Okay, so about a year ago, I had this little meltdown about the clutter around here–we just plain had too much stuff. That’s all there is too it. I mean, if you live on one of those McMansions you aren’t going to understand this probably but it IS possible to have to much stuff. If you live in a McMansion you have way more space in which to collect stuff so you won’t notice for a really long time that you do in fact have too much stuff. We on the other hand live in about 600 square feet. It didn’t take too long for us to figure out that we…well you get it, unless you live the the McMansion of course.

The question became what to do about it.

As attached as I am to this computer, I started looking here for answers–and they weren’t too hard to locate. For inspiration I started reading websites like Debt-Proof Living. (Formerly called “Cheapskate Monthly”)  This is a great site–tips about living debt free yes, but also household tips and ideas for ridding yourself of excess baggage in the way of wrong-headed thinking and too many possessions.

I tried selling some of our stuff on eBay.ca and had some success for awhile. We sold the gigantic rear projection television that was way too big for the place. We sold Hubby’s motorcycle gear (hasn’t had a bike in like six years but all the special clothing was still here.) I managed to sell some of the vintage pottery–took a loss on most of it but at least it’s gone and that’s what mattered.  I sold some of the books but not too many.

Craigslist also got a workout. And while we were at it, we made a couple purchases too–a buffet and china cabinet for more storage, and dining table and matching chairs because the stuff we had was crap.

The trouble was that we had a whole bunch of stuff that just wasn’t the kind of thing you sell on eBay or Craigslist–old mismatched pots and pans, miscellaneous kitchen implements, old clothes, books no one wanted, used VHS tapes. I can hardly remember all we had here. I know we made several trips to Goodwill and a few of the other thrift stores in the area but then I learned about another site–Freecycle.org. This is a place where you can give things away. Yes, give away. No selling.  The idea is that you are giving something away rather than sending it to a landfill–but much of what changes hands on Freecycle has plenty of use left in it, it just isn’t useful to the person who owns it and that person doesn’t want to drag it off to the thrift store.  Yes, the beauty part for me was that people will cheerfully come to your house and carry the thing away–no matter how heavy or ugly it is. I tested this theory with the biggest, ugliest coffee table you have ever seen IN YOUR LIFE. A nice young couple came and took and were grateful to get it. Same thing with the very ugly artificial Christmas tree I needed to get rid of. I bet I Freecycled a truckload of stuff in the past year.

Also, and this is a BIG ONE. We had a 4-drawer file cabinet full of those VERY IMPORTANT PAPERS I talked about before. I’ve been going through it a bit at a time and it’s down to one half of one drawer. I shredded piles of old receipts and bills and  threw away manuals for appliances we no longer own. We get most of our bills online now so they no longer come in the mail. Less paper in means less daily clutter to deal with. We only keep the essential stuff.

Well it has taken us a year and it isn’t perfect yet but it’s getting better. We’ve tried to adopt some rules–like the one about not buying anything new unless we absolutely need it and then weeding out something else to make room–yeah we do a lot of backsliding but we’re getting better–until we get the McMansion.