The family that moved out had something like 3 months AFTER they quit living there to retrieve anything they wanted, and then the junk haulers started working on it. I have to say, seeing that made me start working more seriously on decluttering my own place, sorting all sorts of piles of paperwork into 'garbage', 'shred', or 'digitize, then shred' categories. I'd already donated 14 boxes of books to a learning annex type place, and my goal is to get rid of about 90% of the paperwork in the next 2 months or so, then go through all my clothes and maybe get rid of about half of those as well before summer rolls around.

I just can't understand it really.

No matter how lazy you are, it doesn't take a lot of work to actually throw food-related garbage into a trash can and haul it out to the curb once a month. I'm really bad about actually reading my mail, whether online or via USPS. My email box has hundreds of unread notes, and when the stack of physical mail on the coffee table gets too high, I tend to just take the mail upstairs and toss in on a table or shelf in the bedroom. That's the habit I need to break. In fact, I just now threw a stack of political mailers from the 2012 Presidential election in the recycle bag. The funniest one was about 'Romney Hood', who 'takes from the middle class and gives to the rich', sent to me by the Ohio Dem Party.

then storing it to a disc, but my scanner is so slow, the project would be too time-consuming. Other ways I've seen seem too expensive and also not worth it. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

I've been doing a lot of decluttering, and it's worked out great. The problem I'm having now is that I'm down to things that are actually very nice, and I like them and would keep them, but I just want a more streamlined look. For instance: garden pots that are virtually unused but are too big for my tastes, upscale pots and pans and decorations that I would rather sell but don't know how to go about it. Most stuff I don't mind at all taking to Good Will or Salvation Army, but these things I still kind of like.

Maybe that is all part of the process of decluttering, and I'm just stuck on a phase. I'm close to being out of one storage unit which will be close to $150/mo savings -- woo hoo!

The household ones, no matter what the brand, seem to have plastic parts, and after only a few dozen scans in a row, I hear 'creaking' noises from inside the printer/scanner/copier, that I'm thinking are related to the drive mechanism. I'm trying to only scan things related to the stock portfolio I used to have before I had to sell it all off to pay bills while unemployed, since I know you're supposed to keep tax-related data for at least seven years back. The one I'm using now is an HP, and takes about 10 seconds a page to scan, so it's not exactly fast.

I'd like to get down to 'books I actually read', 'clothes I actually wear', 'crafting tools I actually use', etc. Ie, if I don't use it, I obviously don't need it.

We quit taking to Goodwill because we heard that most of the money actually goes to the guys that run it, and only about 10% or so goes to actual charity. Dunno if that's true, but it's what we heard, so everything we get rid of that's still useable goes to Vietnam Vets of America, who also do pickups at our house, so we also don't have to take the time to drive stuff anywhere.

Good info about Goodwill. Love the suggestion about Vietnam Vets! So far I haven't minded driving things places because it's been part of the symbolism of getting rid of it -- therapeutic in a way. Just last week, I went through two boxes of fairly nice stuff that just months ago I swore I would keep, but now I know it won't get used again. What a waste of space and money for storage!

That helped about "things I'll actually use." Even though I still like the remaining items, I don't use them. So I don't think I'll even try to sell them. Just write it off and move on.

Good luck with your projects! I came across a book on my library's webpage about decluttering, so maybe that would be good to look at to keep me from procrastinating any more on the nicer items and my attachment to them.

A very neat hoarder but a hoarder nonetheless. We spent at least two months cleaning out her house after she died, just drawer after drawer completely stuffed, a bar with 40 year old booze, three refrigerators full of expired meats, you name it.

I've got medical issues now that preclude me from drinking alcohol going forward, so I've still got several bottles of single malts that I got as Christmas gifts and never got around to opening and I'm pretty sure our local food pantry doesn't take alcohol, and I don't think it's legal to mail alcohol so I can't send it to friends.

Just make sure you package it very carefully with bubble wrap AND newspapers or other type of absorbent. I believe it is illegal to use the USPS still because of some antiquated law that probably takes an act of Congress to change.

I would give you my address but I prefer bourbon ; )

Cleaning out her house was a nightmare. She had hundreds and hundreds of Styrofoam fast food containers stacked up.

Some of them had dried up fast food in them, some of them contained money, lots of money. Every one had to be opened.

But nothing compared to a neighbor my wife and I once had.

They found her mummified baby in the house.



Postpartum depression without any friends, family, or other support has got to be one of the worst things in the world.

Nobody knew. This is another reason we humans need community.

which is not to say they are none. but I suspect it's more common in developed countries.
I've only seen them on TV. The thing is I have never seen one who did not have a house full of stinking garbage as well.

until she died in 2005.

She made nice neat bundles tied with twine...and she went about filling the basement with them.

She also was a reader, so their were hundreds of books. Multiple sets of encyclopedia...

As a kid this all seemed odd and quirky not a little bit embarrassing, home was place I wouldn't invite friends to...but we 5 kids had apparently kept her a bit in check with our own space demands in a 3 bed room Cape Cod...

When we moved out she started expanding...collecting Styrofoam egg boxes and plastic wrings of six-pacs supposedly for craft work, as she got grandchildren she turned to buying children's clothes, then great grandchildren's clothes, then a loom to weave all those forelorn rags into rugs... she got arthritis and turned to stuffing things into plastic bags...which weren't nice and neat...she made piles that filled all the bedrooms, and half the dining room.

Amongst that she kept cats. Cats do things in corners that aren't often visited. Weather does things to a roof that can go unnoticed among cubic yards of absorbent clothe that literally touched the ceilings on the second floor...

It took two very large industrial dumpsters to empty the house to be able to get to the point where we could access damage

During all that time she looked normal to the outside world. Held fulltime jobs, volunteered for March of Dimes, worked as an elections judge...

Took three loads in a giant dumpster - the 30 cubic yard size - to clear the place out. The smell was beyond belief. He gave me the pick of an excellent record collection for helping him out for a day after the worst had been removed. Got an original "Freak Out" as part of the deal.

We cleared out hundreds of bags, rubber bands, strings, pens, etc. You never know when you might need something.

All survivors of the depression.

provides the comfort they don't find in real life. So very sorry that your neighbor died so early in life and without an intervention to help him.