I think the biggest key point in this post is that the person doing the organizing was INVITED by the “organizee”. The person whose stuff is being organized must be wholeheartedly in favor of the project in order for this to work! Otherwise, you’ll be fighting tooth and nail over everything.”

I completely agree. I have spent most of my life living with people who lean toward the packrat mentality, while I tend toward the other extreme. Lots of stress on both sides. (My sister still teases me about how I taped down the middle of our room and pushed her stuff to her side with a broom.) Also, I’m constantly returning things that family members and other guests leave behind in our home – because we have so much space. *sigh*

Since I can’t throw away (or give away) things that belong to other people – even if I think it’s complete junk – I’ve tried lots of strategies for getting them to let go of stuff. Nothing really successful so far. The motivation has to come from the other person.

The most useful technique I’ve used (when the other person is somewhat motivated) is sorting their belongings so that they can clearly see the duplicates.

When I bought my present house “AS-IS” it was an estate sale, and filled literally up the walls (couldn’t see the floors) with ‘stuff’… The remaining family was elderly and ill and didn’t want to have to deal with it either – they said, Do as you will with it…Please save pictures/jewelry for us, and anything else, you can have.

It took us several weekends to clear out the house, finding much mold and mildew, and other ‘surprises’ in the process.

Now it is a standing joke from my kids about about have to clean out my clutter when I am gone… so, knowing how bad it was when I bought the house, I am trying to make sure this doesn’t happen! If it doesn’t have a designated place, it goes out the door. While I still have a long way to go, it is encouraging to see a post like this that reminds me of why I need to keep purging!