I will be honest with you…1/2 of my family are what could be considered “hoarders”. It’s not the half that I fall into, as I truly believe in getting rid of clutter, but that side of my family has been saving and keeping “stuff” for multiple generations. When my grandmother on that side died years ago, she left behind a 4 story condo that didn’t have a square inch of space without something in it. And no matter how many times I have tried to encourage/help/berate them into getting rid of the clutter, it never sticks – more of it always shows up.
photo credit: Joe ShlabotnikI have written before about how I think paying for self-storage is a waste of money, and I stand by my beliefs even in the face of family scorn. However, it seems like maybe my constant talk of clutter and wasted money has paid off, as a member of my family I am very close to has finally, after many, many years, gotten rid of her $200 a month storage facility she was paying for. I couldn’t be happier than if I had done it myself
See, she was paying for storage because her garage was full to the brim with stuff that she “couldn’t bear to get rid of”. But upon finally get fed up with the amount of stuff and the fact that $200 a month would go a long way to helping with her finances, she decided to tackle all that crap she supposedly couldn’t live without. Turns out that she could, as her garage was emptied out in one short day of recycling, donating, and throwing away. After clearing out all the stuff that she once thought she needed, she was left with an empty garage – with enough room in it to move everything from her $200/month storage space. That’s an instant savings of $2,400 a year, and she didn’t even really know what was in there anymore because it had been so long since she had seen it! Now that it’s back at her own house, she is about to start Round Two – going through all of this to get rid of even more. This is groundbreaking news for this particular person, and I could not be happier about this change! If she can do it, so can you – so never say never. Trust me on this one.
Next up for this side of the family? Me heading back east to work on Mom’s house. I am going to spend some time this summer there doing some decluttering and cleaning out, and to make things easier for the throw-away stuff we are renting a dumpster to sit in the driveway. That should speed things up a little bit. Good thing I truly enjoy doing it. And good thing that 50% of my genes are predisposed to being clutter-free and organized!
The lesson here? Anyone and everyone CAN get rid of clutter and stop paying for storage. If this family member can not only clean out a garage full of who-knows-what, get rid of the storage space, and then attempt to get rid of said stuff from the storage space, every single person can do it. So get to it!
Maybe you’ve “infected” your family with the decluttering bug. I had an uncle who couldn’t pass up a free bargain. He would wander the streets in his neighborhood, and bring home all kinds of half-broken things, much to my aunt’s chagrin. After he passed away, my cousin cleaned all of this accumulated junk out of the garage, which they now rent out to a guy with an antique car. Their decluttering exercise ended up generating a monthly cash flow!
I sure hope so Enrique! That sounds like a nice cash flow business to get into! 😉
The decluttering bug is definately contagious. Now that I’m almost done with my STUFF, the family whose house I live in is wanting help doing the exact same thing with all their accumulated STUFF. Luckily, having moved a mere 3 years ago, there isn’t so much as to require a storage unit, it’s all ‘in-house’…literally. In the garage, the basement shop, the closets, the upstairs ‘nook’, etc…etc…etc…ad nauseum.
First up, this weekend we tackle and hopefully finish the garage…
Good advice and nice story. We have been decluttering our house for years now. It’s been a long and slow process (and sometimes a little difficult) but well worth it. We got tired of the draining effect of looking at piles of stuff we knew we really didn’t need was our motivation. But getting some money at garage sales helped too.
you know what I love …. I have saved a few bits and bobs from my childhood … and now my lads are playing with them and wearing them out !! This is a great way to declutter.
Also ebay is a huge bonus for the declutter bug – I have moved things on from my childhood and some even from my mum’s childhood thru ebay. The sense that things have gone to a new owner to be appreciated and loved all over again is just fab – cheers le
DeClutter My Life … Please
Kudos to those who are inundated with stuff and good junk, and realize it interferes with their enjoyment of life, and are then able to dispose of the offending items.
There’s a lot to be said for traveling light, being able to relocate swiftly and having room in your home to stretch out or swing a cat.
However, speaking only for myself, I have accumulated and saved 60 years’ worth of stuff that has value to me. I don’t collect broken appliances or items that might someday be refurbished or recycled into something useful to somebody else. My home is not jammed with stacks of old newspapers and magazines that are too good to throw out. I have only one motor vehicle, and it runs. I don’t hold on to outdated foodstuffs or green leftovers.
What I have kept are things which, though I don’t visit them every day or even every month, are items that document my life or represent memories of departed family and friends, in addition to utilitarian stuff like a large record collection, books, artwork, hand- and power-tools and a few collectibles (aka good junk).
I know I can pare these holdings down a bit, as they currently fill up a 10’x30′ storage unit. I am in the midst of relocating, and this is the first time I have ever rented storage space for my own stuff.
But don’t ask me to part with my late father’s college yearbooks, my mother’s Singer sewing machine, a couple boxes of family photos (yes, I know they can be transferred to a DVD nowadays), some personal and business papers that belonged to Dad and my own stash of personal crap from high school textbooks and journals to letters from friends received after I moved 3,000 miles away from my hometown to correspondence with the late daughter of a former U.S. President.
I expect nobody will take the space and time to paw through my stuff when I die. No old friend or cousin or nephew will flip through my books to read the philosophical insights I had thirty or forty years before, or discover the $100 bill I used as a bookmark in my copy of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” or discover that was going on in my life at the time I read that classic piece of fiction.
Certainly no soul cares about some old family documents that explain who emigrated to our country when and for what reasons, where they settled and how they built a life that became the platform for future generations.
No one cares about the mystery of piecing together another person’s existence through their treasured letters and diaries, just for the sake of seeing what someone else’s life might have been like. Not even an anthropologist would waste his time with this crap.
If I were Charles Dickens or Elvis there might be some interest, though.
And I don’t reckon any survivor will bother to hold onto any of my five generations of Apple computers to dig into the life of one who has sent his last email. Thousands of messages, musings, opinions and other evidence of my being here on earth, compressed neatly into magnetic ink. More thousands of bookmarks pointing to what I believed are the best recorded music, the greatest thoughts and ideas of mankind, the finest of art and craft …
You’re right. This stuff of mine is a waste of space.
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