Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 14, 2015

Two words…Yard Sale.

If you’ve ever had the experience of cleaning out a parent’s house, it’s amazing the amount of unsalable junk there is.

Boots, my friend got 27 cans of red beans out of his mom’s house….They must have been on sale a few times….

In this process right now. Part painful, part liberating.

Hire a dumpster for the front and a dumpster for the back. Fill up. Repeat as often as necessary.

Arlo, that certainly is one crammed full garage. Great drawing.

I always wanted a house with an attic and a basement. Raised in a ranch house, we only had “crawl spaces” top and bottom. When I downsized, however, I was so glad not to have had much storage space; less to go through.

When the kids left home we moved from 2600 sqft to 1200 sqft. No renting storage sheds. We just shed ourselves of stuff – stuff that had outlived it’s purpose. Gave it away, threw a lot away, etc. We’ll move again, this time with less STUFF. It is very liberating. I hate thinking of the kids having to sort through stuff that has no meaning or purpose.

I’ve been in the process for about 6months so far. My trouble is i can think of things that can be used. :( Peace.

Yep – left the farm. Barn, two out buildings, attic and basement, and my mother’s place next door. Goodwill (they sent a truck for pick-up), dumpster, bonfire and still too much left over. e-bay, anyone?

would love to get rid of 3/4th of the stuff that my husband has collected, like misc. screws, nuts, nails, and just junk, cause one of these days he MIGHT use it……. But he keeps an eye on me when I get in a clean out mood.

I went through my kitchen when we remodeled in 2013 and got rid of a ton of stuff, I mean we had like 4 can openers, 8 spatulas, etc.

I’m fortunate to not have a whole lot of storage space at my house: Nothing is stored in the attic- it’s just a crawl space; The garage is just BARELY a two-car garage and I refuse to scrape windows in the winter so everything must be able to fit down one side with both cars in it; I have a storage unit for my two boats but there isn’t a whole ton of room for much besides them in it… Yeah, I’ve got some junk but I’ve severely restricted the amount I can actually “hoard” simply because there isn’t much room. This is good because I’m a “keeper” by nature.

My Dad used to say, "Son, that’s not junk. It’s merchandise.

My grandmother lived alone in a four bedroom house, and it took use almost a year to empty it. She had clothing with the tags still on, so outdated nobody would wear it, emery boards with no emery, MILES of string from feed sacks (she used to crochet her own dishcloths, but hadn’t done so in years.), newspapers, magazines, on and on. I thought t would put the fear of God in my mom, but when she died it was “second verse, same as the first”. Every once in a while, hubby and I play “let’s pretend we’re moving” just to avoid leaving a mess for our kids.

“After the third move, burn the house down.” Alleged Bohemian proverb

Look at it this way – that’s where antiques are discovered. After you discard them……….usually.

Unloading a lifetime worth of ‘stuff’ has been one of the hardest things to do. My treasures, held on to & moved over 40 or 50 years were of no interest or value to anyone else.Very sad & when it was done there was still stuff I could not part with.

Wow. Mind-boggling comments. I’m kind of on the hoarder end of the spectrum, but am making a concerted effort not to accumulate anything else. Our older daughter visited us for Christmas, and made pointed comments about ridding ourselves of stuff. But how do you get rid of letters from your mom? (Yeah, I know you can scan them, but it’s not the same. Computers eat stuff sometimes, or the elderly might not know where they stored it.) How about the flag that your mom was presented at your veteran father’s funeral? Books that you “might” read again some day and have been around so long that they are true members of the family? They’ll bleed if ripped off the shelf . . .There are a couple of “besideses” here. 1. Besides, making comments on the comics sites is a lot more fun than grubbing through cubic yards of junk. 2. Besides, I’m not as bad as my other daughter. Her garage is so full that my Wisconsin van sits outdoors and has to be de-iced and go around with six-plus inches of snow on its top, which won’t wash off in a carwash.

My wife sent me an article by someone in a New York apartment who got rid of their clutter. There was a picture of a room about 14×14, with a bed, nightstand, lamp, window, maybe a picture on the wall, and empty space. I suppose there was a kitchenette and bathroom somewhere. it was nearly a monk’s cell. The author’s attitude was, “Look at all the stuff I don’t have.” My first thought was, “Look at all that wasted space.”To each his own, but don’t suppose that it is right for every person. I wish I had a pizza for every person who told me I didn’t need need a basement who had a basement. And I’m stuck with a miserable PITA crawlspace.

We downsized from a large ranch to a condo. The first thing we did was donate clothes and extra furniture and take a Tax Deduction. We sold some things and gave away the rest. We started before putting the house on the market so it looked less crowded.

For most things, you can follow this simple rule:If you haven’t used something at all during the last 12 months, you will probably never need to use it and can safely get rid of it. Should you ever find that you did need it after all, you can always get a new one.

“But how do you get rid of letters from your mom?”Keepsakes such as those are things that you should keep.

Learn to let go. Give it away. Otherwise it owns you!

Wow, wonderful strip and wonderful comments. I’m a bit of a hoarder, too. Over New Year’s week, my son and DIL helped me clean out my garage. 3 van loads went to donation centers and metal recycling, the front curb was lined with waste for trash pickup, and the trash carts are still being filled with the rest. Yes, it’s very liberating. But now I have to start on the house all by myself, and that will be much harder.

I was born in 1952. Memories of the Great Depression and the deprivations of WWII were very real and raw……EVERY THING you can imagine was more than scarce..You couldn’t buy a bucket…..It just wasn’t there!.. People died of want. My parents lived through that. They saved everything just in case, and I can’t blame them….But to this day I have a hard time throwing away a margarine container….Friends my age are the same way, we learned from our parents…….As a history teacher, I find kind of funny that something that happened over eighty years ago is still influencing my life….

As you are,So shall ye be.(Somebody get this dumpsterOff of me.)