Please assure me it will be fine

[Mercury_Girl]

Clutter, oh what a complected relationship I have with thee. I am confessing, I am a packrat who is hoping to attempt to change her ways a little bit. I have medical issues which make cleaning all this clutter too hard.

My DD has almost every toy she's ever gotten & all her clothes from birth to now. I won't be having more children. She has 8 toy boxes, plus a few tubs of toys in the attic.

I have a wardrobe of clothes from size 2 to 14. I gained weight from a medication I'm on & will be on for a long, long time if not the rest of my life. Unless something really crazy happens I won't be a size 2 again, nor a size 4, nor a 6, maybe if I'm lucky an 8 or 10 could happen.

Just tell me my daughter will be fine if I start getting rid of these baby toys & I'll be fine if I get rid of some of these clothes. I need someone to virtually hold my hand while I do this, as a pack rat it's kinda scary to de-clutter, but I really feel like this is something I want & need to do. So can someone hold my hand?

[SkylarJulesmom]

Mercury, I couldn't read this and not respond... I know exactly how you feel. I know you will get alot of great advice on this board. Just wanted to let you know you're not alone!

[Theia]

Hi sweetie. Consider your hand held. I'm a small scale pack rat, I move too frequently to keep accumulating. But, even so, everything will be fine. You may consider keeping a FEW items for your DD. I have so far kept a couple of DD's first outfits, and gifted items. Some were handmade and she won't get to wear them again. But I just couldn't part with them. So I have a smallish bin that I am keeping those items in. The rest of the stuff goes. I take her clothes to a store that resells the items and I get store credit to buy her more stuff.

You can do it. Best wishes.

[tinybutterfly]

It will be better than fine.

At first it may feel stressful, but once you survive the first decluttering episodes, get some stuff out of your house...you will feel relieved. Seriously.

And it will start to feel GOOD.

Good luck!

[ElliesMomma]

for me, i like giving stuff away to other people who really want it and can use it. it makes me feel much better about getting rid of stuff, to pass it along to others who then don't have to pay for it and create more stuff in the world. i love freecycle because the people come to your house to pick up, and you leave it on your doorstep and don't ever see them, but you do communicate on email so can feel it was appreciated.

good luck!

[minta]

I have packrat tendencies myself. I'll spare you the psychology behind it but I do have a bit of a compulsion to hoard stuff, so what has worked for me is to start "hoarding" space, sanity, organization etc... I always feel the need to collect something or other, so I try to make the effort to collect "things" that will be good for my and my family's wellbeing. And the effort is well worth it! You will get there, too -- good luck!

[Satori]

Originally Posted by tinybutterfly

It will be better than fine.

At first it may feel stressful, but once you survive the first decluttering episodes, get some stuff out of your house...you will feel relieved. Seriously.

And it will start to feel GOOD.

Good luck!

ITA! I hired a professional the first couple of times I was so overwhelmed and it felt really good to get rid of stuff but I literally needed someone there to hold my hand and lay down the ground rules on what to keep and what to get rid of. Now I'd like to have that help but I can't afford it but I still get a thrill getting rid of stuff. For me its a matter of getting the energy to get off my butt, I have been so exhausted lately so I literally pick a very small area and make that my task for the day. I found listening to music I like that gives me energy so I grab an ipod and turn it up and the kids don't complain about having to listen to moms music and my work gets done even if it takes an hour or 2 I don't notice it so much. Today I'm taking a bunch of stuff to the thrift store to donate and I'm looking forward to it!

[Mercury_Girl]

Well I got my roommate on board too, so we spent a while going thru the biggest pile of junk we had in the dining area & have a full trunk load to go to Salvo (Salvation Army), plus a slew of recycling. We seemed to have kept every box for everything we've ever gotten.