The Clutter Fairy Weekly Survey #235 Results
Decluttering Your Past and Future
Below are the results of our survey released in preparation for episode #235 of The Clutter Fairy Weekly. If you haven’t already done so, please take the survey.
Responses
To view the complete, detailed survey response from any respondent, click on their name (or “Anonymous user”) in the table below. You may also find it easier to read long responses in the detailed view.
| Name (click to view full survey response and comments) | Complete the following statement: “My home could serve as the Museum of _____.” | Complete the following statement: “My home is a warehouse for _____.” | Describe something that you’re keeping because it connects you with a past version of yourself, your family history, a former relationship, etc. | Describe something that you’re keeping for a future need, whether real or imagined. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pat | Monument to unshredded old papers hoing back to 2020 | Books I have read and haven’t sorted yet to donate | Old photo albums accumulated during our 56-year marriage. | Bottles of furniture polish. Not likely to use this on my wood furniture. It attracts more dust, in my opinion. |
| Gabriella | Not a museum, but a fair-sized private library. | my professional ressources, which I may need again. (At the beginning of my retirement, I had planned to get rid of them, but then - surprise, surprise - it turned out that I would need them again.) To call them "a warehouse" would be an exaggeration, as I've curated them in the meantime. | I can't get myself to throw out my nearly completed PhD thesis. I've been keeping it in a crate in the basement for nearly 40 years. So what! I've been doing very well so far in decluttering the rest of my stuff. | I keep a - relatively - small amount of office supplies that I am using up slowly. The idea that you should get rid of everything that you can reacquire in 20 minutes for under 20$ sounds clever but isn't really that: If you have to drive or walk to a store to get a notebook or some other little gadget which you need immediately, it will most likely take more than 20 minutes, and maybe cost a lot of gas in the bargain to get it. If you have it stored (and easily accessible :o) you can use it within seconds or minutes. Even if you order the item online, it will take at least a few hours until it is delivered. You will have to deal with getting rid of packaging (not exactly eco-friendly). You will most likely be obliged to buy a large number of these items ..... and will then have the "fun" of decluttering the surplus. If you need another one of these items later on, the whole process will start over again ... As for the financial aspect, imagine doing this 1 - 2 times a week and calculate the costs per year. What other things could you do with the money? Also calculate the number of hours you have to work for this amount of money - and add the number of hours you spend processing the purchases. It's a portion of your life, that you spend doing something tedious and unnecessary. Of course, I am not proposing to store large amounts of every item under the sun, but only things with a high probability of being needed. The storage should be limited by the container concept. |
| Anonymous user | self help books and beauty products | stationary, notebooks, and makeup | old clothing | i can technically use everything within 5 years but the likelihood is 0 |
| Ginger | 🔲 Museum of my parents things. ▪️ Mom lived with us for 16 years before she passed away in 2022. . I still haven’t gone thru her suite. Bedroom, Bathroom, Sewing Room. Plus, I have her kiln (broken bottom plate), boxes of green ware, etc. in my studio. Her sewing room is filled with quilt block pieces and fabric scraps, crochet projects, fabric paint projects, embroidery projects, etc. ▪️When Dad moved into memory care - his papers, photos and keepsakes came to me. These are also stored in my studio. He passed away 8 days after Mom. ▪️I simply need to take action on this stuff. I have a plan. I’m just overwhelmed with other stuff. | ▪️My craft supplies for my many crafting hobbies. I have many different interests. The past few years - I seemed to divert my attention to caring for my parents and dealing with our house instead of having fun. ▪️And, our garage is a warehouse for my husband’s tools. Wood working & mechanic. He hasn’t done any wood working in a few years now. There are more than 20 tools with their own stands. Saw table, lathe, planer, sander, routers, etc. But, he’s very organized. Tools and activities have zones. Bins are labeled. | 🔲 From First Marriage, First Home (6 years in late 70s-early 80s)) (8) ▪️A blue swirl glass vase from my ex-MIL bought on a family vacation trip. It doesn’t match my decor. But, I really loved her. ▪️A heavy blue glass basket (Tiara glass) that used to sit at the foot of our bed. First marriage. First owned home. The handle is cracked. I need to let it go. ▪️A tiny white vase with blue silk flowers given to me by my then 6 year old step-son. He picked it out at a furniture store when we bought our bedroom suite there soon after we got married in 1977. It sits on my bedroom window sill. I spoke to my ex-step-son a few years ago. His words to me were “if it hadn’t been for you - I may never have learned to read and write”. ▪️In a keepsake mini cedar chest - I have a painted tile and clothespin recipe card holder - step-son made it in school and gave it to me. ▪️And, in my Christmas decor I have a paper bird ornament he made for me. ▪️The wooden coffee mug tree we currently use was ours in my 1st marriage. Another gift from a vacation trip. (The 6 chunky mustard yellow ceramic mugs are long gone.) ▪️Silver dollar necklace. In-laws had made & gave me after one of their trips to Vegas. ▪️Red oval glass bowl wedding gift from ex-husband’s Aunt and Uncle. They were so sweet. We use it to hold bananas now. | Kitchen Aid stand mixer. And, Cuisinart Food Processor. These haven’t been used in years. Time to pass them along. Maybe a family member will want them. I’ll offer to them first. I keep thinking I’ll use the stand mixer & get back into baking. But everything I make was always done with a hand mixer before. |
| Lisa | Self-help books I have read them, but I like to refer to them | Guilty of clothing at a variety sizes. I just keep hoping I’ll lose weight. | I have kept some photos and frames and some knickknack items. Periodically when the memory seems to go away, I do release some of them. Definitely miss living in New Orleans. | I do like to keep some office supplies and containers. But I do make sure that every year I purge some items. |
| Anonymous user | Museum of my personal history. | Recyclables waiting for the friends who can take them to their recycling bins. | I have trophies that take up about a square foot of space and remind me how hard I practiced to achieve excellence and what it is like to dig inside myself during competitions for the determination and concentration it took win. They are on a high shelf, reminding me that I am capable of what it takes to achieve my goals. Touching them takes me back to the feelings of the moment of victory as well as the good feeling of the discipline it took to get there. | I have a food stash because, being nearly house bound, I once had to go four and a half months without being able to go buy food or get any brought to me. I now have a reasonable system in place to get groceries, but it is a great comfort knowing that I have enough to keep myself well fed for several months should something happen to the people I depend upon. |
| Summer | Unsorted photos and memories | Clothing of various sizes | Aspirational clothing for when I get younger and thinner. 🙂 | |
| Beth | Tchotchkes that I really enjoy but are perhaps too numerous | Old furniture that needs refinishing or reupholstering | Woodworking tools that remind me of treasured time spent with my (now deceased) father | Serving pieces, place settings, silverware, tablecloths, and other accoutrements for formal entertaining Year, five years? 🤷♀️ |
| Lise | Museum of Memories and Future Intentions | arts & crafts | DVD's & CD's | I have a plein air easel - I use it inside but I want to do actual plein air someday soon. |
| Anonymous user | Fabric and craft supplies | I recently realized that I still had a shoebox of business cards of people I had met at work. It is a strange thing to keep and I have had two rounds of decluttering it- but there’s no real reason any of it should stay. It’s been a long time and people have probably moved on. | Handbags. | |
| Dolce | Museum of fabric, yarn, and vintage collections As well as Monumentof Old Papers | House, car and garage is a warehouse for Paper, plastic and reusable grocery bags. My garage is also a warehouse for inherited clutter that needs to be sorted and purged | Artwork from high-school Purses and high heels that I'll never wear or use again | Inhereted treadle sewing machine. I imagine that the electricity will go out and I'll still need to sew my clothes. It is unlikely that I'll ever use it. And I can just hand sew just as well. |
| Cathie | Museum of beautiful older, vintage, or antique dishes, vases, statuettes. | Warehouse of things I still want to do, i.e. gardening tools, supplies & equipment for various crafts, recipe books for foods I want to try. (At 71, I'm kinda running outta time--also have become full-time caregiver to hubbie.) | Pretty or fancy party serving dishes and bowls for larger groups of guests. | Sets of new sheets, towels. |
| Kristina | Museum of unfollowed dreams. | I suffer from a lot of self doubt and anxiety due to past trauma. I have the desire to do certain things like host a dinner party but feel like I can’t carry it off. I have the table decorations and the candles for each holiday but I have never followed through. I am working towards hosting Christmas this year. I have a plan to be ready earlier this year. I am hoping I can muster the confidence. | I have a set of baskets that my grandmother gave me. I really like them. I don’t use them because I have been keeping them for certain occasions. I am hoping to use them this Christmas. I have been trying to overcome a few issues and feel like this year I am more confident about using the things I have instead of waiting for a special occasion. | I feel ready to use my unused decor that I have been keeping for “special occasions “ I have listened to a few podcasts on this topic and it made me realize that every day is a special occasion if we love something use it don’t wait because we might never get the chance. I want to use the things I have and love and have been worried about them being too good for every day but after changing my mind I think I am worth using them. They might depreciate in value but I don’t care. I am worth using the items I have kept after decluttering. |
| Marsha | Monument To The Effectiveness of The Clutter Fairy’s Techniques | Things From the Past | Almost Everything Pandemic Food Supply that is rapidly expiring | Pandemic Food Supply 0% Likelihood I think I’ll donate it to a food pantry before Christmas |
| Celina | Museum of new & never opened craft supplies... | a little alt-med supplement pharmacy | a small box of sentimentals. I'm okay. Oh and a set of dumbbells that I might use one day 😀 | my back-to-fit clothes. I gueess within this year (meaning a part of 2025 too) bc i'm on my slow way back 😉 |
| Lala | Museum of unfulfilled sales/ideas/projects and trinkets of days gone by. LOL | postponed decisions | Several items from my mom, my dad's smoking cabinet, my grandmas rocker. And lots more, of course. | My 14ft kayak... I hope to use it again. I love it & it's so useful. |
| CHRISTINE | Museum of my clothes....each and every size. Especially black slacks....5 pairs...in many sizes. I have been many sizes. But I keep hoping to someday fit back into the smaller sizes. And then I would wear the larger sizes, only when I am out gardening or decluttering in the garage or basement. I have been able to fit into the smaller sizes, before, but not lately for years now. It is because I cannot afford to keep buying clothes, in many sizes, that I keep the older clothes. (p.s. that awful Lyme disease from ticks on our lawns, in very common in our area....even if one just walks on a lawn. So old clothes are useful to wear outside when gardening, and then just discard them. Even washing clothes several times, will not kill Lyme disease ticks. ) | Clothing in a variety of sizes I have worn. | Books.... I do not have too many, But I kept have some books I never read now. But they connect me to when I was in college. A much younger version of myself. It is interesting for me to note, that back then, there were not the huge amount of photos taken, as there are today. So I do not have many photos of myself, during college. So books I used at that time, bring me back to that time, instead of photos. | Medical equipment ...like crutches, canes, rolling walkers, foot and knee braces, arm slings. I have had medical issues, where I had to purchase expensive medical equipment. And I actually did use some equipment, later on, for yet another medical problem. I know I will use some of this medical equipment, after some accident or medical problem, or surgery, in the next five year. Only problem is that medical equipment takes up a lot of room in a small house. |
| Anonymous user | Unsorted Papers | Things I thought would make me happy, and things that did years ago | Old clothes that don't fit | Craft supplies for crafts I might want to do |
| Denise | I've read that clutter is the physical manifestation of deferred decisions and procrastination. I'm soooooo fortunate that I found Dana K White in 2017. I was a level 1 or 2 hoarder before that, but got ruthless with decluttering! | I currently have one drawer and one file folder with things from my grandmother. I think that is a reasonable amount and don't consider it clutter. I decluttered my snow ski equipment last fall (before the winter ski season). I had decided that I no longer wanted to ski for fear of injury and wanted to pass on my equipment BEFORE it was totally out of date. I won't lie... it was hard and sad to see it go! But it was the right thing to do. I also recently donated MANY, MANY musical instruments. Probably 30 band instruments. They were all in use while I was teaching band, but I retired and better to pass them on to people who can use them. | Dawn, the Minimal Mom has the funniest and BEST youtube video on "Just in Case" items. My mom had dementia and was a boarderline hoarder. She had about 10 bottles of shampoo. I brought them to my house when she died because it was good shampoo, right? I don't know how old this shampoo was, but two of the bottles split open under my sink. The plastic was so old... it just spontaneously split open. I made the biggest mess!!!! A good life lesson in "Just In Case" items! This reminds me that I have some cleaning products in plastic bottles that I no longer use. I need to declutter before they split over and spill every where!!!! | |
| Ellen in W Michigan | Monument to paperwork procrastination. | Things I "should" do, like display pictures of my grandkids/family, and file paperwork. | I have a crocheted baby blanket that only needs the border put on it, but I ran out of yarn and never finished it. It's pretty, but what do you do with something that is 95% finished? I also still have too many picture frames, but I don't display that many photos any more. | I have a box of surge protector power strips and plug multipliers that I am unlikely to need in this apartment. I put them in a donation box last night when I was looking for a new charging cord. I have to wonder, though how many of these cords I will use up before they change the configuration again. I did throw away the one that didn't work any more, though. |
| ErinG | Museum of Homesteading and Ecological Farming books Monument of Aspirational Crafting Supplies | building supplies mason jars | high school and college art projects FIL's antique pottery collection | Baking equipment! I enjoy cooking, but not baking treats and desserts. My daughter loves to bake but she is now grown up and moved out. I feel like I need to have the equipment "just in case." Maybe she'll come visit and want to bake me a cake? 🙂 |
| Mar | museum of our lives within reason....just special objects | none of the above | trophies and awards for past achievements....just a few...not yearbooks, etc. An old cigar box of receipts paid by my grandfather in the 1930s....that tell a story. | An extra vegetable peeler (because it's a red Kitchen Aid). Not anything else except maybe a small box of art supplies for grandchildren and my classical guitar bought 55 years ago. My grandson has begun studying guitar in school...hope someday he'll take it. |
| Noreen | Museum of inherited items from parents, grandparents, great | Christmas ornaments I remember from childhood. I am getting better each year at letting more of them go and only keeping what I really love. | ||
| Kathy | Children’s items: books for all ages, toys for various stages. | I can shockingly say nothing. Wow! But I’ve done the hard work to let these kinds of things go. The items for the previous question……not so much. | I am saving children’s books, toys and baby equipment in case my children have more children and to have things for my grandchildren to play with. We are using them but at a slow rate. I’m sure we won’t get to them all but I can’t seem to be able to sort through. I have declutterred a great deal already but I am not willing to let these items go. | Baby equipment: booster chair, baby seat, baby toys. I think there is a 50/50 chance I will use them. |
| Evelin | unfinished craft projects | fabric, yarn, sewing accessories - and toothpaste 😀 | I still own an instrument that I played in the school orchestra - good times, really loved it. graduated 20 years ago, my husband wants me to sell it but it's a very niche instrument so I haven't tried that yet. I think about donating it to the school so a student can enjoy it as much as I did. | I have a lot of cosmetic stuff in stock and realized that I can not use everything up before it goes bad. Donated some of it and now I only have as much that I will probably use up in the near future. My plan is to only have one extra of every item that I use regularly. |
| Nancy | Museum of Keeping things in sight (so I don’t forget them) | Items given to me that I can’t use, AND Clothing in a variety of sizes I have worn | Cross stitching supplies | Beautiful serving trays I rescued from a storage unit that was being emptied out |
| Anonymous user | Museum of Books (Cookbook Collection & 40 year Travelogue), and Personal Records Museum. | Plastic bags, empty boxes, storage containers, family heirloom dishes, gifts still waiting to be given. | My childhood was complicated. Earliest years in Orphanages (shut down by Gov. for rampant child abuses), followed by years in foster care. Trying to get actual RECORDS kept by state agencies, to finally learn the TRUTH (after being lied to by ALL involved “for my protection” throughout my childhood) has been an on-and-off again CONSUMING PASSION throughout my adult life. I WANT THE FACTS... ALL OF THEM. This is complicated by my not living in the state I grew up in. | Gifts for grandchildren and others. Stored Memories that console me when I’m able to spend time accessing them. But high likelihood I will use them within five or less years. |
| Lela | cats and Cowboys | cat hair (Lol. Only sometimes) | My mom’c ceramic creations from the 70s (kitchenware, knick-knacks, & paintings) | …a grease gun I should be using every year to lube our riding lawn mower. If I get ambitious, I’ll use it in the spring when I change the mower’s oil. It’s very likely I’ll use it in the next 5 years. …Oh, and some frisbee golf discs which ride in the trunk of our car. We used to stop at parks & play but haven’t in the last 2 or 3 years. I don’t know if we’ll use them again. |
| Anonymous user | All of My Interests and Hobbies | Fascinating Books Luxury and Unique Yarns Foreign Language Learning Materials Travel catalogs and Brochures that are regularly curated Fine China and Crystal | Family history: Photo albums Crocheted lace gloves and tablecloths from the 1920’s Crystal, ceramics, pewter passed on from as far back as the 1600-1700’s but some only 100 years old | One mother of the groom dress that I bought 10 years ago. Son unlikely to marry, not my current size. I will likely never wear it ever. It’s a past dream that doesn’t take up much space. It’s beautiful! |
| Kim | Museum of out-of-focus photographs | My geriatric chronicalky-ill cat's large assortment of food items | Aforementioned out-of-focus photographs | Paint that came with our recently-purchased home. Will use for touch-ups. Have already used 1 can! 3 to go! |
| Ria | Monument of Untended Paperwork | Plant cuttings (somebody stop me before I root more cuttings in water) | Books. I now have dry eye and reading isn’t the pleasure it once was. I used to devour them, now very few get read. | A set of blue and white dishware I still love but have replaced (I used to have four sets of dishes, so I have made progress). Don’t see using in the next year but nostalgia might bring me to them in 5. |
| C | Museum of Collections. Museum of things for Justin Case. Museum of Uncompleted Crafts. | A warehouse of reference papers | Paintings and other objects of art that are part of the main collection, my mania and hobby. | A future need? Reference books on all sorts of subjects. One never knows when knowledge of how to do something is key to survival. |
| Anonymous user | Museum of vintage sewing machines | clothing in a variety of sizes I have worn | Crystal and Llardro figurines from my aunt. | Leather and fur coats for bag making. If I don’t use them within the next year I am going to commit to getting rid of them. |
| Kathy | Norman Rockwell! Cups, plates, pictures & figurines... Not to forget prints calendars in totes. And those boxes may make it worth more so yep you got it totes of empty boxes. | Shelves in cupboards more Norman Rockwell drinking glasses and tumblers. | Probably those layers within a closed door shelves of garage sale finds out of sight in totes and stacked not to be opened again... Years of shelf weight. | Several avoidance pieces " they are cute " Could use ... Memories when moving me was just a truck full of a few items. Clearer picture of a throw away generation not wanting baggage to weigh them down. |
| Lynn | Museum of 1940s era crystal dishware set that was my mom's wedding gift from her parents. I don't use it, no one expresses an interest in it when asked. But, I have a difficult time deciding to donate it to charity shops that are already overflowing with similar dushware. It doesn't have a strong sentimental value to me, it just feels a shame to add such pretty dishes to the piles of unwanted dusty ones in shops. They are out of the way filling a ceiling-high bookshelf. I don't need the space they occupy for anything so there is no pressure to do something with them. Am going to see if I can make something crafty out of them. | Empty storage containers that have been decluttered of their contents in case they are needed in future. | Handwritten letters to and from my mom and her aunt, and her aunt and aunt's husband. About 50 years worth of them that includes letters the aunt wrote home to her husband during her many travels to other countries all over the world as well as letters between my mom and her aunt chronicling our childhood activities. I've been slowly working my way through them to read and sort out the ones of great interest and tossing the rest. There are a LOT of them. It is hard to read all that faded cursive. | Empty storage containers. Might use a lot of them the next time I reorganize all the crap on the shelves in the garage. |
| Anonymous user | Museum of Cedar | hubby's "useful stuff" | family genealogy items ( books, papers, photos, web site links and printed copies of the web sites in the links just in case it becomes unavailable, .....) | I'm keeping things that our daughter may want, even though she went no-contact 10 years ago. It's just too sad to think of never seeing her or her children again, so I live in hope. |
| Anonymous user | Activities we started but never carried forward. | A box of condolence cards to my grandmother when her husband was tragically killed at work, leaving her with six children to raise during the depression without benefit of welfare or food stamps. | A classic sleeveless little black dress. It's handy, but I'm fair skinned so if photos are likely to be taken,I wear something else or the camera will average the exposure and my face looks ghost white. It's handy for funerals, dinner out and packs well in a suitcase. I usually take a short and long sleeved black cardigan and sometimes a white blazer on trips so it's suitable in any weather. I should really look for occasions to wear it more often. | |
| Jennifer | packed boxes | too many kitchen gadgets | I have a photo album that has physical prints of digital photos that I want to have a hard copy of. | My housemates have a ton of supplies for decorating holiday cookies- in all the years I have been here, none of that stuff has been used. |
| Amy | Museum of small piles of “to do” items. | semi-functional items “just in case” | Some small handmade ceramic pottery mugs made by my mom | A spare landline phone. |
| Anne | Museum of old sentimental artwork | Boxes of odd items to sort | Samples, file, and documents from business | Baby books and items |
| Name (click to view full survey response and comments) | Complete the following statement: “My home could serve as the Museum of _____.” | Complete the following statement: “My home is a warehouse for _____.” | Describe something that you’re keeping because it connects you with a past version of yourself, your family history, a former relationship, etc. | Describe something that you’re keeping for a future need, whether real or imagined. |
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