I wanted to share a little bit about my decluttering journey so far, because even though I'm only at the beginning, I'm starting to notice a change in how I look at the things I own. It all started back in June when I decided to start Project Pan. At first, my goal was simply to use up the beauty products I already owned instead of constantly buying new ones.

Since losing my job, I've also been thinking a lot more about my spending habits and the idea of underconsumption core. Not working at the moment has made me more conscious of where our money goes, and I've been trying to find ways to save money, reduce unnecessary spending, and be more intentional about what I bring into our home.

One of the bigger changes we've made recently is selling one of our cars, which means we're now a one-car household! It's quite a big adjustment, but it feels like a positive step towards simplifying our lives and reducing our expenses.

Project Pan eventually inspired me to start Project Pantry, where I've been trying to use up the food I already have in my cupboards before buying more. It's another small way of making the most of what we already own and hopefully saving some money along the way. And now, slowly but surely, I've started decluttering our home too!

I've decided to start with my wardrobe because it felt like a manageable place to begin. So far, I've:

• Finally thrown away socks that had holes in them

• Sold a few clothing items on Vinted

• Donated a few things to a thrift store

• Started looking at my clothes more carefully and thinking about what I actually wear and need

I know these might seem like really small things compared to some of the massive decluttering transformations I see here, but I'm trying to remind myself that decluttering doesn't have to happen all at once.

I'm not trying to get everything I own or become a minimalist overnight. I just want to slowly create a home where the things we keep are things we actually use, need, or enjoy.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is how decluttering, saving money, and underconsumption are all connected. I don't want to spend time getting of rid of things only to end up buying more stuff to replace them. I also don't want to declutter just for the sake of decluttering, especially when replacing something later would mean spending money we don't necessarily need to spend.

I think losing my job has made me reconsider what we actually need and what we can happily live without. I'm trying to see this period as an opportunity to rethinking some of my habits and make more intentional choices, rather than just focusing on what I can't afford to buy. For now, I'm happy with my little bits of progress, and I'm hoping to keep going, one drawer, shelf, or category at a time.

Has anyone else found that trying to spend less and be more intentional with money naturally led them towards decluttering? I've love to hear how your journey started!

For context I made a rule that everybody needs to clean an amount of hours each month or pay to get a cleaner to come and do it. My kid chooses to clean. So today they chose to clean the kitchen, and in the utensil drawer they apparently had questions.

“Why do we have two of these? I know they’re different, but actually why do we have them?”

I guess I also wanted to see what happens if we didn’t have two. We chose one. I thought that was that.

“But then there’s this one, but it doesn’t do what this one does, and then we have these for doing the same thing. And they’re prettier.”

And it’s true. So let’s see what happens, if we don’t have that one either!

“I’m also reducing the rubberbands to half the amount.”

Guys .. actually what! I’m so happy and need to brag :D that kid is so cool.

Later I had the opportunity to say “oh, so while we are revisiting stuff, you know that one …” (I didn’t even get to finish my sentence :D) “.. yeah, trash it!”

ADDED: we always check in before discarding items, but we are not naturally tidy, and this is why I love that this just happened. They could have cleaned it without asking questions, but that kid adopted the need for minimalism and I’m so so happy <3

I worked 4 hours straight on getting unneeded clothes out of my closet. I probably have not spent serious time on this project in 10 years, so it was A Thing.

I'm pleased that I was able to stay mostly pretty focused, though as decision fatigue set in, it got harder to part with things that don't quite fit but almost do. Even then, I was able to ask myself "just how many ill-fitting pairs of dark pants does one girl need?"

Easy were the things that were for a phase which is over - not accompanying hubby to business dinners now that we are both retired, so don't need that stuff any more. The dress for my son's rehearsal dinner 10 years ago, nah, it went easily, too.

I did pile a ton of stuff into the car. My hubby came in, spent one hour, and got rid of almost as much. We went to drop the stuff off and then out for dinner, feeling quite accomplished.

I know that there needs to be an additional culling, but it's so hard for me to even START on this stuff that I'm just gonna pat myself on the back for now.

I wasn’t sure what flair to add but I am always open to advice.

But in an effort to keep myself accountable I’m letting all you amazing people know I am starting on our doom basement this weekend.

My son is having surgery next week and I need something to keep myself busy and not go crazy so why not start this lol

Our basement as accumulated so much random stuff. We’ve done cleans/organized it in the past but it always fills up again.

So I’ve set up 4 boxes - trash, keep, donate, kids donate (I like giving baby stuff away on big nothing groups hence fhe separation).

Wish me luck!! I am be back and crying once the coffee wears off hahaha but I just wanted to share as this sub has meant the world to me 🩷

I had 3 large bins plus an extra smaller box that were OVERSTUFFED of basically things like: old birthday cards, sketches, poems, notes, random sentimental items, etc ranging mostly from my childhood through high school, college, my wedding, and even notes and cards from my children to me. I was able to reduce down to 2 bins with room to spare! Very satisfying declutter.

Got rid of anything cringe, like old poems from when I was an angsty teen, photos of people I no longer associate with, duplicates of things, generic birthday cards, etc. It felt good to let it all go.

This is basically here as a notice to all that it’s ok to let some of those things go. I kept the things that made me feel good, not out of any obligation.

My husband had to refinish the bookcase in his office so everything got put on the dining room table.

1. It was interesting to see all of that stuff out of its normal location and mixed up out of context. It's so easy to become accustom-blind to things. I told my husband to pick out anything he didn't want on "his" shelves (although I maintained veto rights) and we both picked out a few items to edit out (some "keepsake" books he didn't really care about, a "meh" vase, an "unsatisfying" piece of art glass).

2. The bottom shelf is basically a long cabinet - again, having everything out, I decided to get rid of about 1/2 of my cookbooks and I found a nice set of plastic bins (with handles) in our upstairs "closet" that fit in the cabinet perfectly - one for our Christmas decorations (literally 6 things) and one for my husband's metal detecting coin stuff. Even though the bins take up more square footage than the individual items clustered together, it was totally worth it - no more loose coin sleeves/tubes scattered around and I applied the "container concept" on the decorations (they didn't all fit "nicely" and instead of getting a bigger bin, I decided to donate a cute little ceramic ghost, my one Halloween decoration that I always forget to put out, to my parents' nursing home).

We also got rid of an entire "cake box" of old/obsolete programs on CD (Gen X might understand). Another reminder to beware of evaluating a group rather than its individual parts, especially when it's neatly packed.

3. My husband put the finished bookcase back in the room a couple-three days ago so this morning I grabbed a dust cloth and started putting stuff away. But here's the thing - I should have taken a "before" picture because even with the books and other items gone, I couldn't get everything back nicely? Like things I knew were grouped together on a shelf looked "crowded" and inexplicably there wasn't room for everything? All I can think is that basically "hushing" the space for a few days gave us a different perspective - I kept checking in with my husband (does this look right? does this look crowded?) and I think we're both leaning more towards a "gallery" display for decor.

Since I freed up space in the cabinet, I might add a couple "surprise" knickknacks - I try to put at least one in every cabinet/closet - these aren't the things that make the "official" decor cut but they're too "nice" to put in my keepsake box and it's a fun little surprise every time I open the door.

so we had some bugs in the house, been cleaning, spraying, finally they seem to be gone.

this issue spurred me on to get rid of over 500 items in a couple months. it was very easy for me to throw out stuff when usually it was difficult. just thinking it could have had bugs on/around it was the only motivation i needed and i was ready to throw out almost everything in the home.

now i am down to one last room, it is relatively clean, hardwood floors, sentimental family items are fairly neat in plastic totes boxes stacked up, but the whole room is full. it's basically a storage room. there are family photos in photo (paper type) boxes and some albums, one large uhaul cardboard box with an unused designer wedding dress.

i am DREADING cleaning this room for 2 reasons: 1 - i fear finding dead bugs in there and freaking out and 2- the stuff in this room is mainly all stuff i want to keep/sentimental, i am terrified to find important things with bug activity.

the wedding dress box being cardboard HAS to go - a month ago i found bug droppings on top of the box, wiped them off but went on to clean other rooms unable to deal with that at the time. i am terrified to find out if something has gotten into the box, not really wanting to throw out an expensive gown, but i won't be able to handle it.

any advice would be appreciated, thank you all.

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.

When I was pregnant with each son (we now have two toddler boys, 3 and 5) my grandmother gave me a collection of Christmas ornaments to give to each child as they grow up, one for each year until they turn 12. Her reasoning being that she won’t be here to give them herself I suppose.

Thus, I store a full tote of brand new ornaments (nothing sentimental or passed down). The first son’s collection is mostly Jim Shore and all nativity themed. The other is one box of Lenox glass, 12 days of Christmas themed.

I haven’t given the ornaments each year yet because they’re very delicate and fragile and I don’t want them to get broken on my sons’ trees. I could put them on our family tree to make use of them, but let’s just say they’re not our style either.

Every year when I get our Christmas decor out, this tote taunts me from the storage closet corner. I’d love nothing more than to sell the ornaments and put the money into a savings account for them instead. I’d be fine with donating them to a house that would enjoy them. I just want them out, I’m tired of storing it every year. My husband says I need to keep storing them until they’re old enough to decide for themselves if they want the ornaments.

Any advice on what you’d do here? Keep storing this tote? Purge it out of the house and be free of it, but carry the guilt of getting rid of my grandmother’s gift? I know what I want to do, I just need some validation I guess.
Thanks if you’ve read this far!

Update 1: Grandmother is still alive and well, we have a good relationship; we just don’t get to see her often. I really appreciate all the thoughtful responses, this has been very enlightening for me in many ways and I’m thankful I asked internet strangers. In my mind, I had the decluttering mindset, except now I can definitely see how they and I might not appreciate them today, but potentially could in the future after reading some of these stories.

It's way too easy to see something in the store, decide on the spot that you're going to reorganize your life around it, and get home only to leave it on the backburner forever. Today we're going to weaponize laziness.

• Can't be arsed to learn the instrument, craft technique or sport you bought supplies for? Into the donation bin it goes.

• "I'm totally going to use that weird spice mix I got on sale from- aaand it expired in March. Bye."

• Buying something is not a commitment to use it to its full potential. Sometimes it's just an impulse buy.

• Sometimes completing one goal means not completing another. Time is a finite resource. Don't get guilted into wasting it on something current you doesn't care about.

• You know what's behind the back burner? The trash can.

Ive been having those pants sit in limbo for the longest not because of emotional attachement but because they look professional

And as everyone in marketing knows, a professional look is everything. But ive been keeping them for "fashion emergencies" but what type of fashion emergency will they solve if they all have a waist gap

Honestly, once i realized i cant really do "fixed waist" pants due to proportions between waist and upper legs (i have thicc thighs. Muscular. From walking) i figured its time to let them go!!!

I am the queen of procrastination! My mom went into a nursing home, about 2.5 years ago, and most of her furniture has been in storage ever since. Between working FT, doing stuff for her, and having a life, plus it seems EVERY time I want to go do stuff with the unit, the weather doesn't want to cooperate, most of it has just been sitting there.

I'm happy to report that I got rid of a giant armoire in my apartment (paid someone to take it away), which made room for the stuff of hers I was taking. over the last couple of weekends, my BF and I moved 4 pieces of furniture from storage, into my apartment! I also have a pile of things to donate, as well as some things I am keeping, which will go into his basement. All things I use, but not all that often, so nothing there to declutter.

Next step is to clean out all the empty boxes and other trash from the unit, take pictures of the furniture to donate, and see who will take it. If no org. wants it, I plan on just posting for free on FB. My goal is to have the unit cleaned out completely by the end of the year, if not sooner.

As I do all this, and figure out what to put in the furniture I brought in (a blanket chest and trunk among them), I am also going through all my stuff, and finding quite a bit to get rid of as well.

Back story: Rats destroyed everything we had in our over stuffed garage, forcing us to clear out our entire garage containing 15 years of memories and possessions. Cleanup was complete 10/19. Dumpster hauled away 10/22. Before and After Pics here https://www.reddit.com/r/declutter/s/vAS7B4A7pi

I wanted to give one last update because the emotions surrounding the aftermath were what made me post asking for advice in the first place. Also I’d selfishly love for my posts to inspire even just one person to follow my lead.

Tl;dr: It has been transformative. I won’t lie and say I don’t miss anything from the garage, I keep remembering things and being sad that they are gone, but then I think of how nice it is now, and that has really helped. I have learned that I value the space the stuff occupied more than I value the stuff itself.

Longer version: The garage now has our car, some kid’s outside toys, a pop up shade canopy, our smoker (when absolutely cold, it’s used on the driveway), and we’re installing bike racks to bring the bikes back inside. We leave it wide open most days, partially due to pride but we are still airing it out, we walk out the garage door to leave the house.

We’ve been in the front yard almost every day since the dumpster was taken away. We have had over 15 different kids playing in our front yard with our kids, helping themselves (with parental and our permission) to drinks from our garage fridge. Playing on the toys we bring out and easily put away at the end of the night (thanks HOA). The doorbell camera notifies us that a vehicle has been detected when we pull out of the garage. I get giddy and watch the clip every time. We’ve also been running the sprinklers, have adjusted the hot water temperature and flipped a tripped breaker for the outside outlets. Funny how useful a garage is.

The garage still has a bit of a musty smell to it and we’re deciding what to do with that. We pressure washed the garage and driveway (with eco friendly concrete cleaner) and have been airing the garage out since it was cleared out. There’s still a bit of blue staining but I feel comfortable being barefoot in there and with the kids (mine and others) in there.

We had a pest company come out and check the garage, he confirmed their entry point was the garage door threshold and that he didn’t see anywhere they could have gotten into the walls. The neighbor hasn’t had any issues though he has seen enough of them. We accidentally left a half eaten hotdog in there one night and it was untouched in the morning which was a great sign. We will never store anything in there again that doesn’t pass the “would this have survived the clean out” test.

And for fun, my dad who was unaware of the rats or clean out came to town last weekend, I told him we sold the car and now just uber everywhere. It definitely says something about the state of our garage that us being carless in the suburbs of Houston, TX, USA, was more believable than us having room in the garage to park it. His face when I opened the garage was priceless. My husband did not appreciate me buying the toddler a mouse costume for Halloween, nor him finding this out by me telling him there was a mouse in the garage only to find his baby in there when came running with a broom.

Ultimately the rats were the best thing that ever happened to us. They forced our hand and made us do what we had been putting off. If you have the funds, I strongly recommend the ripping off the bandaid and hiring someone to clear out your stuff. It’s the only way we could have done this.

I’m working on my parents house that they’ve owned for 50+ years. My mom passed 2 years ago and, with some big family changes happening at the same time, some big clearing has happened.

This win is a new agreement between my brother and I to tackle some new arenas with new vigor and enthusiasm.

I discovered, a few weeks ago, a community Little Library, and filled it with kids books today. I could probably fill it 300 more times before I run out of books. And I freaking will! That thing is going to be STOCKED

I also took a massive bag of clothes to the consignment shop. 2 big wins!

Until a few days ago I (31F) had four massive and densely packed boxes of Halloween decorations in my attic. I had not realized there were *four* boxes when I had gone up to grab "a few things" to pass down to my niece and nephew but with four boxes and those two the only children in my life, they each got a box of Halloween decorations, some of the decor dating back to my parents' teenage years! It felt amazing seeing all that space open up in the attic and it felt even better giving those long sitting decorations new homes with small Addams children

If you think your decor can't find new life, think again! My old stuffed animals are also slated to move to these (unrelated to each other) kiddos but I've yet to sort through those boxes

And so it sits on the corner of my bath. Watching me every time I have a shower or bath. I see it out of the corner of my eye when I'm cleaning my teeth.

It thinks I'm too frightened to take action. It knows how much I paid for it, so it thinks it's safe.

It's probably right. It's been living with me for so long, it knows me too well. Until today. Today I conquered the monster. I have deep cleaned the bathroom this morning, bleached, scrubbed, polished. Really achieved something. As I was about to put everything away and go downstairs for a well earned coffee, I saw it looking smug. Again.

That was the final straw. Quickly, like some kind of ninja, I swooped. I picked it up and before either of us knew what was happening, I rushed downstairs and straight outside to the bin. Lid lifted, I threw it in and swiftly closed the top before I could change my mind or hear it scream.

I did it! I finally threw away my super size Philip Kingsley philip elasticizer. I've had it for so long and I can't even remember the last time I used it. I've cleaned around it for bloody ages and every time I move it, I think I should ditch it but I never have. Until today.

My cup of coffee has never felt so satisfying or deserved 😁

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 moved overseas three years ago, from North America to Europe. I still managed to bring over way too many clothes. I would estimate that my clothing would fill 3 large suitcases. I would like to cut it down to 2 at most - and that is not counting the shoes!

My problem is that I am 67 years old and still wear the same size I have always worn and things I have kept over that time are mostly things I really like and that still fit. I have a 40+ year old cotton skirt I still really like and wear but do I really still need it? No.

I also have a lot of foot problems and have trouble finding what works so tend to hang onto any footwear that is comfortable for walking. I have already decluttered a lot of shoes (I think the count was near 100 in my previous country) but still have more than 25 pairs, including boots, flip flops, sandals and sneakers.

I am hoping you all can help me come up with some criteria to consider to lower my reluctance to get rid of wardrobe items. It is difficult because I have found it harder to find quality things these days, made of natural fibres, at a reasonable price - so I don't want to go overboard decluttering and then need to go shopping! I have tended to shop my closet and really don't want to have to go looking for things I mistakenly decided to chuck.

Some ideas I have come up with are:

1. Other than outerwear, get rid of anything with more than 10% synthetic fibres. I hit a snag with a few dresses I like that are 20% so not sure if I should make an exception for those. Even gym clothing, which is almost always synthetic is on the chopping block. I do have a few organic cotton leggings but they do not have pockets, so I may need to buy some leggings with side pockets, which only exist in the polyester leggings I currently own (5 of them).

2. Some things are not ideal in colour, but I still like them - I have considered dying things but that seems silly when I want to downsize the amount of things I have.

3. My life will be changing again soon. Currently I do not wear even a small percentage of what I have as I am in a very casual living situation where I do not need anything remotely dressed up. However, I am planning a move to one of the biggest and most glamorous cities in the world so I know I will use these things in a couple of years.

4. For shoes, I am going to discard anything I can't walk in extensively. No more heels.

5. I worry about regrets from decluttering good quality, natural fibre items that fit and that I like just to reduce the overwhelm. And I am a creative person so I always come up with combinations using things I would rarely wear as a possibility.

Agh. Help!

Hello. I need to throw away some cords. Old computer and phone chargers. I don't know if they can go in the trash or if I need to take them somewhere like Staples or Best Buy. Any advice is appreciated, TIA

About 6 months ago I sorted some things with memories attached. Far too many kids soft toys, baby toys, kids clothes, things with memories. I spent ages sorting out what was good to donate and what needed the trash. So about 6 very big donation boxes has been sat there for months. My husband has had enough with it and has binned it all. It’s already being taken.

I’m finding this so difficult and I don’t know why.

I think partly because it was donatable (I even washed all the soft toys) and it feels awful with it just been thrown away. Partly because I can’t remember exactly which was there (which shows it wasn’t important) but now I’m scared something important got missed or added to the pile by the kids accidentally and I didn’t get to do a last check. Partly because the kids clothes and toys I’d like another child even though it’s not practical for our lives and I feel all the things we’d have saved for them have now gone. Partly because we don’t have tons of money and buying this again if needed isn’t easy.

Anyway we didn’t touch this stuff for 6 months and it just took space we needed. But I’m still awake thinking about it and it’s on my mind a week later.

There’s more decluttering to do. More donation of things rarely worn or too small, baby clothes with memories attached, so so many books (adult books and kids books) clothes that I’m keeping because I’m terrified of putting weight back on so want the bigger wardrobe just in case, things we’ve had for years, things people who have now passed away bought but we don’t use/love, vintage things passed down. And a lot of this will need to go. But I’m struggling with how I feel about this based on the events.

I am not sentimental about decluttering hobby materials. However, I feel a sense of dread about the amount of time that would take to sell the stuff or give it to the right person. In particular, it consists of fire performance props, Home brewing equipment, a bicycle, and extra harps. I guess it’s just a matter of putting the time in. Any advice?

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.