h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have some Stuff that I haven´t used for a long time but the What-ifs prevent me from throwing it away.

Now I can use a kind of limbo, a meanwhile, that is: a house in my village, a big one, but... I don´t want to make it a store for items that I´m not very sure what to do about. And the house is 400km away.

Books, clothes,decorative objects and some un-labellable stuff...

Imagine I nuke it from orbit (I´ll give it away most of it probably)
and now... how to avoid accumulating stuff again?

I have a tendency to look at objects and think what other use could I give them, me or my pupils, and many times that idea has been useful.
But I live in a flat and I have already many items related to my job, teacher.

When you find out... Let me know, My flat is full and I have a hired storage unit.

My bride of 31 years, and myself, are both ex-military. We devised a simple rule near the end of the frequent moves:

If you have not looked for it, nor used it, in the recent 3 years - - - you do not need it.

It does lighten a load of simple clutter.

Some papers and artifacts have historical or perosnal interest for me. I will keep them regardless. Most of the other things I have get used at least once every year.

There´s the Swedish death way of decluttering. More or less is to think of what if you would die tomorrow/soon... How much mess would you leave behind you? What for all that stuff?

A bit drastic.

First I need to get rid of the idea of " I don´t use this, haven´t used it for many years but I´ll keep it just in case..."

That might work for your garden tools, though. As my family was clearing things out of my father's house so it could be sold, I took his old crow bar. it was old, but those things never wear out. If it gathers dust in my shed, so what? I have ideas for putting it to use.

I have surplus dishes and clothing, which I give to charity from time to time.

The trouble with tools is they are the classic for being thrown away the week before you need them, then you have to buy a replacement.

I remember DNA's complaints about all the "little dongly things" (DC power supplies) for all his electronics that accumulate and while they all look similar are in no way universal as voltages and amperages vary arbitrarily. He said the best way to find which dongly thing goes to the device you want to use is to just buy a new one.


At the time he was suggesting that the only truly universal power source for such devices was your cigarette adapters. Hopefully, in the near future USB-C will indeed become ubiquitous and universal and U42 's dream will be achieved.

I could use my crow bar as a bean pole, or as a prop for my sunflowers, which seem to bend over too far.

I'm more likely to misplace my tools than throw them away. I only throw them away if they break or become irredeemably rusty/rotted.

At this point in my life, I can whittle through and eliminate some of my very specialized tools as I will never again work with such tiny items. But common tools for electrical, carpentry or plumbing, and of course seasonal yard card will remain until the day that I do die. The same goes for many kitchen implements.

We have seriously pruned the book collections, the same for music and movies. Drapery and household decor that have long ago served their time, they are either away to a charity or binned entirely.

And those many pounds of "parts' for TVs or stereo or such things - - - they are just gone if I haven't even looked at them in 3 to 5 years.

Follow the William Morris rule: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful".

The trouble with that is that you can extend it: "...or believe it could be useful at some point in the future, or know it could be beautiful after you next redecorate"

A clear-out is very therapeutic, so actually all that accumulated junk is useful as a mental health exercise

Deb

My biggest problem is kipple. According to Phillip K. Dick,


"Kipple is useless objects, like junk mail or match folders after you use the last match or gum wrappers or yesterday's homeopape. When nobody's around, kipple reproduces itself. For instance, if you to go bed leaving any kipple around your apartment, when you wake up there is twice as much of it. It always gets more and more.

No one can win against kipple, except temporarily and maybe in one spot."

I, again, find myself under a mountain of kipple to the point it would be easier to clean my home with a leaf blower.

We had been planning to sell up this house and moving about 800 miles (nearly 1,300 km) east next year. To generally the area that my bride grew up and most of her family still are.

So we had a dumpster (tip) delivered and we started the thinning of accumulations of about 30 years. At the end of the week of 'rental', that metal box left with 3,925 pounds (1,690 kg) of stuff no longer needed.

"I, again, find myself under a mountain of kipple to the point it would be easier to clean my home with a leaf blower."

That is vivid imagery - I can imagine (and indeed have experience of) that sort of Kipple! 'Yesterday's homeopape' reproduces overnight indeed - faster than I can read them...

I am a bit of a hoarder as my things all tell a story, but I do have to try to be a bit ruthless and get rid of things that don't really help to tell the story... I did a full spring clean this summer and disposed of more than a ream in paper ephemera as well as giving away some things to a charity shop. It also helped me find quite a few things I had lost, so I have been appreciating them and then either storing them or passing them to the charity shop once I have finished deciding whether they are part of the story or not.

It is a truism, though, that often if I am ruthless and give something away, I find a use for it within a few weeks of not having it any more... Part of my instinct for keeping things is inspired by my parents who told us they regretted having given away most of their toys because we as their children would have appreciated them too (and they would have been more valuable as well). I have sold some of my 'vintage' toys (that weren't a big part of the story) and was pleased with the result, so overall I just about keep on top of the hoard...

I tend to rotate most of my clothing and dinnerware and compact discs. This ensures regular usage. I also rotate breakfast cereal, which prevents any of it from getting old enough to go stale. I have backup supplies of spices and cereal and few other staples, taking care to use the oldest stuff first. None of it is old enough to be worrisome.

I´m with the books.
Too many categories to put them away:
to recycle
for the limbo
to donate
to keep on the shelves ( subcategories within this)

As Deb says, it´s healthy.

It´s nice to find written notes from pupils, cards from friends, a book you had forgotten you had it... Bleak House, for instance. I´ve put it in the ·to be read list.

When I finish with this I´ll try to clear the computer desk and pendrives.

"Bleak house" is appropriately named, but it's also a good read .

If you look for reasons to clean up or if you want to tell yourself it isn't all that bad, see A87721905 .

I know a hoarder who no longer had room in his house, so he slept in his car, even in the coldest winter.