Man, what a mess. Time to declutter.

[Blackhawk]

We're talking some major soul searching over a cluttered garage.

Garage? What is 'garage?'

I have never, not once, owned or rented a place with a garage (although I did live in other people's houses that had garages.)

But to the point, if our homes are a reflection of us, what we love, and how we function, then yeah. Changing one can change the other.

[Madmarcus]

I would argue that your preparedness mindset doesn't quite cover the mindset I have seen in myself (a little) and my wife (a lot!); thrift. Not frugality in purchasing but the feeling that nothing of value should be wasted. For example, the impulse to keep the very well made older china cabinet not because we need it or find it sentimental but because we have room for it and no one will take it off our hands. Or the third skillet. Things that have enough value that throwing them out is wasteful and ultimately environmentally bad but don't have enough value to make it worthwhile to get them to someone who could use that value.

I am hoping that the next time we declutter (probably when we go to sell the house) that we will be in a position to have one of the estate sale companies deal with all of it because my wife didn't like the idea of a big dumpster or freecycle. Although; to be fair the freecycle issue had as much to do with random people coming to the house as anything else.

[Madmarcus]

Following up on that last post.

Does anyone else have guilty feelings when you leave things for the library book sales or Goodwill that you know are never going to actually sell?

[Blackhawk]

I donate most of the usable stuff I take out of the house, and have for years. I don't have much that's got significant value, so trying to sell it is rarely worth the hassle. Time and energy have value. Getting two dollars for something that takes hours to sell is more wasteful than giving it away in seconds.

Likewise, I pay for the space in my house. It has value, too. In fact, it would be easy to figure out the cost per day of each square foot. Having room to live, having the ability to find what I need - those have value. From that perspective, keeping something that I will never use is also wasteful.

[Madmarcus]

While I might quibble that the costs in my house are fixed no matter what furniture I have in it I don't disagree. Thrift in the sense I am using it is just like your list. In moderation it is good but just like the impulse that you labeled preparedness it can be a problem when it becomes too strong or unchecked.

[paulbaxter]

Following up on that last post.

Does anyone else have guilty feelings when you leave things for the library book sales or Goodwill that you know are never going to actually sell?

As a book guy myself, I've just gotten into the habit of tossing them. If it's an old paperback in poor condition, or a book than anyone can buy used on amazon for the minimum possible price, I don't see any reason to worry about it. If I know someone in my life I who I might pass in on to in the next couple of weeks (very rare), I'll do that, otherwise just into the trash. If it's a book that in decent condition that I don't think I could get anything for, I might just toss it into one of the little mini free libraries around.

There's an enormous used bookstore in my area that seems to get endless supplies of cast off books and sells them all for a dollar each, or 25 cents on sale weekends. It's opened my eyes a bit to the idea that the books themselves don't have much value.

I've moved twice now in the past 4 years, and I imagine at least one or two more moves coming up in the next few years. While I treasure books, and lug a fair number around with me, I don't want the total number going up.

[Blackhawk]

One thing I'm dealing with is finding a good way to store my RPG books. They need to go into storage - but the only storage we have access to is terrible for books (it's a standard storage unit, not climate controlled.) I'm thinking plastic totes and desiccant packets, which I'll have to check every few months. I'll have to store any board games in the house somehow. No boards or cards would survive an Indiana summer (80-90 degrees, 60%-80%+ humidity.)

[YellowKing]

I got rid of two boxes full of CDs for $120 at our local used record store this weekend. I was literally about to toss them at Goodwill but figured I should probably at least see what I could get for them. That was a pleasant surprise. I haven't listened to an actual CD in years, so I was happy to get them out of my house.

We are still nowhere near where we need to be before the move, but compared to where we were in our old house it's a night and day difference. Once we get a closing date, I know my wife will go into overdrive mode. Like me, she works best under a tight deadline. I expect we'll get more done in the last 2-3 weeks than we have in the last 2-3 months.

[Blackhawk]

Last night I decluttered a couple of gaming 'support' boxes.

One was my bits box. For those who don't customize miniatures/build terrain, a bits box is a box where you throw... bits. Bits of this, bits of that. Stuff that can be repurposed for terrain or miniatures. Pieces of old model kits (that exhaust pipe would make a great bit of industrial piping on a factory!), pieces of window screen (small pieces for window grates, large pieces make chain link fences), old toys (old action figure guns can be altered and used for vehicles/fortifications), bits of cloth, wire, wood, metal, electronics parts. Junk, but junk that has potential to be be adapted for a purpose. Here's the thing: I have stuff in that box that has been there for 30 years. It started off as a shoe box. It had become a full sized tote. And, in the 30 years I've been hauling it from state to state, home to home, I've used stuff from it... maybe twice? So I sorted off maybe 3% that was actually useful and tossed the rest. The 3% went into my parts box (different from the bits box.)

The other box was my old Warhammer terrain. Hand built hills, rivers, features, buildings. Most were in poor repair after more than two decades in storage, and those that weren't, well... I don't play Warhammer or similar wargames. I will never use it. I saved one piece, a little plastic monument that had been designed for a model train. The rest went poof. It stung a little - I have lots of memories of battles on those hills and over those rivers - but it has no real purpose, and isn't sentimental enough to justify the space it took.

[Reemul]

I moved house in February, we had lived in our previous house for 20 years including having 2 kids go from 0-14 and 11. I have a large estate car. I did 50 runs to the local tip with the car full and an additional 10 runs form the new house.

The 2 things I took from it was how the hell did all this fit in my old smaller house and secondly how much money have i wasted on all this stuff when i was skint and stuff that at times hardly ever got used.

I am trying harder in my new house

[Blackhawk]

Learned today:

Estate car - station wagon
Tip - dump
Skint - broke

[Jaymann]

Learned today:

Estate car - station wagon
Tip - dump
Skint - broke

We're all on our uppers we're all going skint
I used to smoke cigars but now I suck polo mints
- The Kinks

Here uppers are not amphetamines, but shoes with the soles worn out.

[disarm]

I'm in the process of going through a bunch of old boxes in my basement...stuff I cleared out of my parent's house once I finally bought a house and had more space than tiny apartment closets. I brought the boxes from Indiana to CT about 6-7 years ago and stacked them in the corner of the basement, where they've gone pretty much untouched.

So what's in a boxes? A big chunk of it is class materials from college and medical school...notebooks full of notes, course packets, lab reports, old textbooks that I couldn't sell back. It's all stuff that I would bring home at the end of the semester and keep in case it was useful reference for the next semester's courses. It eventually was put into boxes and pretty much forgotten. I graduated from college in 2001 and med school in 2005, so a lot of this stuff is 20 years old and worthless to me now...much of it from undergraduate chemistry, biology, physics and liberal arts courses that led to a degree that might as well belong to someone else. I've been flipping through some of my old work as I sort it into trash vs recycling, and the only purpose it has served is showing me how much I've forgotten as a result of non-use once I went into medicine instead of using my biochemistry degree.

It's a little strange to be throwing away things that represent countless hours of hard work and study...my life during four years of college, stuffed into cardboard boxes and now going into the trash. The reality is, however, that I threw away what it all represents a long time ago when I quit using all the knowledge I had gained to pursue something else. Soon, all that will be left are my memories of four of the best (but most challenging) years of my life, and a framed diploma kept in one of the few boxes that won't be thrown away. Such is life I guess...keep moving forward, being careful not to hang onto so much of the past that it clutters your life...

[hitbyambulance]

this thread has spurred me to reach out to an ADHD-focused 'home tidying' service. i am what i'd call a 'horizontal organizer' but it's gotten out of control these last few months. i need intervention, so it's time to seek the assistance of professionals

[hitbyambulance]

If it's a book that in decent condition that I don't think I could get anything for, I might just toss it into one of the little mini free libraries around.

if you can find one of the more frequented LFLs, it's surprising what people will take from those. i'm even reading a fat paperback that split right down the spine, from one of those. (no mildewed books, please! that's just bad for your health and it spreads to other books. those can just be discarded... or composted... or... burned)

[Blackhawk]

I'm hitting two tough roadblocks today, both gaming related:

One is my game disc collection. It's in three binders, and contains about 700 discs, retail and freebies. The tree binders together take up about a cubic foot. A few of the discs are for games that you'll never find for sale again, including obscure expansions and things like NOLF, NOLF 2, and AvP 2. A significant number of them will no longer run on a modern system. A significant number are available through GoG or Steam. It is possible that I might want a disc out of there sometime, but the odds approach zero. Every rule says to dump it. But it's also my entire pre-Steam collection. That one's tough.

The other is my flight sim setup. CH Pro Pedals, CH Pro Throttle, and CH Fighterstick Pro. They were part of me getting the wild idea to go all-in on flight sims back around 2004 to 2005. Along with my TrackIR 3, I spent about $600 on these. They have - maybe - 10 hours of use in the last 15 years. Regret, they name is HOTAS. But I usually didn't bother with them because configuring them was such a pain. From what I understand, they still work in Windows 10, but it is even more of a pain, as the software that makes them work nice together has issues and won't be updated (CH Control Manager, I think it was.) Given that the games I still play work fine with my $40 Logitech joystick that's plug-and-play, I will never use these again. If you shop around, you can generally find these for under $50 each on ebay, so I could try to sell them, but I honestly have zero desire to ever sell via ebay.

But I hate the idea of just tossing them.

[Blackhawk]

Saved the games. Put the HOTAS aside to worry about later.

Today I started moving my board games from where they were to where I wanted them to be. The plan was to put about 3/4 of them away into in-house storage (specifically, the space in the top of the back of the closet.) I underestimated how much space they took up. Badly. I managed to get about half of what I wanted stored moved and completely filled up the available space.



Time to figure out what plan B is.

[Blackhawk]

Plan reconfigured. New plan: I have one bookshelf. Place on that the games I'm most likely play, then that the family is most likely to play. Next, place the runners up until the bookshelf is full, save for the very top. That's my container. If it doesn't fit in the container, it doesn't stay out. Next, put the rest into the storage spot in the top of the closest where they are out of sight and out of mind. The games I don't really like (and wouldn't play even if I wanted to play a game) go elsewhere. If I ever end up somewhere that buys board games, I may consider selling those (using an online marketplace - ebay, bgg, etc - seems about as appealing as getting stabbed to death.)

The original plan was two shelves worth. The new plan is one bookshelf's worth (in this case, four shelves.) That gave me just enough room to store the rest. I wanted to go further, but when it comes down to it, I'm going from 2 bookshelves to 1.

I also went through all of my crafting supplies, about four totes worth of stuff. The biggest problem is that while I'm keeping miniature painting and terrain crafting on the table, they're inactive right for a bit while I explore some other creative outlets (I really want to do things where I create something, as opposed to interpreting someone else's creations like mini painting.) But I'm working without a plan other than 'explore.' And since I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what I'll need. That means that I either keep everything on the off chance that I need end up doing something that uses it, or I keep almost nothing. Since keeping things based on 'maybe someday' is how the clutter got so bad to begin with, I am tossing almost all of it. Four model kits with missing pieces (probably - the only way to find out would be to build it and not be able to finish, which would suck.) One model kit that I hate (given to me as a reject from someone else's Loot Crate years ago.) Tons of odds and ends. A bag of assorted beads. A box of wooden blocks left over from when the kids were... kids. The remaining pieces of an old Jenga set. Various spools of different types of cordage, ribbon, and wire. More of that sort of thing. All I kept was one pack of stencils, two bags of beads, a bag of assorted latigo, and one model kit that I think is intact.

Next I sort the miniatures. That, at least, should be fairly straightforward. Painted goes into storage. Those that are unpainted and appeal to me aesthetically go into one of two boxes. The rest go into storage. Those two boxes are my limit, so if I run out of room, I have to be pickier.

[hitbyambulance]

The other is my flight sim setup. CH Pro Pedals, CH Pro Throttle, and CH Fighterstick Pro. They were part of me getting the wild idea to go all-in on flight sims back around 2004 to 2005. Along with my TrackIR 3, I spent about $600 on these. They have - maybe - 10 hours of use in the last 15 years. Regret, they name is HOTAS. But I usually didn't bother with them because configuring them was such a pain. From what I understand, they still work in Windows 10, but it is even more of a pain, as the software that makes them work nice together has issues and won't be updated (CH Control Manager, I think it was.) Given that the games I still play work fine with my $40 Logitech joystick that's plug-and-play, I will never use these again. If you shop around, you can generally find these for under $50 each on ebay, so I could try to sell them, but I honestly have zero desire to ever sell via ebay.

i actually might be interested in buying these from you (if the rubber grips aren't breaking down from age). i need to start using MSFS 2K20 as more of an actual flight training sim - i intend to work towards an FAA pilot certificate - and the hardware would help out with that.

[Blackhawk]

The other is my flight sim setup. CH Pro Pedals, CH Pro Throttle, and CH Fighterstick Pro. They were part of me getting the wild idea to go all-in on flight sims back around 2004 to 2005. Along with my TrackIR 3, I spent about $600 on these. They have - maybe - 10 hours of use in the last 15 years. Regret, they name is HOTAS. But I usually didn't bother with them because configuring them was such a pain. From what I understand, they still work in Windows 10, but it is even more of a pain, as the software that makes them work nice together has issues and won't be updated (CH Control Manager, I think it was.) Given that the games I still play work fine with my $40 Logitech joystick that's plug-and-play, I will never use these again. If you shop around, you can generally find these for under $50 each on ebay, so I could try to sell them, but I honestly have zero desire to ever sell via ebay.

i actually might be interested in buying these from you (if the rubber grips aren't breaking down from age). i need to start using MSFS 2K20 as more of an actual flight training sim - i intend to work towards an FAA pilot certificate - and the hardware would help out with that.

The grips aren't rubber. A few of the buttons have a rubber surface, but I've never had these stored outside the house and they seem solid - no crumbling or tackiness. They're a little dusty, but fine. The thing is, I can't even be sure they'll cooperate for you in Windows 10. Like I said, it understand it is possible, but a hassle. it may be worth it - these are some of the best on the market, and I probably paid $500 for them new (it seemed like a good idea at the time...) They still sell the same models. I can't guarantee anything, but if you want to experiment, I'll give them to you for the cost of shipping plus some packing materials, as long as you give me a couple of weeks to get them sent.

Spoiler:

[Blackhawk]

Today's project: Sort miniatures. The goal is to have two boxes of them left on the shelf. My starting point is a little more than two boxes:

[Blackhawk]

That one was surprisingly easy. I ended up with exactly two boxes of stuff that caught my eye.

Yesterday was dead tree books. I gave away almost all of my fiction years ago in favor of ebooks (mostly due to storage books.) I kept most of my non-fiction. Most of it was reference material. So I asked myself for each reference book: If I needed to know something that's covered in this book, would I come in here and flip through it, or would I just google? About 80% of the time, the answer was google. I'm not going to flip through a 500 page book on world civilizations to find out about the religious habits of the Babylonians. I'm going to google it. Most of those that I would actually reference were visual references - art books, books of photos of certain things (say, armor), etc. I got rid of a few 'how to' books on topics that I am happy to accept that I'll never want to know how to do (like the harmonica books from my three months of interest in 1990) or that I'd be better off learning with a free online course or YouTube. In the end, I kept about half of what I used to have, and a big chunk of those were books that are either rare curiosities (a 1952 aircraft identification guide) or have personal meaning (old yearbooks.)

In the process I threw out the old, broken book shelf from the bedroom (it had started to collapse and was only held in place with a load-bearing bead box) and replaced it with the one from the closet that used to hold my RPGs. It's a smaller bookshelf, and it still has space left after restocking it. Prior to purging the old, larger one was packed full. Along with the books I also purged the bedroom's knick-knacks, as they share the same shelves. I got rid of or stored about 2/3 of them. It had been looking like a junk collection rather than mementos or decoration.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the old books. My only real options are Goodwill (which will pass most of them on to other readers), or the Library, which will let many more people see them, and for free - but the library here is a very Indiana library, and tends to quietly lose a lot of the books I've donated before, including any book related to any religion that isn't Christianity, or anything that questions the same.

Today is the actual 'storage' portion of the house - under the bed plus the junk drawer. It's an easy job. The junk drawer will take about twenty minutes, and the rest is extra blankets, shoes, that sort of thing. I needed a day that didn't involve boxes of books, dragging around furniture, or sorting in a dust cloud for ten hours straight (my back and allergies need a rest.)

[Smoove_B]

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the old books. My only real options are Goodwill (which will pass most of them on to other readers), or the Library, which will let many more people see them, and for free - but the library here is a very Indiana library, and tends to quietly lose a lot of the books I've donated before, including any book related to any religion that isn't Christianity, or anything that questions the same.

I have a local hospice program that collects books for their patients. I'd hope they also get circulated into hospitals or potentially sold in bulk to used books stores to raise money. Not sure if you have something similar but having to deal with books during a move (3x now) really forced me to cut my collection down significantly.

Unrelated (maybe) to your miniature reduction and potential future storage, I just discovered these from IKEA and ordered one to help with storing miniatures in a way that keeps them organized and more easily accessible. I share on the off chance you're looking for suggestions; disregard if not. If you scroll down and look at the other suggested products, I've been using the MOPPE now for months as my painting + painting supplies desk organizer. Big fan. I know you just re-did your area (and it looks great) but I share (again) for those reading along.

[Blackhawk]

I'm always up for ideas! That's part of the benefit of a thread like this - sharing ideas.

But it's surprising how many problems people suggest Ikea as the solution to. For the record, the nearest Ikea store is a 200-mile round trip, and I'd have to rent a truck if I wanted anything that doesn't fit in the trunk. You can order from Ikea, but their shipping is insane unless you're ordering a whole room's worth of stuff. Example: The infamous KALLAX shelf for board games. A 2x4 KALLAX shelf: $70 Delivery: not possible to my area. A 2x2 KALLAX shelf: $35 Delivery: $199

I've pretty much written Ikea off as an option. They want people to physically shop in their stores, not online. They want them to have the 'Ikea experience'. That means that they have decided that their customers are limited to large, urban areas.

[Blackhawk]

To be fair, if I wanted to order a whole wall of shelves, a new desk, a new dresser, and a headboard it would still be $199 shipping. But if I can't afford to spend $2,000 on furniture, it's irrelevant.

[Smoove_B]

I've pretty much written Ikea off as an option. They want people to physically shop in their stores, not online. They want them to have the 'Ikea experience'. That means that they have decided that their customers are limited to large, urban areas.

I've never set foot in an Ikea. Shipping their shelving units is definitely insane, but for those two desktop organizers it was a $5.99 flat rate for shipping (each); I believe it's sent via UPS. The letter paper organizer is apparently a known "secret" among mini enthusiasts (I literally just learned about it yesterday). I believe some magnetize the shelves and/or customize the shelves in such a way as to accommodate travel.

[LawBeefaroni]

this thread has spurred me to reach out to an ADHD-focused 'home tidying' service. i am what i'd call a 'horizontal organizer' but it's gotten out of control these last few months. i need intervention, so it's time to seek the assistance of professionals

Congrats on recognizing this and good luck!

[YellowKing]

We found out we'd have a closing date by Monday, so we're now in my predicted overdrive mode. Best estimate is we're only 3 or 4 weeks out. Today we spent nearly 5 hours in the garage going through stuff. Took approximately 20 garbage bags worth of stuff to Goodwill, and threw out another 5 or 6. It was a lot of work but felt REALLY good.

Do we still have too much stuff? Yes, but at least we're close to the point where I could feel good about telling movers to just take everything that's in a box. There will be things we wind up getting rid of after the move because they don't fit the style or we don't have room for, but at least I'm not stressing over them moving boxes of stuff we haven't vetted yet.

[Blackhawk]

I think I am on 11 totes to storage, plus 5 for Goodwill, plus at least 10 of trash, plus several pieces of furniture that are being tossed. Oh, and three boxes of books, wherever I end up taking them.

And that's just the bedroom. Which I haven't finished yet, despite having been at it for several weeks. I have no idea how I had that much stuff in there, as it wasn't piled around. It was all on shelves, in containers, or in drawers.

Luckily, most of the rest of the house won't be anything like that. The bedroom was most of the storage plus the hobby area, so it got the bulk of the crap. The kitchen, bathroom, and living room are probably one day each. The kids' room is going to be a few days, mostly because the rest of the house overflowed into there. They don't really use their room for anything but sleeping, so it sort of became the destination for stuff we wanted kept, but not kept on hand.

[Blackhawk]

I've never set foot in an Ikea. Shipping their shelving units is definitely insane, but for those two desktop organizers it was a $5.99 flat rate for shipping (each); I believe it's sent via UPS. The letter paper organizer is apparently a known "secret" among mini enthusiasts (I literally just learned about it yesterday). I believe some magnetize the shelves and/or customize the shelves in such a way as to accommodate travel.

...do those fit into a cube...?

*runs off to measure*

[Smoove_B]

They fit into Kallax cubes, yes. And box-shaped carrying cases:



Here's the video I watched on Youtube yesterday:

[Blackhawk]

They fit into Kallax cubes, yes.

[Smoove_B]

...and similarly sized non-Kallax options.

[Blackhawk]

...and similarly sized non-Kallax options.

Like the $30-for-six wire cube shelves I have. Which I'm now trying to figure out if I can work into my setup.

[Blackhawk]

Today is the actual 'storage' portion of the house - under the bed plus the junk drawer. It's an easy job. The junk drawer will take about twenty minutes, and the rest is extra blankets, shoes, that sort of thing. I needed a day that didn't involve boxes of books, dragging around furniture, or sorting in a dust cloud for ten hours straight (my back and allergies need a rest.)

That's done. It took longer than I thought, but it was relatively easy work. Each item had to be figured out one by one. The good news is that, other than Michelle's closet stuff (maybe which will take maybe 30 minutes), the bedroom is done being sorted. This has taken weeks, and is probably half of the house's work all by itself. I still have one more day to spend putting things away, as I moved a lot of stuff that is staying to the general vicinity of it's final location, but generally stacked it there. Now I need to get it organized and stowed. But the end is in sight - tomorrow, if I'm lucky.

[Exodor]

We put an offer on a house yesterday. My wife says "we'll definitely need to purge if we move" and I keep pointing out that we can purge whether or not we move. She's more of a packrat but we both have things we never use and we still have some duplicates that are inevitable when two adults merge households. She moved into this place in 2014 and there are still some boxes in the garage from that move.

I plan to spend the day cleaning the garage and getting junk ready to take to goodwill. I made some progress yesterday when I got rid of my gas-powered mower thanks to a "free" sign and a very talkative neighbor. Today I hope to do the same with the bike that's been in the garage for a decade without coming down from the hooks on which it's been hanging.

My wife wants to purge her wall of books since she's now a dedicated e-reader user. With books I usually try to sell them to Powell's but they're pretty picky about what they'll take. The rest go to Goodwill with a count of how many paperbacks and hardcover are in each batch - you can get a pretty decent tax write-off if you keep track of what you donate to Goodwill (at least you could pre-Trump tax plan. The standard deduction is so high now that I don't generally itemize on my federal return but it still helps with the Oregon return).

[YellowKing]

We put an offer on a house yesterday. My wife says "we'll definitely need to purge if we move" and I keep pointing out that we can purge whether or not we move. She's more of a packrat but we both have things we never use and we still have some duplicates that are inevitable when two adults merge households. She moved into this place in 2014 and there are still some boxes in the garage from that move.

Moving was truly the only thing that finally motivated my wife to actually purge. We were in our old house 18 years, and the garage full of useless crap we had was easily the single biggest stress point of our marriage during that entire time. Over the course of that time we'd get rid of a bit of it here and there, but it would get junked back up, and she always had an excuse as to why the job was just too big to tackle.

Physically having to move it ourselves from the old house to a storage unit, and from the storage unit to our rental, really opened her eyes to what I had been saying all along. But she just had to realize it in her own time.

[hitbyambulance]

this thread has spurred me to reach out to an ADHD-focused 'home tidying' service. i am what i'd call a 'horizontal organizer' but it's gotten out of control these last few months. i need intervention, so it's time to seek the assistance of professionals

Congrats on recognizing this and good luck!

had the initial consult with the organizing expert just now. my bedroom is definitely too cramped (it's not that big to begin with) what with the three desks in here. i am on the verge of admitting one of the desks can just gooooooo away. i'm going to set up a first appointment (three hour session) with one of her employees just to kickstart this whole thing.