Home Economics 101

I was going to post in yvi's post on home moving tips, but realised that perhaps a second thread would be generally applicable.

De-cluttering tips.

Now, I am not the prime de-clutterer in the world, so please see comments too. Guilt about landfill is my biggest problem with decluttering, so most of mine are about what to do with stuff other than put it in the bin.

My tips:

If you haven't used it in a year, you don't need it. Some people declutter post-move by simply seeing which boxes they don't unpack.

Auction sites (Ebay etc) are generally better for small things, especially DVDs, computer games, and electronic devices. Large things like furniture tend to make so little money that sometimes you may as well freecycle once you consider the hassle of making the listing in the first place. (Enough pieces of furniture will add up.) Charities with thrift stores will sometimes take furniture, in Australia though due to health regulations it must be stain and rip-free.

I know opinions vary a lot on this (if you disagree, just ignore me), but consider whether you are one of those people who really needs a library. I've given up keeping books around because I feel like I should read or re-read them, and keep only the ones I want to read or re-read. It's hard enough finding time to get around to the latter. Books are easy to tidy, but they are a pain in the neck to move and they end up taking a lot of room. I find books don't get their due on Ebay, so I freecycle or drop them off at secondhand stores (the latter can be rather picky).

We are constantly surprised at the stuff our council (local area government) includes in their recycling program. The latest thing we're allowed to put out for recycling is pots and pans. There are special days for e-waste and chemical waste (like car batteries), unfortunately these rather rely on having a car to do the drop-off.

There's stuff I'm still struggling with. I have a seeming inability to get rid of stationary, even if I have 20 $2 notebooks I seem to try and keep them all rather than waste paper. Old cassettes and videocassettes are sitting around because likelihood is they're for the bin. Stuff for my baby, because what if I have another baby? And generally I tend to cling to anything that I desperately wanted as a child but that my parents couldn't afford to buy me. Which is why I now have a pile of stuffed toys, despite rarely looking at them and not really liking most of them. Bags (as in, travelling bags), because, again, they seem vaguely useful and I don't want to toss 'useful' things, even if I have 15 of them.

Your tips? (Not just on my problem areas!)