decluttering help

[firecat]

I want to get rid of stuff, because the stuff is now overflowing the available space for stuff storage.

I have trouble getting rid of stuff. So I started at the corner of one bookshelf full of books and other stuff, looked at each item, and wrote down reasons to keep it and reasons not to keep it.

If you have ever successfully decluttered, I'd like some feedback on how you make decisions based on reasons like these. I'm thinking of assigning points to each of the reasons and trying to make decisions that way. I think that most of my reasons to keep something are legitimate in and of themselves, but since I would apply them to pretty much everything, I'm going to have to figure out a way to rank some of them such that I can actually get rid of some stuff.

Here are my lists of reasons.
GET RID OF BECAUSE
I can replace it easily if I need it
I can get the equivalent information from the web
I have several and don't need them all
It's out of date
I'm probably not going to use it in the future
I know someone / someplace I can give it to
I don't like it
ETA It frees up space, which is relaxing (and the point of the exercise)

KEEP BECAUSE
It is or might be worth a lot of money
It makes me feel nostalgic
I like it (it's pretty, it makes me feel good)
It might be useful again someday
I made it
It was a gift
A friend made it
It's useful for my work
It's not actually mine (usually this means it's co-owned with the OH)
It's part of a collection I have
I haven't read or used it yet

For the record, here are some maybe not so good reasons I have a hard time throwing some things out:

*I have several and it would take a lot of work to decide which one(s) to keep

*It's not worth giving away, e.g. it's broken or damaged or no one would want it, and I feel bad just throwing it out (yes, I do know about Freecycle, but I've had bad luck with it, and while I'm willing to use it again, the fact that something might be freecyclable doesn't make me feel good about giving it away)

*It would be valuable to a small set of people but it would be a lot of work to find those people and get the stuff to them (e.g., my old Newton books) but giving it away some other way feels like a waste

*I don't have any place to store giveaways until I get around to giving them away

Comments

[snippy]

I am a packrat, but I'm also really good at decluttering. I have shelves full of boxes with numbers on them, in the basement, and each box has an index card with its number, its contents, and the date I packed it (I keep the index cards upstairs for easy reference).

These are classic *bad* reasons for keeping something:
It might be useful again someday
I made it
It was a gift
A friend made it

The first is a dodge: if it might be useful again someday, you can always buy a new one. The others have nothing to do with whether you like it and want it in your daily life, which are good reasons for keeping stuff.

I've done the "pack it up for a year" business, and that works really well for me. Thinking about why I've kept something helps me, too. Most stuff is related to a person I used to be, not who I am today, and sometimes I miss that person.

Recently I reorganized the living room, and the most valuable thing I did was to take every single decorative item out of the room (into another room), and I only brought back the things I love to look at or use every day. The rest of it got packed up. The room is so much more pleasant now, with just a few things you can really see because there is no clutter to distract. I find visual chaos makes me anxious, too, so clearing the room made it more relaxing for me.

As for where to dispose of stuff, I like Goodwill (or similar). The people who know the value of my things will buy them from Goodwill and maybe resell them to the people who really wanted them, and make money. They'll do the work of finding the right market, and take the profit--that's fine with me. And this way I only have to store them until I feel like driving it all to Goodwill.

[firecat]

All excellent suggestions, thanks! I'm not sure that thinking of any of my reasons as "bad reasons" works for me, but I can see how it would be useful to some people.

It's very true that visual chaos makes me anxious. I need to add that to my "reasons to get rid of"

I give stuff worth reselling to the local humane shelter thrift store. I also have a bunch of stuff they don't want, like computer books.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Your public library might want the computer books. If not, they'll sell them and make money that way.

[firecat]

Out-of-date computer books are worth money? Hmm...

[ailbhe]

"It might be useful again someday" was my biggest bad reason for keeping things. It's not at all the same as "It will be useful again someday" and I was treating it as the same.

My house is so much nicer now we've gotten rid of heaps of stuff. Which reminds me, must make another Freecycle list.

[firecat]

It's not at all the same as "It will be useful again someday" and I was treating it as the same.

Good point.