<p>Started cleaning out attics and feeling very overwhelmed. Going through all the stuff is so emotional and exhausting. Always keep the house under control but out of sight out of mind up in the attic! 3/4 of it isnt mine but I still need to deal with it. Am thankful I dont have basement too 
Anyone else have too much stuff?? Been dreaming that I was suffocated with piles and piles of stuff!</p>
<p>We do spring cleaning every year of the whole house so we make the decision on keep/throw out regularly.</p>
<p>Sistersunnie I feel your pain! </p>
<p>We have a full house attic that has been quite full - rafter to rafter - with all kinds of stuff, MOSTLY antique furniture that my husband âplansâ to refinish (has always been a hobby though we did much more in past years and his enthusiasm to finish pieces seems to have slowed down). Iâm talking several sets of dining chairs, dressers galore, side tables, rocking chairs - you name it. Plus the usual seasonal stuff, old kids stuff, etc.</p>
<p>In the fall we had a total roof tear off (our house is 1925). Though the company tried to tarp the stuff there was SOOOO much the mess ended up being terrible. We have literally had to go over the attic space inch by inch with a shop vac and move every single item and clean it. Ugh. This has FORCED my H to scale down slightly. But it was SOOO overwhelming at first! </p>
<p>But, I promise you if you only look at it a few square feet at a time, over time you will start to see gains and organization and MAYBE an actual clear pathway to walk!</p>
<p>Best of luck with the stuff and reliving memories. :)</p>
<p>Yes. Overwhelmed with stuff. by agreement with DH I do not enter the garage or attic because it is too stressful for me. I keep the house itself fairly clutter free. At least onca month I take stuff to the thrift store and I try to buy less.<br>
Iâm sure this project is very emotional for you. Take it at your own paceâŚthe stuff will wait until you get to it. Hugs.</p>
<p>Last night found me tenderly wiping down a mounted 8 point buck head. UGH! THe stuff I am finding! Whats the wildest thing anyone found?</p>
<p>My husband is a borderline hoarder. I like to keep things tidy. Doesnât work too well. I have confined him to the basement which used to be a beautiful, finished walk out basement now filled with junk. I told him if he dies without cleaning it up, Iâd resent him forever. Iâd love to go throw it out but heâd have a fit.</p>
<p>When he does clean up, he goes through everything one piece of scrap paper at a time. Heâll bring me a receipt from 1997 for an item we donât have any more and ask if I need it. He collects more junk faster than he can get rid of things. I hide old jars under kitchen garbage and sometimes he still pulls it out.</p>
<p>Can you afford to hire a professional organizer to work with you on all the stuff? Or maybe ask a friend to spend a few days helping you?</p>
<p>Before our last move, I used an organizer to help me sort through all the stuff we had. She would go into a room (while I was working on another one) and create three piles: obvious trash, obvious keepers, and questions. It made it very easy. Youâd think the question pile would be huge, but it wasnât,</p>
<p>Obvious trash was things like clothes with holes, broken toys, etc. Sometimes I moved stuff from keepers to donate, but that was about it.</p>
<p>Where do you find these professional organizers? That sounds wonderful. </p>
<p>I am presently engaged to a man that I swear did that in an earlier life. My house is getting so organized itâs scary.</p>
<p>Definitely too much stuff. We moved nine times the first thirteen years we were married and my drawers and closets always looked good. We have been in this house sixteen and one half years. It is time to do something, but I am having more fun on here.;)</p>
<p>Are you in a position, sistersunnie, that you have to rush through the process? I gather when you say â3/4 of it isnt mine but I still need to deal with itâ, you are referring to items that belonged to your deceased husband? It must be very difficult to choose those items that should be discarded (sold, given away, trashed) and those that should be kept. I believe things develop even more of a sentimental attachment when the original owner has passed. If you are not in a hurry, I recommend taking one section of the attic(s) at a time and going through it at a comfortable pace. I am one of those people that doesnât like a lot of âstuffâ and find myself dropping things off at Goodwill on a frequent basis. If youâre not in a hurry to sell a house or move, just take your time. If youâre in a position that you need to empty the house very soon, you could rent a storage unit on a short-term basis to give yourself the time you need to go through everything. Good luck!</p>
<p>The National Association of Professional Organizers: [National</a> Association of Professional Organizers](<a href=âNational Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals (NAPO)â>National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals (NAPO))</p>
<p>(I found the one I used because she was a friend of a friend.)</p>
<p>I really need a professional organizer- stuff is just crammed in boxes & I would love to get rid of it or at least have it out of the way. But invariably every time I throw out a small portion, one of the kids calls up and says " I need this".</p>
<p>Im thinking of renting a storage unit for a while- cause I need room to sort stuff.</p>
<p>Ugh it is hard and time consuming plus most stuff is in the basement which is really dusty.</p>
<p>We used to have storage units. Note the plural. We paid about $100/monthâover a thousand dollars a yearâto store junk that was probably worth about $500. Plus we spent time and money getting it in and out of storage. Never again. Iâm trying to persuade the kids to take their stuff, and pretty soon Iâm going to create an enormous pile in the driveway and put a FREE sign on it.</p>
<p>Yes have somewhat of a deadline, should be done by Spring. Seriously thinking about downsizing to a duplex. Really dont want to rent a storage unit and move the âstuffâ several times just to delay making decisions. After 25 years in the same house, alot of âstuffâ accumulates doesnt it? Shudder to think what it would be like if I hadnt held tight to the old âone thing in, one thing outâ rule when it came to the house. </p>
<p>Will look into the professional help.</p>
<p>Total empathy. I always thought it would all get organized when the Ds finished HS. Well, some is, but most isnât and it gets worse with offspring finishing college and moving overseas/across the country. They move it all back home.</p>
<p>If you convince yourself that donating stuff helps multiple worthy organizations and people and ends up making the stuff useful and appreciated by someone can help you with this. To me itâs much easier than throwing out something thatâs still perfectly useful. For example, I only need a couple of buckets but if I ended up with 5 buckets I wouldnât want to throw out 3 perfectly fine buckets but Iâm happy to donate to a worthy organization and thatâs what I do. I donât want to keep books Iâve read but donât want to just throw them out or even recycle them but Iâm more than happy to donate them to the local library who sells them in their shop to raise money for the library and have the bonus of knowing someone else is getting use out of the item as well.</p>
<p>To do the cleanout just get bags and mark some as âtrashâ, some as ârecycleâ, and some as âdonationâ and start filling them up. You can make a âkeepâ pile in a corner but think twice about keeping anything you havenât used within the last couple of years and that isnât an heirloom or something.</p>
<p>We moved out of our large colonial 1.5 year ago to a new location for work. We had no choice but to do it. We did it over a period of 3 months. I cleaned out one section of the house at a time. At first it was hard because we couldn´t bear to throw anything out, especially girls clothes, toys´, school art. We decided to keep one or two things from each year. We had few plastic containers for those keepsakes. With our clothes, if we haven´t worn it for a season, we threw it out. We took the opportunity to organize kids school records, our legal documents. It was very liberating when we moved. I thought I would at some point think, âOh, why did I throw that away?â Nope, I haven´t missed anything.</p>
<p>Biggest surprise I foundâŚThe first ledger of our family budget from when we first got married. It showed we had $150 left after we paid all of our monthly bills, and it was just barely enough for food.</p>
<p>I can totally relate. Please keep updating us regarding your progress. I will be tackling the same tasks, 35 years in the same house. We are doing a remodel next year that requires almost total house demolishing.
I bought a high speed scanner to try to eliminate tons of paper records.</p>
<p>
Tell me about the scanner you bought, please. Iâve thought about doing the same.</p>
<p>^^^. The scanner I bought is the Fujitsu S1500. It has a small footprint and good online reviews. My accountant, whose office is paperless, recommended it to me.</p>