In praise of stuff

I like looking at my stuff in my living room. I sometimes sit on the sofa and just look round at it. Some of it was presents from kids/granddads. A lot of it I choose and bought myself. Mostly on holidays.

Stuff is good.

I had a good drawer clear out a year ago but they have filled up again now. No idea what with. DH's pants take up a lot of room. More than mine do.

We have too much clutter.
On the plus side, the house is insulated by all the books and furnishings.
On the down side, I tripped over somethings just this evening while searching for something else and in places the clutter is deep like the wardrobe to Narnia.

Not a nice look and hard to keep clean.

I yearn for a more minimalist world and wish I had a magic wand and could spirit the clutter away.

I would get rid of, I would say, about 50% of the "stuff" we have but my husband is the opposite to me. Why do we need plastic bags containing bed sheets which haven't been used for years, shelves full of towels? Kitchen cupboards piled high with dishes, jugs, etc etc., loft room full of books that never get read? It is so difficult to find and extract something from great mounds of "stuff". Life could be so much simpler and relaxing.

Best of all Maw you didn't go 'baaa' and follow the 'on trend' ideas.

I have a dear friend, 20 years my senior and when you walk into her house you don't find room to place even a pen!

But every single knick-knack, photo, plaque and ornament is part of her history and that of her long-ago lost husband.

I'm very much a minimalist but I wouldn't begrudge her, or anyone, the lovely memories. Those wallies who pop up on Radio 4 deserve to be ignored.

Unless stuff is usefully distributed while alive the majority of it ends up in dumpsters once dead- From there it's hauled away to landfills-

A small portion goes to charity shops, many of which have compacting dumpster out back to compress donations that don't sell or were junk to begin with-

Cleaning out houses after hoarders die is no easy task- Frequently there's rodent feces, layers of dust and mold to contend with, rendering what might have had value at one time completely worthless-

We have too many books, although I did declutter quite a few recently. I can live with that, and my children can put up or shut up (they don’t live here any more).

Where they do moan at me is about the numerous CDs and DVDs we have. Apparently I should stream all the films and join Spotify or similar.

I do both, as it goes; but I am not getting rid of my ‘stuff’ in case Amazon or whoever owns Spotify decides that instead of £8 a month, they are going to charge £80. My way means that I have a significant library of entertainment to fall back on if I can no longer afford the subscriptions. I will not be a hostage to fortune like that.

What a stupid thing. A death clean. Sorry but they will have to cope, as well as arrange my funeral. I like my things, I'm still here and enjoy them, I don't want to be in a sterile environment waiting for the grim reaper, I want my things I have accumulated over the years, so sorry if the house isn't cleared ahead of my demise.

I have stuff.

Childhood books, cheap little presents the children bought us, like a pottery otter, a red rose ( now devoid of colour) and of course untold books, always two or three on the go at the same time, depending on my mood, so I go from very easy read to quite heavy stuff . I have ornaments and flowers from the garden, knitting and my paints. Projects (preserving autumn leaves at the moment) on the go. Far too many clothes.
And of course my beloved dog, although he definitely isn’t stuff, he is a person in his own right with his own stuff, like mick the monkey, and his day bed downstairs and his night bed upstairs.
My garden is the same, stuffed full of plants, and littered with bird seed dropped from the feeders.

I have a friend whose house is entirely empty of clutter. Every surface is empty, every wall is bare. Dusting must be a dream. Everything is white or cream, and I feel like Mrs Bucket’s neighbour when I go for coffee or afternoon tea. Shoes off at the door and stockinged feet for the duration of the visit?.It is pristine and clean to an inch of its life. Flowers stand upright and are cleared as soon as the slightest sign of decay.

Both of us living the life we prefer. Nothing wrong with either.

P.S. I’ve never heard of Marie Kondo?.

I’ve never heard of Marie Kondo either, nor have I heard the term ‘death clean’

I do keep on top of things more than I used to, after my mother in law died, she had so much stuff from the past fifty years or more, I decided to try and spare my children such a massive job.

But I’m not ready to part with too much yet, I don’t feel the need to, and you never know when you’re going to need twenty jugs, dozens of mugs, drawers full of wool, if there’s a prolonged power cut, I’d have enough candles to last for weeks

But I like my stuff tidy, can’t bear lots of muddle.

I love decluttering. I don't consciously do it, but given that I've got a very peripatetic lifestyle, it happens everytime I move. I'm an English teacher and a voracious reader. I used to have hundreds of books. For my last major move, I got rid of 3/4 of my books. I kept those I will reread OR will use in my work but other than that... out and good riddance.

The house stays tidier with less stuff in it.

I’m a bit in the middle ( although I think that Marie woman is nuts!) I had to declutter from a 3 bed house to a 1 bed flat when I moved and have very limited storage here so got rid of quite a bit of stuff.

However I am not minimalist. I have a dresser full of coloured glass that I have collected and a large bookcase full of books. I kept collections of favourite authors and all my history and counselling books and got rid of the rest. I don’t want Alexa and have a lot of CD’s but they live in the TV cupboard so out of sight. Knitting and photographs live in an ottoman so I feel my flat is tidy most of the time but I have things around me that I really love. ( and all the cards DGD’s have given me of course they are VERY important! )

DH loves Stuff. But he doesn’t organise it and gets annoyed when I try to. Well, it annoys me when he comes home with something when I know full well we have at least one, often more, of the same item - somewhere. My Stuff is organised.

We did go up into the loft a week or too back to start to sort it out - but he chickened out, found the excuse that there -may- be a town garage sale next year and the ceilings are still bending gently.

We have stuff - mainly books, in fact every room in the house has at least one bookcase. The study has bookshelves all around to the ceiling. We also have all the stuff our children didn’t want to take with them when they left as apparently we have more room.!

Ideally I'd live a Marie Kondo life. I hate clutter, nicknacks, and stuff - keep having clearouts but something happens and stuff accumulates!

I need to tackle the drawers full of cables, chargers, and more stuff - I had a go recently but came across a box of photos and spent the day going through them and feeling nostalgic and a bit sad.

Am I the only GN who likes Marie Kondo? (She does not advocate minimalism!) I found her advice to be a real help, when we moved to a smaller (and easier) home last year. A lot of stuff went to charity shops and we haven't regretted a single "donated" item.

Not entirely worthless rosecarmel judging by what Time Team and other archaelogists find centuries later.

One day, 'A Present for Blackpool' trinket might be worth thousands

'Death Clean'? Ye gods, who does that, The Grim Sweeper?

Loislovesstewie, I live with a hoarder too.

He still has his Muffin The Mule Club Membership Card !

He's 70 next March.

That's my Husband - not Muffin The Mule.

I agree Maw- I like my 'stuff' too but I do so wish DH would ditch a lot of his- you cannot get into this study & it is starting to spread all over the house. He gets 'phases' of trying a new hobby- buying all the 'stuff' needed & then going on to something new!!
I dread to think what it will be like when he retires- I may have to leave home so he has enough space!

I had to downsize drastically when I bought a narrow boat to live on two years ago. Even my craft stuff was sorted. Stacks of stuff including books went to the British Heart Foundation. Have to say I have bought a lot of new books. I read Marie Kondo and it helped. I am still sorting clothes...my 80 skirts became 40. I never wear them but they are gorgeous. They have to go...I need the space they take up. I really need to read my Marie Kondo book again....wanders off contemplating the the meaning of life, the universe and everything and everything

Well to be honest although I have a lot of what ppl would call clutter I love stuff, but the time has come to give lots to charity shop, I actually envy ppl that can be minimalistic , I don’t think it looks soulless I think it looks great, but it’s not me ?? . I’m a stuff person but even me thinks I’ve got too much, I realised that when my adult kids come round and say mum have you got so n so and yes I always have lol

I am with Chestnut. I downsized from a 4 bedroomed house to a small flat 7 years ago, so there was obviously a lot to be gotten rid of. But I will never forget having to fly to the west coast of America to completely clear my mum's big house, full of crap stuff and I had about a week to do it. I cannot imagine my daughter having to do that, so I get rid of 'stuff' on a regular basis. However there are ancient family letters and photos (not too many) that I absolutely must label and paperwork to get in order. The rest she would be able to do in a couple of days.

We did get in a skip a couple of years ago, and practically emptied the garage, it was lovely! Noticed at the weekend, looking for grandsons scooter, that you can hardly get in the door again!