Things you want to declutter but can’t

[Katy]

I’ve been on a decluttering kick this year and I’m down to linens and junk in the basement and garage. We have these quilts from DH’s grandmother. I don’t mean nice cotton ones, which are heirlooms. I mean ones made from 1970’s itchy polyester. They’re ugly and uncomfortable. They take up more than half my linen closet & all the shelving in every kid’s closet. And we still get at least one at every holiday and birthday. DH has graciously let me declutter a lot of junk she’s given us from church craft fairs, but these were made by her. Somehow even I know not to ask, they’re not going anywhere. 
 

What do you wish you could declutter?

[Drama Llama]

Could you borrow one of those bag things that sucks all the air out and makes things much smaller for storage? 

I tend to get rid of things too fast but I really wish my house had less sports/exercise equipment. but I probably shouldn’t declutter stuff my kids use every day.

[Bambam]

I'd have to ask if we could give them to an orphan's home - or we have a couple of different homes here where women, some with kids, are trying to develop some skills and become independent. Think what a homemade quilt would be like there! 

But I hear you. I probably have 15 quilts my mom made -many are cotton and took hours to make, but they are all twin size, so of limited use here.  But I keep them anyway. 

[Shoeless]

I wish I could declutter 90% of the stuff out inlaws gave us. They give lamps, chairs, prints for the walls, brass doo-dads from the 1980s. Everytime my husband sees his mom without me, he comes back with a carload of furnishings. 

I have gotten rid of some of it, and I think that finally, FINALLY DH might be ready to get rid of more of it. 

[mlktwins]

My DH helped me clean out my dad's home of 50+ years in 2018-2019.  It was EYE OPENING!  And his parents are still in their house of 50+ years.  It is gonna be a nightmare to clean that out too!

So...with our newfound perspective on "stuff," lots of those quilts would be leaving our house.  Period -- LOL.  But...in your case, I would probably have him pick his favorite 3-5 and donate the rest to a lovely charity!  And...I 2nd getting those bags where the air is sucked out and the quilts will be really compressed for easier storage!

 

[Guest]

Here’s the short list of things I wish I could declutter:

Our wedding china (weirdly, dh wants to keep it.)

My mother’s wedding gown (how did this get “passed down” to me???)

Dh’s big-assed box of Sport Aviation magazines, which are not even recent within the last decade

Unnecessary building materials

[prairiewindmomma]

kid toys

scooters (aren't used anymore)

some of dh's stuff--he has duplicates and triplicates of things he doesn't use

archival papers documenting ds's high school years (won't get rid of these until he has a BA)

We've had some major cross-country relos so we are pretty light on stuff right now, all things considered.  If we had to do another relo, I think we could jettison some more, but it'd be heirloom furniture that I feel sentimental about but isn't essential for living.  If we had an international move, we could pretty much suitcase it + pay for one cargo pod and rebuy furniture on the other side without feeling a lot of angst.

[Kassia]

Oh gosh, just about everything.  DH wants to declutter but can't part with anything - either it has sentimental value or we might need it someday or it has value and he wants to sell it.  I've practically given up on trying because most of the stuff I set aside ends up back where I started from.  It's frustrating!  Our house is absolutely stuffed - every closet, drawer, cabinet, the entire basement, etc. 

 

 

[Katy]

7 minutes ago, Quill said:

Here’s the short list of things I wish I could declutter:

Our wedding china (weirdly, dh wants to keep it.)

My mother’s wedding gown (how did this get “passed down” to me???)

Dh’s big-assed box of Sport Aviation magazines, which are not even recent within the last decade

Unnecessary building materials

Oh I forgot the china!  DH won’t let me donate that either. He knows we’ll never use it again because lead, but I got offered a few hundred for it by replacements.com. I then figured out it would take more than $30 in packing materials & $65+ to ship, and they won’t take anything imperfect so we’d probably lose money on sending it. But he still thinks “worth a few hundred!”   Maybe now that shipping costs have quadrupled he’ll let me give it to goodwill. 
 

Does your local library subscribe to that magazine?  I’ve used that to get DH to toss those. 

[Katy]

32 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Could you borrow one of those bag things that sucks all the air out and makes things much smaller for storage? 

I tend to get rid of things too fast but I really wish my house had less sports/exercise equipment. but I probably shouldn’t declutter stuff my kids use every day.

I tried it with one. It didn’t shrink it much and made it a bit more difficult to stack. That polyester layer alone is probably more than 1/4” thick. 

[Drama Llama]

Just now, Katy said:

I tried it with one. It didn’t shrink it much and made it a bit more difficult to stack. That polyester layer alone is probably more than 1/4” thick. 

Sorry.  I was so hopeful that I'd solved your problem!

[Katy]

4 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Sorry.  I was so hopeful that I'd solved your problem!

Honestly DH is pretty reasonable. When all our kids are through the night accident stage of potty training and his grandmother is gone he’ll probably let the kids have their favorites and let me donate the rest. It’s just really annoying in the meantime. 

[Garga]

The shed. Not just the stuff in it, but the stuff in it and the shed itself as well.  It’s just big and ugly and filled with junky stuff. 

It’s about half the size of the house, and would probably cost thousands to have removed.  Besides, we do actually need to store the lawnmower and other things in there. So...it stays.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s huge and takes up more than half of the yard and is filled with a lot of junky stuff and I wish I could declutter it.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Garga

[SKL]

The crap that the other adults living here have accumulated.

I have my own issues, but certain other people's hoards make me look like a monk by comparison.

[Drama Llama]

14 minutes ago, Garga said:

The shed. Not just the stuff in it, but the stuff in it and the shed itself as well.  It’s just big and ugly and filled with junky stuff. 

It’s about half the size of the house, and would probably cost thousands to have removed.  Besides, we do actually need to store the lawnmower and other things in there. So...it stays.

But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s huge and takes up more than half of the yard and is filled with a lot of junky stuff and I wish I could declutter it.

Maybe you could rent out some of the shed space for quilt storage, and use the money for a beautiful mural on the side?  Win/Win?

[SKL]

Oh, and old work and nonprofit board stuff.  I'm pretty good about keeping most things electronic only, but I have a couple stacks of client CDs and file boxes full of mostly old bank statements.  Wondering when I can throw them out, if ever, or mail them back to the client.  The files on the CDs remain relevant for at least 8-9 years.  I have most of the data on my PC, but I am still afraid that the day after I toss them, I'll suddenly need them and get in trouble for it.

[SKL]

And yeah, expensive gifts that nobody should have bought me.  Like, I have this beautiful leather planner that my brother bought me like 20 years ago.  I never took it out of the box.  The other day, I was cleaning out the cabinet where that is stored, and I decided I could take out the dated calendar/planner pages and still keep the rest, so I put it back in the box in case anyone would ever want to use it in the future.  (I did finally throw out a very expensive Franklin Planner set that another person bought me.  That one I asked for, so I felt extra guilty, but I never used it, and it got damaged in storage.)

[MEmama]

The boxes of misc cords, chargers and misc bits of computers/old TV/ no one remembers what any more. Why oh why must we keep them?

Pottery. Why does everyone want to give us bowls and platters? They are lovely, but I don’t use them, don’t like to display stuff and don’t want them. 
 

Quilts. Good gosh we have so many quilts. MIL has ummm...gaudy bright....taste in materials and has gifted us endless numbers of blankets that we will never use. Also old wool blankets that I’ve become sensitive to.

Old books. I am so not a collector.

Boxes of those Christmas village houses that MIL forced on gave me when DS was young and I’ve never put out. 

And now I am inspired to tackle more spaces tomorrow! 
 

 

[Storygirl]

My email inbox. I am terrible at managing it and have almost 5,000 emails. The last time I tried to do a big purge, I accidentally managed to cut about 1,000 at one time, including some that were important, so I'm afraid to try again.

[cjzimmer1]

59 minutes ago, Thatboyofmine said:

Tools.  Omg.    Why on earth does a household need 7 screwdrivers that are the same size?    What is up with that???

In my house, the answer would be because 6 of them are wherever they were last used and not where I want to use it now.

[Spryte]

China from the 1800s.  We will never, never use it.  And more china, so much china.
 

4, yes 4, silver coffee services.  Why do we need them?  Because they once belonged to this or that relative?  Because they are old?

 

My grandmother’s hand sewn trousseau, which is beautiful, but really, what do I do with it? She was the size of a tiny matchstick, and who would want to wear it anyway?  

 

Lots of stuff like that.  And many old papers.  Like wedding things from my long divorced parents. 
 

Old, very old books.  
 

Then, last week I almost tossed a decorative pitcher from SE Asia, from a gift shop.  A sort of unkind relative had given it to me, told me that’s where it came from, and honestly looking at it made me feel bad.  I liked the look, but the way it was given was kind of, “here this has no value, you take it.” I literally had it in a trash bag when DH looked it up, and nope.  It’s from Mexico, by a mid century designer I like!  The same vase is selling for $4 - 600 on EBay now.  Suddenly that vase is beautiful, and it kind of makes me laugh to see it in our dining room now.   
 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Katy said:

Oh I forgot the china!  DH won’t let me donate that either. He knows we’ll never use it again because lead, but I got offered a few hundred for it by replacements.com. I then figured out it would take more than $30 in packing materials & $65+ to ship, and they won’t take anything imperfect so we’d probably lose money on sending it. But he still thinks “worth a few hundred!”   Maybe now that shipping costs have quadrupled he’ll let me give it to goodwill. 
 

Does your local library subscribe to that magazine?  I’ve used that to get DH to toss those. 

I think his main reason for clinging to those magazines is because of the showplane-building memories he has with his (now deceased) father. I just let him. But I do hope that when we, at some point, move to a smaller house, he will admit they serve no benefit. 

[Spryte]

2 minutes ago, Storygirl said:

My email inbox. I am terrible at managing it and have almost 5,000 emails. The last time I tried to do a big purge, I accidentally managed to cut about 1,000 at one time, including some that were important, so I'm afraid to try again.

I have the solution for that!

Remember Inbox Zero?  
 

I have embraced a new one ... Inbox Infinity.  😱

Seriously.  I just gave up.  Eventually I’ll archive it all and start over.

Maybe.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Storygirl said:

My email inbox. I am terrible at managing it and have almost 5,000 emails. The last time I tried to do a big purge, I accidentally managed to cut about 1,000 at one time, including some that were important, so I'm afraid to try again.

Not to preach from my high horse, but this used to be me and it’s not anymore. I made removing emails down to zero unreads a regularly-occurring edict on my Habit app. At the moment I have 129 and that’s a lot. Every few days I direct them all to subfiles, act on the starred ones and delete the rest. 

[Ausmumof3]

21 minutes ago, Spryte said:

I have the solution for that!

Remember Inbox Zero?  
 

I have embraced a new one ... Inbox Infinity.  😱

Seriously.  I just gave up.  Eventually I’ll archive it all and start over.

Maybe.

Yep.  Also my email is on both phone and laptop and if I delete from the phone they just redownload.  And phone is 99pc the way I check email because it’s much quicker and more convenient.

[Ausmumof3]

Kitchen chairs and couch.  Unfortunately the budget won’t stretch to replacing them right now.  
 

also books.  Lots of books.  And the only person stopping me is myself. 

[mom2scouts]

2 hours ago, Kassia said:

Oh gosh, just about everything.  DH wants to declutter but can't part with anything - either it has sentimental value or we might need it someday or it has value and he wants to sell it.  I've practically given up on trying because most of the stuff I set aside ends up back where I started from.  It's frustrating!  Our house is absolutely stuffed - every closet, drawer, cabinet, the entire basement, etc. 

 

 

Oh, I understand. Dh's idea of decluttering is moving stuff around the room. He started selling metal for scrap and he also finds tons of still good stuff and brings it all home. Some of it we can actually use, but most of it is junk I don't want. I spend lots of time decluttering my stuff, but it feels like a waste of time. I hate clutter and it really stresses me out. I've managed to keep all the main living areas decluttered, but he's filled the shed, garage, and basement with other people's clutter! In a few years we'll be empty nesters and have talked about moving and it will be a nightmare. Recently a neighbor died and the wife brought in a huge dumpster and emptied out so much stuff from her small house and I keep telling dh that it's what I'll need to do if something happens to him!

I do have control over my email. I have 26 emails in my inbox right now. I regularly act, delete, or file them.

Edited February 26, 2021 by mom2scouts

[Annie G]

I come from a long line of quilters, and I would not want someone to keep something just because I made it.  I’ve made a ton and when we moved I took photos of them all, picked a few to keep, and donated the rest. Made a Shutterfly book of my quilts, and haven’t looked back. In your case, I’d keep one for each family member and photograph the rest, then donate. Maybe dh would be on board with that. 
 

Dh and I have a deal- I don’t decluttering his stuff and he doesn’t bother me about my stuff. But if I COULD decluttering something, it would be his books. Thousands of them. There are tons he’ll never read again or even refer to, but he stubbornly keeps them. And my desire for an uncluttered house is thus unfulfilled. 

[Katy]

37 minutes ago, Annie G said:

I come from a long line of quilters, and I would not want someone to keep something just because I made it.  I’ve made a ton and when we moved I took photos of them all, picked a few to keep, and donated the rest. Made a Shutterfly book of my quilts, and haven’t looked back. In your case, I’d keep one for each family member and photograph the rest, then donate. Maybe dh would be on board with that. 
 

Dh and I have a deal- I don’t decluttering his stuff and he doesn’t bother me about my stuff. But if I COULD decluttering something, it would be his books. Thousands of them. There are tons he’ll never read again or even refer to, but he stubbornly keeps them. And my desire for an uncluttered house is thus unfulfilled. 

I don’t touch his stuff and he doesn’t touch mine, but he sometimes objects to me getting rid of my stuff. Like books. 

[Selkie]

Nothing. Dh and I are both minimalists by nature, and we've been on a pretty brutal Swedish Death Cleaning spree lately (inspired by the packed-to-the-gills house FIL left behind when he died). We got rid of all the family heirlooms that never got used and no one wanted - china, silver, linens, artwork - and also our own wedding china and crystal. Plus lots and lots of books. I gave it all to a store that benefits a cause near and dear to my heart (animal rescue). It is so nice having all the empty cabinet and closet space now.

[Kassia]

10 hours ago, mom2scouts said:

Oh, I understand. Dh's idea of decluttering is moving stuff around the room. He started selling metal for scrap and he also finds tons of still good stuff and brings it all home. Some of it we can actually use, but most of it is junk I don't want. I spend lots of time decluttering my stuff, but it feels like a waste of time. I hate clutter and it really stresses me out. I've managed to keep all the main living areas decluttered, but he's filled the shed, garage, and basement with other people's clutter! In a few years we'll be empty nesters and have talked about moving and it will be a nightmare. Recently a neighbor died and the wife brought in a huge dumpster and emptied out so much stuff from her small house and I keep telling dh that it's what I'll need to do if something happens to him!

I do have control over my email. I have 26 emails in my inbox right now. I regularly act, delete, or file them.

We are very similar.  I don't like the clutter and keep my stuff as decluttered as possible (although he doesn't even like it when I get rid of some of my own things!).  We want to move (our youngest just started college) and he is really trying harder to work on decluttering since he knows there's no way we're moving all of this stuff.  Like you, it feels like a waste of time when I declutter but I still do it a little at a time.

I am really careful with email, but I have a lot more in my inbox than you.  I am happy when it's at 150 and get stressed when it goes over 200.  DH has thousands of unread emails and never gets rid of any!  That would drive me crazy!  

[alisoncooks]

I'm a habitual purger, and I did a big clean/donation) last March when we got new carpet (right before the thrift stores shut down).

That said: my bedroom closet! Yikes. So much stuff. Floor to ceiling. And I don't know how to make it better because it holds clothes, homeschool stuff, tools, a cabinet and printer, all of DH's hobby equipment, winter coats. Everything that our 1000sqft-no garage house doesn't have storage for --it's in there. 

[gardenmom5]

Since I've been feeling better - I'm back to decluttering.  Most things, I'm just sending to goodwill or the neighborhood "but nothing" pages. It bugs me when I send people my address to come pick it up, it's on my porch -and they never show up.   But a few I've sold.  I've given up on half-price books, i'd rather send books to goodwill.   Or my homeschool bookstore.  I had curriculum from 2ds.  

but there's some stuff I can't do anything about.  Like

dh's bookcases . . .. . and file cabinets . . . ..

building materials . . . . (I've been promised they'll go soon.  I've got plans for some of it.  but I'll really lay into the garage in the summer.  I've done things to dry out the unused paint so it can be thrown away.)

I have a quit top (never made into a quilt) made by my great-grandmother for my mother when she got married.  the rows around the edge just clash something fierce - and I'm would have to rip them off before I would have it made into a quilt).  And my mom's baby quilt, and a couple sun-faded quilts made by my grandmother.  they've been in my cedar chest for 35 years, and I just don't know what to do with them.

then there is 2ds's treadmill he almost never uses.   

I have some things i need to sell.

[mlktwins]

I have a lot to declutter of my stuff and, after seeing and going through the process of cleaning out my dad's (and deceased mom's) house/stuff of 50+ years, going through an estate sale, seeing what things actually sold for, etc., I will just be tossing a lot of it or giving to charity.  It is not worth the time to maintain, store, or try and sell (for the most part) as people don't want to pay what things might be worth.  

I am working on getting our old homeschool stuff out the door.  My guys are almost through 10th grade and I have no littles.  Out is is going!

I am spending a little time each day trying to organize my computer files and email.  And...making sure it is backed up.  I have a lot of important stuff on my computer - school records and work (for high school), taxes, bank info, etc.  I'm also trying to scan in and shred old paperwork.  It will make it easier for DH to find stuff if I am gone 😋!  I pick one folder, etc. and go through it. I organize, delete, move files/emails to their appropriate place and call it done.  On to the next one.  And...I'm now very careful where I save and how I handle new documents/pictures/emails to stay on top of the current stuff.

[marbel]

Anything that is owned, or treasured, or just liked by my husband and children. They are all packrats. 

Oh, the boxes of cables! 

Edited February 26, 2021 by marbel

[mom2scouts]

1 hour ago, Kassia said:

We are very similar.  I don't like the clutter and keep my stuff as decluttered as possible (although he doesn't even like it when I get rid of some of my own things!).  We want to move (our youngest just started college) and he is really trying harder to work on decluttering since he knows there's no way we're moving all of this stuff.  Like you, it feels like a waste of time when I declutter but I still do it a little at a time.

I am really careful with email, but I have a lot more in my inbox than you.  I am happy when it's at 150 and get stressed when it goes over 200.  DH has thousands of unread emails and never gets rid of any!  That would drive me crazy!  

Ha! We should get our dh's together and they can compare their junk piles and overflowing email.

[mom2scouts]

When dh's parents died, it took so much time to clean out their house. We all went through the paperwork, took just a few things, and then left everything else for an estate sale. My mom has OCD and immediately gets rid of anything she isn't using. Cleaning out my parents house will easily be done in a day. 

[Carrie12345]

Books are still mocking me.

Dh finally decided it was time to declutter his drawers, closet, and nightstand. (Not just clothes. He shoves everything in these places. So do I, but less and more organized.) I was so excited, but he didn’t want me to help. He got rid of a GIANT garbage bag of stuff and it all still looks the same. Now he’s away on business and my bedroom still looks almost like I live with a frat boy.
I’m not completely above trying to catch him on the phone in a very busy moment and get him to give me the go ahead to do as I see fit. 😛 

[mlktwins]

45 minutes ago, marbel said:

Oh, the boxes of cables! 

I have 3 boxes of cords, cables, etc. from dad's house in my basement.  I think it is going in the trash soon!  I will never figure out what it all goes to.  And...he is moved into his apartment and we have his tv and computer running.  So...out they go -- LOL!

I have been labeling my own cords since I cleaned out my dad's house -- LOL!

[mlktwins]

32 minutes ago, mom2scouts said:

When dh's parents died, it took so much time to clean out their house. We all went through the paperwork, took just a few things, and then left everything else for an estate sale. My mom has OCD and immediately gets rid of anything she isn't using. Cleaning out my parents house will easily be done in a day. 

Maybe the OCD isn't a good thing overall ???, but it is awesome that it will be easy to clean out your parent's place when the time comes.  I still have some PTSD from having to go through my dad's house.  My in-laws will be just the same.  My DH was complaining about all my dad's crap as we were getting rid of stuff, but now (with COVID) he has been at his parent's house every other day helping to care for them.  He is trying to go through stuff a little each time he goes over.  I'm like I told you it was gonna be the same as my dad's -- LOL.  Unfortunately for me, I am now getting all their paperwork to go through, recycle, shred, organize (ask questions about while they are still alive) as that has not been done in a very long time and is a mess.  Just as I got my dad's stuff all neat and tidy too :-(.

I'm determined not to leave a mess for my boys though!  

[skimomma]

I too have a huge pile of boxes in the attic.  Boxes and boxes of random unsorted paperwork that we took from my mom's house when we moved her into assisted living.  She is a hoarder and has dementia. We simply did not have time to go through the papers to sort out important stuff from junk and she no longer can help.  There is no rhyme or reason to any of it.  I could grab a handful and find a gas bill from 1976, my sister's college report card from 2001, a free car wash certificate from a business the has been closed for longer than I have been alive, some coupons from the 1980s, a few used tissues, and my mom's birth certificate.  Every single cashed check for 50+ years is in there....just sprinkled throughout willy-nilly.  It makes my head hurt to even think about it!  So, it is all in boxes (and boxes and boxes).  We had to rent a minivan to even get it all home and we literally used a shovel to scoop up some of it that had been piled in a closet!  A few times I have had to venture in to find something very important and will sort as I go....but I have picked the right boxes pretty early on so well over half are untouched yet.  So, I *can* declutter this but I really need a full week (month?  year?) to do it properly.   Or I can just wait until she is no longer with us and shred/burn all of it in one fell swoop.  I guess the deciding factor will be if I ever need to move......  It is really not hurting anyone in the attic.  I also have boxes of her china, her parents' china, and her ILs' china.  Of course.  

Then there is clothing.  With everyone working from home, there are entire drawers that have not been opened in a year.  I know we will need that stuff someday....I hope anyway....so I can't declutter it.  But it annoys me to no end.

[BeachGal]

14 hours ago, Thatboyofmine said:

Tools.  Omg.    Why on earth does a household need 7 screwdrivers that are the same size?    What is up with that???

Oh, well now, tools are a different story. 😄 I have a lot of screwdrivers but I do use them. In fact, the two armoires in my dining area secretly hide all of my tools. (We live in a smallish co-op with no garage or basement space.) Yesterday I just finished making some built-in, shallow cabinets for my bedroom and will be hanging them today. Those are for my shoes and thanks to Poshmark, I probably have too many!

The problem in our home is that my husband is more of a maximalist whereas I’m more of a minimalist.

[Lecka]

I have a queen bed in my garage, and some broken patio furniture.  Those are the current things that would really go a long way.  We are really close to being able to park in the garage!  And yet so far away, lol.  We are hoping to tackle that this summer. 

I also have cleaned out a loved one's home.  Wow.  The home always looked lovely, but there was so much storage, it was so full of so much stuff.  It has made me want to go ahead and go through things that "aren't hurting anything."  That -- don't make our house feel cluttered, but could truly go.  

My husband retired from the military last year, and while he has done a good job of going through things, there is still a LOT of stuff that he will clearly never use again, more than is needed to hang on to a few things to be sentimental.  He told me he needed more time.  I think that will be maybe this summer or maybe another year.  

Right now our coat closet is full of a sample of his uniforms, and I would like that space to be available for use as a coat closet.  But we are actually fine with hanging coats in bedroom closets.  That is on my agenda but if it is in even 2-3 years from now, that would really be fine with me.  At that point I think I am going to be feeling like "you haven't touched it in 3 years and I want my coat closet!!!!!!"  

I got rid of a lot of my kids' little-kid items two moves ago.  That was the hardest to do.  Since then -- not nearly as much comes into the house.  

My husband also changed how he participated in his main hobby about 3 years ago, because he realized that his hobby items were just taking up so much space.  He switched to only keeping the best of his hobby material, and he has also cut down on what he purchases, because there is just a limited amount of space for it -- and yet the space for it is ample.  There is just a limit to this ample space.  He used to automatically buy new items, and now he is picky because he can see how he will run out of space if he buys everything, and then he will have to go through and get rid of things -- so he is just being pickier about what he buys in the first place.  

[importswim]

13 hours ago, cjzimmer1 said:

In my house, the answer would be because 6 of them are wherever they were last used and not where I want to use it now.

This is our house with kitchen scissors. Unfortunately, the one pair that doesn't cut well at all (and I want to throw away but DH is resistant to the very thought of it since they were expensive 🙄) are always available and never lost....Sigh.

[Spryte]

I forgot to mention that I have my mom’s entire senior apartment sitting in a storage unit.  She moved out and moved in with us in a huge hurry, and when I packed it up ... I was afraid to be alone in her apartment, so I literally just threw every in boxes.  It’s a mess.

The idea is to have someone move it to our garage to go through it, eventually.

But!  Lucky us, we now have the contents of DH’s parents’ senior apartment sitting in boxes in the garage.  Gaaaah!  So once we sort their stuff, we will get my mom’s.  
 

The fun!  It never ends!

Edited February 26, 2021 by Spryte

[Katy]

57 minutes ago, importswim said:

This is our house with kitchen scissors. Unfortunately, the one pair that doesn't cut well at all (and I want to throw away but DH is resistant to the very thought of it since they were expensive 🙄) are always available and never lost....Sigh.

Those really expensive ones are easy to sharpen and easy to dull. They sell scissors sharpening gadgets on Amazon if you’d rather use that than learn how to use a whetstone or take them to be professionally sharpened. 

You can also order a new cheap pair of paper scissors for the utility drawer from Amazon. Label them kitchen with a sharpie. Buy another pair for boning chicken or such too, store in knife drawer.  

I put the expensive ones with the scissors in my craft area so they aren’t cluttering up my kitchen and they aren’t in the way. If DH wants to take the time to sharpen them properly he’s welcome to swap them out for the cheap kind that are harder to sharpen and harder to dull. 

[DoraBora]

2 hours ago, marbel said:

Oh, the boxes of cables! 

Ugh, the overflowing rubbermaid container of every cable to every device we've ever owned.  Every once in a while, dh can find a cable that can replace one that was lost.  😬  So we keep all of them.

[DoraBora]

1 hour ago, mlktwins said:

I still have some PTSD from having to go through my dad's house. 

I'm determined not to leave a mess for my boys though!  

These.  Exactly.

Edited February 26, 2021 by DoraBora

[DoraBora]

1 hour ago, Spryte said:

I forgot to mention that I have my mom’s entire senior apartment sitting in a storage unit.  She moved out and moved in with us in a huge hurry, and when I packed it up ... I was afraid to be alone in her apartment, so I literally just threw every in boxes.  It’s a mess.

The idea is to have someone move it to our garage to go through it, eventually.

But!  Lucky us, we now have the contents of DH’s parents’ senior apartment sitting in boxes in the garage.  Gaaaah!  So once we sort their stuff, we will get my mom’s.  
 

The fun!  It never ends!

When we cleaned out my mom's house to move her to a senior apartment, we found both grandmothers' stuff in the attic.

[Spryte]

2 minutes ago, DoraBora said:

When we cleaned out my mom's house to move her to a senior apartment, we found both grandmothers' stuff in the attic.

I had to laugh!  Yes!  When I cleaned my mom’s house out to move into the senior apartment we found soooo much stuff in the attic that had belonged to her parents and grandparents.  Eek.  Some of that is still in my basement.  We are just swimming in old folks’ things here.  🤣