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[SteveMeister]

This is why I like streaming music, video and e-books. A large amount of the clutter in my house used to be piles of CDs, multiple storage racks containing hundreds of DVDs and blu-ray disks (and even some old VHS tapes), piles of game disks and cartridges from various video game systems, and then the consoles, players, amplifiers, tuner boxes, speakers, cables, controllers and remotes to consume it all. Oh, and a few hundred hardcover and paperback books, and the shelves to display them.

Now all I need is a TV with a tiny AppleTV hidden behind it, a wifi router, a Kindle and a smartphone, and I can access nearly any movie, tv show or music I'm interested in, and there are vast numbers of games to play as well. Takes up almost no space.

Digital is great for reducing clutter.

 

[Keihart]

Go visit national parks more you slobs.



Figure GAF exposed for buying garbage.

</3 right through it.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Well this explains the Funko Pop craze.

 

[evilromero]

We have a lot of toys but they gets used so often by our hyperactive 2.5 year-old that they serve an important function. Plus they all have their place. Also, we live in Oklahoma. Going outside in July? Go fuck your own ass. You can be disheartened about that. We'll be learning through play and reading books inside.

 

[JohnsonUT]

YES. We are in the same position. Our son is the first grandchild on either side and, while both my husband and I each have a sibling, both of our siblings have indicated they are leaning towards not having children (although I'm not sure they're completed decided). Still, it's looking like our kiddo may be the one and only.

My side of the family has been pretty good about just buying small toys, clothes and books, but my in-laws are going NUTS. While I've suggested scaling things back, they seem hyper aware this may be their only grandchild (or nephew as the case may be) and they don't want to miss out on buying 50,000 things for him. I think they're coming at it from the perspective that every item is their ONE chance to see a grandchild [insert activity here]. I've been pretty vocal about wanting to de-clutter, but it means nothing. Every time I get one thing packed away, something else pops up to take its place!

LOL. I hope every one is this gun ho about contributing to a college fund in 17 years.



That's a really good idea! I'm positive my FIL is going to want to buy a set of drums for kiddo some day. That can definitely stay at Grandpa's.

I am just now getting out of the "million gifts from every relative" phase with my kids (first two grandkids/nephews on both sides). Here are things that occasionally worked for us though you may get push back and grief.

1) Every Christmas and birthday verbally make a rule with your family that they can get one gift. You have to do it every single time. Some will break the rule, but that will be the exception and not the norm.
2) Suggest a single higher-end gift that forces people to go in together.
3) For every new toy, animal, or whatever else, you have to get rid of two. Goodwill, garbage, whatever.
4) If you have storage space, only open a couple of presents at a time. Put the rest away and open a few more in a month or two. Kids won't even notice if they are young.
5) Finally, just get used to it. I spent two hours today with my 6 and 9 year old de-cluttering their play room of all the crap that had accumulated since the last de-cluttering three months ago. Even with no presents, toys find a way to sneak into the house. Most of it is cheap, disposable crap that brought minutes of joy at most. When you reflect on the consumerism and the waste it can make you really sad. When I buy gifts for my nieces and nephews, I make a huge effort to keep it small with some sort of redeeming educational value (books, circuits, an experience, etc).

I tried pitching to family, that we downscale Christmas this year, in anticipation of another FLOOD of toys and I literally was BOOED.

This sucks big time, but the reality is it is your house and your son. Ultimately, you will be judged fairly or not, for what type of human being he becomes. It sucks that your family can not support you in such an important area of child rearing.

 

[UncleSporky]

Most families rely heavily on convenience foods even though all those frozen stir-frys and pot stickers saved them only about 11 minutes per meal.

This is an utterly bizarre criticism. "Only" 11 minutes per meal? With 3 meals a day, that's an extra half hour a day! That's a ton of time saved.

Every 44 days, you've saved a little over 24 hours time.

If you can keep it up saving 11 minutes every meal for 60 years, you get the equivalent of 502 extra days of free time. Almost a year and a half added to your life.

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

I've been trapped in my mother's clutter since Spring 2015, five or six months after she moved into my house. It's going to go on three years at this point because she's never going to have that yard sale she said she was going to have when she brought all this shit over. It's one thing for the stuff on my deck and porch but the clutter in the house drives me fucking nuts. She has two relatively packed 10x20 storage units she always complains about paying on but doesn't really do anything about it, at this point she could've bought some land and built a storage barn or something on it to store everything for less or just threw out pretty much everything. Hell, at this point I'd take her placing a large one on my property. I'm in the slow, slow process of getting the junk out myself and organizing what's on my porch since she makes little effort to do anything about it.

I should've known better since she started to become a pack rat when I was in middle school.

 

[Rentahamster]

Something like 50 of the 64 parents in our study never stepped outside in the course of about a week

Good grief.

 

[catpurrcat]

I've dealt with all my old DVDs and CDs by recycling the cases and putting all of the discs in spindles like this:

I can fit my entire movie and music collection in one small drawer.

This is brilliant!

 

[Piichan]

I'm moving next week, and throwing away shit I don't need has been so liberating.

 

[Acinixys]

I fight with my wife on a daily basis about this stuff. I want to live a practical, minimalist lifestyle and I loathe having unnecessary crap around the house. She on the otherhand hoards everything that meets her fancy. It's easily the number one source of friction between us. She is fascinated by people who live in tiny homes though, it's almost as if she's purposefully torturing me.

Help me gaf.

My mom has this problem and I feel like my fiance is moving in the same direction

Just buying shit non stop, with no regard for whats already at home. Like seeing a cheap scarf thats mildly ok, and buying it on the spot, even though she already has 20.

My old man did a count of all the shit my mom has in the kitchen and the end result was something like 20 tea pots, 120+ cups and saucers, and 200 tea spoons

On the other hand, all my shit fits into one 1/2 of a cupboard and a 3 drawer filling cabinet

 

[dreamcastmaster]

My mom has this problem and I feel like my fiance is moving in the same direction

Just buying shit non stop, with no regard for whats already at home. Like seeing a cheap scarf thats mildly ok, and buying it on the spot, even though she already has 20.

My old man did a count of all the shit my mom has in the kitchen and the end result was something like 20 tea pots, 120+ cups and saucers, and 200 tea spoons

On the other hand, all my shit fits into one 1/2 of a cupboard and a 3 drawer filling cabinet

That's a shopping addiction, they just don't recognise their own behaviour.

 

[TAJ]

The HOA around here fines people for not using their garages for parking

How can they even tell? Did they ban owning more than two cars per household?

 

[nel e nel]

32 families in LA does not a good study make.

I have a crapload of stuff, don't get me wrong, but we eat dinner every night together and both of my vehicles are parked in the garage.

The plural of anecdote is not data either.

I'm in the exact same boat. My son just turned one this month, he received two different push cars for his birthday. This is in addition to the ride-able replica mini cooper he already had. So, he has three little cars to ride, all bought by relatives (and not us). It's absolutely ridiculous, but they're all just different enough, that it's hard to decide which to get rid of. Also, I don't want to offend anyone, when they notice their item has disappeared from pictures. It would be easier if they'd accidentally all bought the same one, so we could return two and no one would be any the wiser. Also, everything is so expensive, I'm torn between: Do I just get rid of stuff or do I save it, in case there's another baby in the family? I already had a bunch of baby stuff packed away in the garage, before the three little cars!

I tried pitching to family, that we downscale Christmas this year, in anticipation of another FLOOD of toys and I literally was BOOED.

Preach! We just had our second kid so there's about to be a reckoning to make room for the second deluge. Anything that isn't a "buildable" (e.g. Lego, train tacks, etc) is getting the heave ho.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

Uh maybe examine somewhere other than LA with all the shitty small houses here no fucking kidding there's clutter

That and the weather makes it tolerable to park outside. Not where I'm from, if you can help It!

 

[Moose Biscuits]

We have a lot of toys but they gets used so often by our hyperactive 2.5 year-old that they serve an important function. Plus they all have their place. Also, we live in Oklahoma. Going outside in July? Go fuck your own ass. You can be disheartened about that. We'll be learning through play and reading books inside.

Just wanted to say that I love this phrase.

 

[Captain Smoker]

I recently started to throw away everything I don't need.

Currently I basically only have clothes, PC, smartphone, TV, books and video games.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Preach! We just had our second kid so there's about to be a reckoning to make room for the second deluge. Anything that isn't a "buildable" (e.g. Lego, train tacks, etc) is getting the heave ho.

Oh man, as someone who also just had a second kid I cannot wait to get rid of all the baby stuff we have accumulated. The amount of space it will open up in the living room, bedroom, kitchen, and attic is going to blow me away. Yeah, some additional toys will replace that but over my dead body will it equal the baby gear.

 

[old]

I've found amongst my friends the wealthier they are the less clutter they have. It makes sense to me. When you have money you can afford to throw things out and rebuy them later if you ever need them again. But if you're struggling and can't afford to rebuy things again then you stash everything in case you may ever need it again.

I've found myself doing that with a bread maker that takes up a lot of kitchen counter space. I don't use it but I can't get myself to get rid of it because would cost so much to replace in the future if I ever want to use one again. So there it sits.

 

[SonnyBoy]

I agree. I was just going through my basement, it's full of BS we don't need. Taking up storage that we don't have enough of... Currently, I have 4 contractor bags full of things to be donated to families in need. The rest will be recycled where applicable or thrown away.

 

[Dr. Worm]

This was my family growing up. Stacks and mounds of pure shit, everywhere. I couldn't place anything down except in my own room (which was a train wreck, but it's my train wreck) for fear of never seeing it again, as it would disappear into the shitpile.

I don't know how I'd handle having kids, but I know I don't want this.

 

[makingmusic476]

The impression I've got from my older relatives is that this mentality goes back to the Depression. People like my grandma would hoard every little thing they had because so many things were hard to come by during the Depression and war.

These tendancies were drilled into my parents.

 

[gutter_trash]

Man, I tried to do a declutter phase this weekend, sorting out stuff is time consuming

 

[bad guy]

The best things in life aren't things.

 

[Linkura]

The HOA around here fines people for not using their garages for parking.

I fucking hate HOAs, but this is a damn good idea. I'm sick of driving through residential neighborhoods and having to play dodge-em cars because of all these assholes not parking in their driveways/garages.

This thread has inspired me to do more decluttering of my house. I'm currently under the weather, but when I feel better, there's gonna be a reckoning.

 

[Metalgus]

Man, I tried to do a declutter phase this weekend, sorting out stuff is time consuming

Yeah, this very thread inspired me to do a bit of cleanup and it took a good chunk of my afternoon.

This time I went through my ''Memories box''. You know, the box where you stash stuff from your childhood to look at when as you grow older, old photos, report cards, drawings, etc. I wanted to add more stuff to it and I was faced with the option of using a bigger box. But I told myself 'No, you gotta try and make it fit in that same box'. This way, I threw away some memories, but I kept the ones I hold more dear.

It felt good, as it made more free space available in my dresser and bedside table. But now I don't want to simply fill that new space with new shit, so I gotta remain smart, that's where the battle will be won or lost.

 

[Moose Biscuits]

I hold onto stuff from my childhood. I'm not sure why, since I don't really want to remember that stuff. Maybe I should dump all that trash.

 

[Jeronimo Jones]

Friday evening we returned from our honeymoon to a floor full of gift bags, picture frames, and boxes of wedding decorations in the 2nd bedroom. A stack of mail was waiting in the mailbox, a package on the doorstep from earlier in the day. Then there was the new clutter from packed luggage, souvenirs, etc. that we brought with us.

It was stressing out my wife and beginning to get to me, so by Sunday we had returned the room and other areas to usable space. It was legitimately refreshing to our mental health to reduce the clutter and put things away.

 

[Version 3.0]

3) For every new toy, animal, or whatever else, you have to get rid of two. Goodwill, garbage, whatever.

But...math. How long until you have negative toys?

 

[nel e nel]

But...math. How long until you have negative toys?

In-law toy-buying math does not follow the normal laws of physics.