I have found a great way to dispose of that clutter! there is a new website called AskShareGive or http://www.asksharegive.org.nz It is a nationwide not-for-profit website where you can list your unwanted gear to give away! you can also request stuff, although as you are decluttering you won’t want to do this!

When you are having a clean out you might find goods that you consider are not worth selling on, or maybe you can’t be bothered to sell them – In this case using AskShareGive is a great alternative. People collect things from you so no need to clutter your house with paper and parcel tape (as if you were selling it on Trademe), nor to clutter the car by loading it all in there to take somewhere, just let the person know what day you are home, leave outside the front door, (if you don’t feel like meeting anyone) and its quickly and quietly removed from you before you get sentimental and change your mind. However if you are highly sentimental about something and are only just able to part with it; you can choose someone to give it to, could be someone that promises to love it like you did, a community organisation or something.

I am currently decluttering my shed using this system and I can’t tell you the relief I am feeling. I am a horder from way back! My goods are going to hand picked individuals who are so grateful!

So while you’re going through your stuff an analyzing if you ever use it, it might be worth considering ‘reclassification’ before getting rid of it.

Tallying up what you originally spent on the items is a good idea!

So, for example, if someone grosses 100k, is 5% or $400 a month be reasonable?

The hardest part is one item you mentioned: “politely suggesting to friends and family not to give gifts, to give to charity in my name or give me experiences instead of things.” Friends and family sometimes seem somehow to dote on, or even demand, the tactile exchange of material items (“stuff”) especially at year-end. It’s hard to avoid, without some emotional stress!

Still, for one, we emptied a library of 2000 books this past year, and based on that, you may imagine what other mounds of “stuff” we shedded.

I told my Dad, who lived through the Great Depression, about my rule and his comment was, “It goes to charity even if there’s nothing wrong with it?” Now I know where my clutter genes come from.

two things you made me think of:

one of my aunts used to say “if i can’t eat it or wear it, i don’t want it.” i only ever gave her edible gifts.

the other thing you made me think of is one of the best decluttering tips i’ve ever read. i wish i could remember whose tip this is, but he or she said if you have a pile of papers to go through, flip it over, and start at the bottom. those will likely be the papers you will find it easiest to discard.

That aside, very good article Also refreshing to see a fellow Londoner on an american blog – something, at least, that I’ve rarely seen.

I would like to read your comments but they make me too dizzy!

Also, paragraphs are helpful in separating ideas.

Plus you’ve got all your different occasion bras- sport bras, nude ones, push up, t-shirt, lacy, “bedroom only”

I think there are people in the UK unthinkingly buying ‘bargains’ because consumer goods are more cheaply available now than in the past, without considering whether they need them – or the impact on the environment.

(And it definitely didn’t make us resentful or turn us into hoarders…clutter drives me nuts!)

Primark = Poorly made clothes designed for obsolescence and ‘crafted’ in sweatshops. I once read that they were introducing some Fair Trade products, asked about it in one of their stores and was actually laughed at by the sales assistant.

Pound shops = Flimsy, disposable plastic crap and unpopular and unhealthy branded foodstuffs. For every product that lasts more than a year, there will be nine disappointments!

BOGOF deals = Criticised for targeting the UK’s less than savvy shoppers with unhealthy goods they don’t need, but buy anyway and increasing problems with waste.

While downsizing is definitely a good thing, I found a certain schizophrenic quality to your article – on the one hand, you seem to be suggesting it’s a bad thing that we have less crap made in China than the average North American, but on the other, you’re talking about frugality!

Your quote from William Morris was amusing, as he was an early trailblazer for high quality hand crafted goods versus mass produced tat; the throwing up of large, beautiful properties that would last for centuries versus cheap and for trying to reverse the trait of general disregard for culture and the arts.

Another couple of points of clarification could include the fact that while houses are typically considerably smaller in the UK, this is because we are restricted both geographically and by outmoded planning legislation. I felt your article implied that we had small houses because we were all ‘stuff imporverished’ compared to someone from the USA.

In addition, we have far higher population density (roughly 9x that of the USA), meaning that the average American simply couldn’t afford to buy the same size of house if they kept their current salary, but were magically transplanted into the UK.

Finally (and sorry for the moans) – nobody in the UK refers to a ‘cell phone’ – I take it this was an edit by J.D.?

In closing (and so this doesn’t just seem like one big rant), I think there are fundamental differences between UK and US consumers (although your point about the explosion of easy credit was very relevant). I celebrate our differences and would be happy enough for us to avoid becoming a facsimile of the USA! I’m fascinated by North America, love to visit it and find the history intriguing, but the prevailing attitude to consumerism isn’t one that I think is best emulated.

On a related point, one blog that I enjoy browsing through for a bit of good old fashioned British frugality is Simple Living in Suffolk (I have no affilliation).