Nesting- what helps you declutter?

↑ seeker ↓

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 5:57 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

Stop buying. Each purchase must have a solid and real purpose (potato masher since your rich aunt Helga is coming to stay with you for a month and she eats only mashed potatoes three times a day). You don't buy a whole palet of food colorings because of some tentative kid's chanukka party sometime in the unknown future.

Don't take other people's free giveaways either. Often those are more tempting than buying because they're free. But they will cost you space and also the time you'll spend dealing with them when you clean and organize. Only take freebies that have immediate (or almost immediate) and significant value.

*Says me, as I'm planning to repost and then curb a whole box of giveaways and hope someone takes them. But they could be of immediate use to someone else.

↑ Bnei Berak 10 ↓

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 6:32 am

seeker wrote:

That's why I haven't taken a bencher from any simchas for the last five or six years.

↑ seeker

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 7:45 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

That's why I haven't taken a bencher from any simchas for the last five or six years.

Same.
Dh offsets me though. He's sentimental about milestone keepsakes. He'll pull out someone's bar mitzvah bencher when they're by us for a Shabbos meal married with kids. It's very cute. I guess if you have a drawer for them it's not too cluttery.

amother

Blushpink

Mon, Sep 23 2024, 12:31 pm

seeker wrote:

In my 20s I tried to collect two from every wedding I attended, fondly imagining having these couples over for dinner and handing each one
a pair of pristine benchers from their wedding. I even laminated them with clear self-stick vinyl. Never mind that most of the couples I never saw again after their weddings. Eventually I realized that this was a mere fantasy, put the benchers in shaimos, and stopped taking them. But like your DH, my dh has his own ideas. He takes any bencher that looks remotely interesting, design-wise, and apparently they're all interesting, design-wise.

↑ Bnei Berak 10 ↓

Tue, Sep 24 2024, 6:57 am

seeker wrote:

Feelings around items and sentimentality is a real culprit and problem and could lead to clutter and hoarding mentality. Once I learned to recognize them right questions to ask myself I have an easier time to part with it.
- do I need it? Do I have an immediate use for it? Can I borrow from a neighbor or do I absolutely need to buy it now?
- would I pay full prize for it? (question for an item on sale)
-do I have real storage space for it?

↑ Bnei Berak 10 ↓

Tue, Sep 24 2024, 6:59 am

amother Blushpink wrote:

Your DH needs to ask himself: Would I take the bencher if I had to pay for it? The answer is likely no.

↑ zaq

Tue, Sep 24 2024, 7:21 am

I like that idea, Bnei Berak! Similarly, when I go thru clothes or housewares, I ask myself "If I saw this in Goodwill today, would I buy it?" If the answer is "no," it is either worn out or has otherwise outlived its usefulness and it's time to say bye-bye.

↑ Bnei Berak 10

Tue, Sep 24 2024, 10:11 am

zaq wrote:

Thank you

So many times I've seen something I wanted to buy but said to myself "tomorrow" and I completely forgot about it. It was an urge and it passed.