I have success with getting rid of clutter if I think of it as potential good. So, books we won't ever reread or furniture we don't like anymore or clothes that don't quite fit, etc. is stuff that someone else WILL use and love. Keeping it in a box is just depriving them of that. I feel good every time I drop stuff off to the Goodwill, since I feel like I am giving those things another chance to do what they were meant to. Also, more room in my house and less to clean.

the wonderful thing about the ADD mind is that it can see all the possibilities in something

Oh, hell, yes. Windsparrow, thanks for the book rec - I just bought it! How did I survive before Amazon.com?

It is my morbid nature that I don't want my family, in particular DH, to have to go through my stuff when I am gone.

After having done this for my mom, and thus by default for my grandmother because it was the same house and nothing got thrown away after Mam died, my sister and I agreed that we never wanted the girls to be doing that for us - rifling through stuff that meant something once, saying "what is this and why did she keep it?" It's actually helped me get rid of a lot of stuff, asking myself "Are you gonna keep it FOREVER? And then what?" K. won't even give enough of a shit to go through it (once she gets all the skulls and gargoyles), and S. will be overwhelmed by the responsibility, and they'll end up carting it all to Goodwill without even looking at it.

I've gotten better about purging, but struggle to get it out of the house. Piles of stuff everywhere to mail, sell, donate.

And return! My impulse control is often poor when I see pretty shoes, but I end up not able to wear most of them. I'm better about it all now that there's a Goodwill right on the corner and a post office across the street, but even so, there's been a bag of "donates" riding around in the back of my car for two weeks. Because to get to that Goodwill I have to go up the hill and turn around. I mean, really!

I maintain there's a time limit on how long random objects retain their discrete object-hood when resting on a horizontal surface.

I find this theory to be true. Soon enough you stop "seeing" the Things.

I maintain there's a time limit on how long random objects retain their discrete object-hood when resting on a horizontal surface.

This is true for me, too. There's a dvd case that I can see right now from the couch where I'm typing this. It's on the table next to the dresser where the dvds live, and it's been on that table for at least two months. It may be there for another two months, because after I click "post message" I'm sure I'll forget about it. Again.

Erin? Is awesome.

Someone else's house I could do. But not my parents', not my childhood home.

I offered a friend of my mom's to help while she does that this weekend at her mom's place up here.

Thankfully my mom declutters all of the time and just asks before she gets rid of anything I might want. If she's really ready for it to go and I want it, it comes to me. Or she just notes not to purge it and keeps it. But with her asking now when it's not all emotional, I can support her in getting rid of a lot of the things. She's great about asking though because I apparently surprise her in what I have a sentimental spot for (a broken perfume jar that still faintly smells of something mysterious and mom) and what I don't (a lot of jewelry that I think needs to go to cousins or something if it was family-related).

I maintain there's a time limit on how long random objects retain their discrete object-hood when resting on a horizontal surface. That limit's expiration results in the object becoming part of the horizontal surface and no longer visible as a separate object.

So damn true. This is when I am glad to be forced into cleaning ALL of the things. Because I just don't notice.

I keep thinking that I need to just start cleaning and culling as if I were moving again.

and get rid of the CD with the nudie pictures.

Oooooooooh. They're on a cd with other things. Okay. I was honestly boggled that he'd pulled out actual pictures and then went through them. Much clearer now.

after I click "post message" I'm sure I'll forget about it. Again.

Calli! There's a DVD on your table!

Calli! There's a DVD on your table!

OMG! You're right--it's right there.

You know, I should really . . .

Hey, a squirrel!

Shiny turtles!

It's the same with packaging that needs to be thrown out. Dammit, I might have just given myself a project for the weekend.

What packaging? I AM IGNORING THE COMPUTER BOXES IN THE KITCHEN. THERE ARE NO COMPUTER BOXES IN THE KITCHEN.

Has anyone had any luck in getting a Significant Other to give up his clutter?

Err... somewhat. It's not as bad as it was, and there appears to be steady progress. There's been years between admission of useless clutter and noticeable progress. I'll plead the fifth on methods, though.

Erin, you are my official Writer Of Difficult Things To Say Whilst Not Wanting To Be Hurtful Yet Make My Point Clear.

and get rid of the CD with the nudie pictures.

Oooooooooh. They're on a cd with other things. Okay. I was honestly boggled that he'd pulled out actual pictures and then went through them. Much clearer now.

Yeah, sorry. I really was full of distress about it last night, and not as clear with my explanation as I'd like. And Microsoft's Picture Viewer (I think that's what he was using; I'm so Mac-centric that I don't actually know) shows thumbnails instead of just a blank folder icon with the name of the folder, so once the CD was in, there they were.

What I also didn't share last night because I was too focused on the THROW THOSE AWAY thing was that I *also* got to see pictures of the black-and-tan coonhound as a puppy, and he was lethally cute. Oh my god.