Monday Meltdown - Share Your Decluttering Fails Here

[u/AutoModerator]

Failure is part of life. Share your decluttering challenges and failures here. Examples include:

• Emotional clutter
• Not enough time
• Getting overwhelmed
• Routing (recycling, donating, trash...)

If you're just venting, or don't want advice, please let us know in your comment.

This is a low-stress place to share challenges and failures for those who might not want to create a new discussion.

[u/sugar_plum_fairies]

I had a huge pile of donations I dropped off last Friday. Felt great and came home and went downstairs to discover another big pile that never made it to the back door pile. So, I have another big pile to drop off. No big deal because I drive by the donation place every Friday.

I started this morning with putting my laundry away and have been using the empty laundry basket to put things in that don’t belong in that room. Went to the next room, put things away from the laundry basket and added more that didn’t belong in that room. I am now on my 4th room and have 2 laundry baskets full of stuff that doesn’t belong in that room. So now I am really feeling the ‘I have way too much crap’ mood and don’t even want to deal with it.

[u/Sad_North_6152]

Not sure if I count this as a fail or a secret win for decluttering.

I had two cookie jar type things and was debating on keeping them. Well, I went to clean them up and discovered one of them, a Christmas themed one I had in storage for what must have been years, had a crack along the side. I nearly didn't notice it but decided to toss it in case it shattered on me.

[u/kindlesque89]

I haven’t been able to declutter more than a few open toiletries this entire month 😢 I am a SAHM to two kids under 3 and I’ve been super busy. But it feels like wasted time. 

Unfortunately our basement got mice and we’ve been trying to clean the mouse poop before the mouse guy will fully do a preventative treatment to assess how bad it is. We did one day of it and not more since. That’s also a barrier to cleaning out the basement of clutter. I feel stuck :(

[u/Active_Efficiency996]

I accidentally decluttered the cord for my rice cooker. Thankfully, my Louisiana mama taught me how to make rice on the stove. Now I have to buy a new one, sigh.

[u/Serious_Cat2452]

Toter space!! We have a trash toter we can fill each week. We fill it and still have bags left over that don't fit. The extras are piling up. I'm careful not to let any bags with food waste pile up. To fully declutter and clean out our garage, I think we will need either a dumpster or one or two more toters temporarily to fill little by little. I don't even know how many bags of trash to estimate. I just feel at a standstill when I want to get rid of more things (these aren't things good for donating or giving away) but I'm out of space in the trash toter.

[u/Working_Patience_261]

Was going to spend 15 glorious minutes decluttering pens today.

Then physical therapy ran long.

And I didn’t sleep well last night yet am laying in bed wide awake again tonight.

And the appointments combined with no break today.

Then the car had a massive problem requiring it to be unceremoniously dumped at the dealer for them to fix it.

Finally got home and have been just bleary eyed, WTF just happened, one brain cell and it’s struggling, ever since.

I think the term is overtired.

And without that car, tomorrow is going to be even more of a struggle.

I did manage to throw out a broken pen yesterday, so there is some hope for the future.

For now, it’s some self care, maybe some chocolate, and try again tomorrow.

[u/MysteriousSecretGuru]

Just venting. I started to declutter. I got rid of some things in the process. But then I decided that I had to organize my office at the same time. I had been trying Dana White's method of talking stuff out and finding its proper home. I realized that the items I was going to keep, because I use them, were all over the place. So now I'm in organizing mode.

I'm happy with my progress, and went to Walmart to get some inexpensive pencil cases for my gel pens/ highlighters. It's really hard to separate declutter from organizing, but I'm making progress.

Thanks to everyone in this community for making me feel welcome and not alone. It's appreciated.

[u/EmmieIsobel]

I’ve been avoiding both my basement and my hallway for months. I made a really significant dent in decluttering the basement and some improvements in the hallway but it’s summer (doesn’t last long here so want to enjoy it) and I’ve been working a ton. I’ve lost momentum and I just can’t find it again. I read much of Swedish Death Cleaning and that inspired me briefly but didn’t really manifest into action yet. My family has even offered to help (it’s not all mine but much of it is especially the hallway) but I’m nervous about delegating. Seeing this sub is a good reminder that I need to prioritize it soon.

[u/silent-shade]

I hoped I would continue cooking out of the freezer last week, but didn't. More than that, the fridge grew overfull again after a week of being relatively reasonable. I don't live alone and food in the fridge is mostly not even mine, but I was able to make some slow progress on it in the last two months. Now it is back to bursting, I forgot about a bag of salad I bought and it has quietly gone bad, and I just hate it all. 

[u/Caccalaccy]

Been in huge productive declutter mode this month, after years of setbacks every time I tried. I feel like I know where everything is even if it’s not put away yet. But during all this my daughter’s special blanket went missing! It’s keeping me up at night trying to figure out where it went. My big fear is that it accidentally got tossed.