Have We Outgrown Our Home or Do We Just Have Too Much Junk?

I have heard countless stories of families hiring a home stager so they could sell their home b/c they thought the outgrew it.

Well, once the home was done and the clutter and stuff was gotten rid of, they realized how much they loved their homes and decided to stay.

I read this blog post recently and it totally inspired me to get rid of tons of junk just hanging around here!

http://www.thenester.com/2010/09/its-stuffy-in-here.html

Do you have enough bedrooms? A family room and a living room? If the answer is yes to those then I would say you just need to have a yard sale.

I know that a family room and a living room aren't really necessary but I enjoy having a room for the adults and one for the kids...especially when they are teens:)

We just moved out of the home I thought i would retire and die in, and Im pretty sure we will downsize again before the depression is over. I am not "saving" things for the future anymore. Antiques from garage sales, they went to my sister. My 4 sets of nice dishes- two left the china hutch (which I have room for but am selling) and went into the cup board to be used. Grammys old silverware is now in the kitchen dwarer. one small bag of baby items per child is all I saved (and scrap books for them)Anything in the garage I havent used in 3 years is outta here!
The key is once you have packed it up into a box , do not let it sit there for a while and then go back a week later and look in it. You will end up keeping 2/3 of it! Get it out of the house as soon as it's packed up.

I live on a street that's not good for garage sales, so I have to make more of an effort to get the junk out of the house. One thing I do is put things I'm not sure if I need in the "giveaway pile". When the basket is full, then I take it to goodwill. We still have too much junk because we each are holding on to different stuff. For me, it's fabric I got from my grandmother, for my husband it's a 10-year-old sofa, and for our son it's toys that he's too old for. I like to watch the hoarders tv shows to remind myself never to let it get that bad.

Is all of your furniture the right size and scale for your house? Do you have enough storage and a "home" for each item? Are you keeping objects to hold onto memories when photos or a scrapbook would do instead?

I believe it is a lost art to fit your life into the space you have...but obviously it CAN be done :-) Good luck!

Have a yard sale! Almost all of us have too much junk.

I know my house is on the larger side, and I have so many things that I am always putting away and trying to find places to put away. When we lived in temporary housing on a military base, we took one box of toys for 3 kids, clothes, and BASIC kitchen stuff. Oh and laptop,printer, techie stuff. Our apt was always easy and fast to clean, the kids played outside with friends most of the time, rarely watched any tv, I had tons of time to read books and go on walks. . .I didn't even miss our stuff. Now that I am back home with all of our stuff, I feel like I am always cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. The kids are surrounded by toys they don't play with and just want to play with friends. I am surrounded by things I don't use much - extra everything - food, towels, toys, clothes, makeup, toiletries, dishes. . .

well, if you have a livingroom, kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and a bedroom for each person in the house (-1 if you are married and you share a room), then you have enough room. millions of us do it this way. if you have extra rooms just for "stuff", and you're feeling cramped, then it's the stuff. simple.

Get rid of it! Get down to ONLY the toys that your children have played with in the last couple of months, the clothes that you have worn in the last year and that is it.

I think that's a very personal question. I think perhaps you should investigate BOTH possibilities.

Start systematically going through your house, closet by closet. Don't start a project until you can finish it. Tear apart a closet, down to EMPTY. Then decide what that closet really should be used for. Let's say it's the front entrance/hall closet. Perhaps ONLY jackets should be in there. Make piles for each family member, so they can see what they have. Then either you/or they decide what's really used...what fits, what's torn/broken/stained, etc. Then make new piles accordingly...keep (goes back in the closet), donate/sell or garbage. Do this with EVERY place in your house. I try to do this every year or two - like the basement this year, the closets the next.

As for the kids, depending on how old they are, they should be able to do the same with their rooms (with help). Once my kids started to understand that their "stuff" was going into their rooms or the playroom ONLY, they didn't want to save as much. We explained that it's much easier to keep their rooms clean when there was less to clutter it up or get in their way.

We also started scrapbooks and keepsake boxes to "save" their favorite arts n crafts projects, photos and other keepsakes. I break them out 2-3 times a year to have the kids purge their rooms and decide what they REALLY want to keep.

Yard sales can be a lot of time and effort. When we had things we KNEW would make money, like all the baby gear or big household items, we did it. Otherwise all the clothes, cookbooks, baby bottles, etc. just went to Good Will or a women's shelter in our area. This odds and ends types of stuff gets donated MONTHLY. We just have a bag in the garage where our "old" (as in just bought a new coffee maker, so the old one goes in) or unused things go. We have a scheduled pick up (which helps me keep purging).

After you have cleaned out and organized everything where it really SHOULD be, then check out your house. Is it meeting your needs or is your house too small for the important things your family really wants & needs?

If you decide that you need to move/add on to your house, at least everything is already looking nice and properly stored! So now you'll know what you REALLY need...more storage? Bigger kitchen? Bigger family room?

I hope this helps

It's interesting how the show Hoarders is making an impact because it has with me too. About a year ago, I started working on getting rid of junk, outdated and not used much stuff (including pieces of furniture) and let me tell you sister I almost feel like I've lost weight it feels so good in my house! :) I am still working on getting rid of stuff but everything is easier to manage. I'm an older mom (late 40's) and it makes it easier on my body with all the cleaning I do. The last thing I want to be is some old bat in a house full of junk all around that I'm to old to deal with to get rid of (kind of like some of the hoarders)! So I'm doing it now making my life more manageable. Oh by the way, the way I've gotten rid of it is through goodwill, salvation army, various charities, my cleaning lady and friends.

Our first house was pretty small and while we didn't "outgrow" it- it didn't have all the space we wanted. The second house we owned was much larger and definately had the space we wanted so while we never filled it with too much junk- the question you need to ask is, does the house have all the rooms/space you want/need? Can you afford to move to a bigger house if it does not? Then if it does have the space you need/want and/or you can't afford to move to a larger home- you need to get rid of your junk ;). We are purging and I love it!

I know when I start thinking along these lines, its time for a yard sale/donation! I would say no house is too small, its all about how you work with what you've got. In a smaller home with a larger family, you just have less"stuff" to make more room for the people.

Assuming everyone has a bed (not a room) that doesn't have to be put away everyday and everyone can sit down at the same time (not neccessarily at the "dining room" table) and eat then I would say your home is big enough.

Have a sale, make some money BUT don't go buy more stuff, go and DO something together!

You only know after you have the yard sale.

Some of my friends are doing that seriously now after watching the "Hoarders" series. There have been previous de-cluttering series on TV as well (i.e., "Clean Sweep," "Clean House"). The Flylady web site (www.Flylady.com) devotes a lot of space to helping people learn to de-clutter their homes. I took the Sidetracked Home Executives course some twenty years ago - or longer? - and that helped me learn the basic principles.

I'm a natural packrat (and a descendent of packrats), so I always have to be after myself to get rid of things that are really not necessary to our happiness, health, or well-being. Yard sales are just not my thing (except going to other people's), but I donate items to the semi-annual free "exchange" at our church and, the rest of the time, to charitable organizations who give me a call when they're going to have a truck in my neighborhood.

If, after you've benefited other people with the things you don't need, you all still feel cramped, you can legitimately talk about moving to a bigger house. But chances are you'll be amazed at the home you have.

We are going through the same thing. Having a second child makes me realize how small our house really is. We made about $400 dollars last month just putting old toys, items on ebay. May want to check into ebay.

You said: "some of which you need and some of which you don't"
If you already know that you don't need it why do you have it?
Sell and donate!
Peter Walsh has written a great book called--- "It's All Too Much: an easy plan for living a richer life with less stuff"
I totally recommend it.

I was raised by a single mom who was a boarderline Hoarder. It wasn't until I started dating my now husband (he gets rid of everything!) that I really SAW how we were living. We have been married a year on Sunday and I have been downsizing with him for the last 3 years. Since we live in AZ, we do all the outside/garage stuff in winter. I think if you can manage it, each kid should have their own bedroom. Beyond that, you only should have things you really LOVE and NEED. Same thing for the kids stuff. They don't appreciate anything if they have too much. A good time to get rid of kids toys is right before the holidays, to make room for the new stuff coming in! So really how much stuff do you need? I have gotten rid of all my artificial trees, plants, vases, extra knick nacks on the shelves, etc. It really makes a huge difference. Once you do that, then you can actually see if physically your house is too small, or if it was just all the junk taking up too much space! Good luck to you!!!!!!

I feel like my house is ALWAYS cluttered. We have way too much stuff, so I have been going through things and donating and selling things lately. It's so liberating! With Christmas coming and my daughter's birthday 3 days after, I know we are about to be barraged by more "stuff" (the in laws are over the top), so I'm paring back now so that I don't really lose my mind. Not only is my sanity an issue, but I don't want my kids growing up feeling entitled to things. I want them to realize how blessed they are and be willing to pass along some things when they get something new and simply don't play with it anymore. So, they are helping me go through everything and we're putting it in the "donate" pile together.

Good luck! If you're feeling like you're outgrowing your home and you haven't added another human being, you likely have too much stuff. :-)

Well, the fact that you are feeling this way and questioning the amount of stuff in your home... would indicate that yes, too much stuff is accumulated. have a garage sale or something.

If your home didn't previously seem too small and it's only something you notice now...it's probably too much stuff.

I am a pack-rat and a collector. We live in a 2-bedroom duplex with 2 (soon to be three) kids, a cat, and a fish (two adults, I should add). We frequently say we've outgrown our place, which is true in the sense that we have a lot of stuff that I do NOT intend to get rid of. My husband is a CD collector and we are both book collectors, so we are not keeping junk, just things that mean a lot to us. I keep my china in storage because we don't entertain formally in our tiny kitchen but I intend to display it whenever we buy a house. The china is not forcing us to move out, though. Tripping over children's toys might. :) I think it never hurts to periodically glean but I usually ask myself if I will miss something or if it is something I will want to display in a proper house. I have gotten rid of things and regretted it, and if something isn't being hurt by being in storage, you can always keep it. One thing I've done with smaller collectibles, like my souvenirs and such, is to try to rotate them, store them when I bring out holiday decorations, and give everything a chance to be out for a little while. It helps with the decorative clutter and I enjoy seeing things that are special.

I think a lot of junk that we accumulate is mail that could be tossed or shredded, so we now have a mini shredder and try to keep stuff sorted every day. So, yeah I would go through but don't get rid of anything you know you will want to keep. There is a difference between hoarding and having things that are meaningful but just don't have space right now.

If you family has grown larger then you may want to think bigger house. But if your family hasn't grown larger then you need to evaluate what you have. Look to see what you don't use anymore...like in the last year. If a toy hasn't been played with in the last year or a kitchen tool, or clothing, then get rid of it. Bigger items you can sell on Craig's List. And smaller items you can donate. That is what we do. We just gave a way a lawn mower that was taking up space, even though it still worked. Our neighborhood garage sale was this weekend and we weren't selling anything, so he put a sign on it and set it out and it was gone before 9 am. There is probably a lot of things you can store in the basement or attic or just plain get rid of. We have our girls do that at least once a year. It helps tremendously...especially since we can't afford and don't need a bigger house. Good luck and God Bless.