ yarn and does this product looks fun/ enjoyable to make and to have?*

So I got rid of:

- beautiful yarn that i did not like to crochet because of texture ( goodbye sparkly ✨ yarn that are rough to the skin).

- lots of magnificent colorful piece of fabric but not in my color palette/ wardrobe ( i sew 80% of the time garments for myself : goodbye yellows and oranges , you make me look like I am sick 🤢), i did keep a few to sew gifts for others .

- lots of lesser quality yarns that I bought in the beginning when I started to learn crochet and knitting. Now if I make something, I want it to last as long as possible, and I realized I will always ( and can afford to) choose a better quality yarn . I have one particular brand that I realized I loved to use .

- there were some skeins of yarn that were given to me. I did not realize that they were in a bad state ( surely moth ) until I opened the bag! Straight to trash bag🗑️!

I had three bags to donate at the end. Took them directly to Oxfam and I delightfully realized that they were already people interested to buy yarns , and it made me so happy 😁

I now feel lighter because I can walk in the room , and use easily my folding table! I still have some work to do to how to organize yarns and fabrics ( transparent bins? Rectangular baskets? ) because it looks messy in my shelves and declutter other categories ( leatherworking tools, ...), but yarns/ fabrics were the most difficult for me to declutter and the biggest pile in terme of space. I think I will take a well earned pause to enjoy my room to make something before continuing on my decluttering journey. 🤩

Bought a large ocean themed children’s hamper at a thrift store. It has become my decluttering godsend. When I want to get rid of something, I throw it into “Davy Jones’ Locker”. Davy Jones’ Locker is a pirate word for sending someone or something to the bottom of the sea. It’s where you go when you walk the plank! The ridiculousness of this mindset has made it so easy for me to declutter. It delights me to yell “Send her to the Briny Deep!” in a silly pirate accent as I toss an unwanted item into the bin.

“Back in the day” I would send cards in the post. Birthdays, new babies, thank yous.

Now I have a large box of cards. I know I can go to the store and get one but for some reason I can’t seem to let these go.

It’s the “what if I need it?” Mentality

I think I might just keep a couple then I try to decide which ones then all of them seem so nice.

Hopefully just posting this will be enough kick in the butt for me to just send them all to the thrift store!

Also falling into the whole “sunk cost” thing.

So silly not to be able to lets these go. I’ll report back when I get over myself and get it done.

Edited to update: I took 3 boxes to the thrift store! This year will be the last year for physical Christmas cards and next year there will be e-cards! Thanks for the great ideas and support- 3 large bags were dropped off which included the boxes of cards.

Less is lighter!