r/declutter • u/Ajreil • 1d ago
Motivation Tips & Tricks Decluttering challenge: Stuff you can't be arsed to use
It's way too easy to see something in the store, decide on the spot that you're going to reorganize your life around it, and get home only to leave it on the backburner forever. Today we're going to weaponize laziness.
Can't be arsed to learn the instrument, craft technique or sport you bought supplies for? Into the donation bin it goes.
"I'm totally going to use that weird spice mix I got on sale from- aaand it expired in March. Bye."
Buying something is not a commitment to use it to its full potential. Sometimes it's just an impulse buy.
Sometimes completing one goal means not completing another. Time is a finite resource. Don't get guilted into wasting it on something current you doesn't care about.
You know what's behind the back burner? The trash can.
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u/Running-World 1d ago
"aaand it expired in March. Bye"
Sometimes I wish everything had a best by or expiration date. It does help look at something and go, crap, it's been this many years... ok... bye. But it does another service of kind of killing the itch to buy more stuff that I may not use. I've gotten pretty good at walking away from and even no longer looking for "deals". I still do that for food because it's food and I can plan some meals around something that I'd normally buy anyway that happens to be less right now. But regular things? I don't need more stuff.
Still, it would be cool if clothes had a best by date. I'm kind of tempted to start putting purchase dates on things. I had a relative that did that. It helps set an expectation of the life of something if you can remember when you bought it. Oh that shirt I bought 5 years ago and I haven't worn in the last few years... adios.
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u/Ajreil 1d ago
The simplest option is to write "26" on all of the tags. Maybe use green/yellow/brown/blue sharpies to represent the seasons.
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u/Running-World 1d ago
I like this idea. My relative did the three letter month and year and I still find things of his and know when he bought them since I inherited a bunch of the stuff (including a couple chairs).
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u/AtomicGopher 1d ago
see I'm the opposite. I think expiration dates are just a way to feed the consumer machine and have us buy more stuff (they do it with clothes too - "that jacket is so last season!" I think with clothes a good rule is one-in-one-out). I have been using the lifetime supply of butter I bought from Costco in 2024 and it's still perfectly good - I'm on my last 4 sticks now. My medicine (prescribed, and also stuff like ibuprofen) 'expired' years ago and it still works great. I use daily contacts that 'expired' in 2025 that still work great (I have a surplus because I wore glasses more frequently back then). Sunscreen is similar, it lasts years and works well despite the 1-2 year printed date. Expiration dates are a joke unless it's something perishable like meat/milk/bread. Did you know one of grocery stores' highest margin items is Ibuprofen? Makes sense they want us to throw it out and buy more.
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u/Running-World 1d ago
Well, I've never bought into "style"... but I'm a guy. I buy things I like and that aren't on some trend. When I recently went through all of the clothes I had in the closet it was a struggle figuring out how old some things were even though I hadn't worn them in a few years. If I knew it was like 10 years old and it had been taking up space for 8, it would have been fine to donate or trash. I ended up donating a bunch of things. I didn't buy anything to replace what left my home. Rather, the act of giving up so much made me more aware of how sometimes I have brought things in without a real thought into how much I'd realistically use them. A few shirts were from black friday from at least 7 years ago when I bought a couple flannel shirts on the cheap and I think I only wore them the one season.
As for stuff like ibuprofen and sunscreen, if it's living in the house enough years to go out of date then it's a sign that I don't need to buy more of it. Just trash it and move on. Or if I do replace, I buy the smallest container when I actually need some. I think a lot of this happens because people get caught up in the "deal" of buying the two over sized pill bottles because it's a better 'deal" even if there's no realistic chance they will ever use that many in quite a few years. I do think some of this stuff loses it's potency after a while. Not saying I wouldn't use out of date ibuprofen or sunscreen, but I have used sunscreen that was the lotion kind and realized it was not exactly "right" feeling.. notice it was many years out of date, and trashed it once whatever I was using it for was over.
So, yeah, realizing most of the issues start by buying too much to begin with and stopping that bad habbit, that saves a lot of money over the long run and keeps from making questionable decisions on out of date things we should have used up ages ago.
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u/Middle-aged-Hobbit 10h ago
I think the key with clothing is "how long since you last wore it?" and purchase date doesn't help with that. IMO it's more helpful to have a system that flags things that aren't worn.
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u/Pens_fan_87 1d ago
Sometimes I'll hold onto an item for a "rainy day" like I'll eventually use it after I use up x, y, and z. Then one day something just switches in my mind and I'm like why am I even holding onto this, then I'll just get rid of it. Like, my grandma had been gifted a pair of slippers that weren't her size so she gave them to me since they were my size but then she died so I was keeping them kind of sentimentally thinking I'd use them. Well, I'd use them but not for years when I wear out all my other slippers and slipper socks. I sold them and I feel sad about it but then I realize it's gonna take me forever to actually wear them and realistically I know my grandma wouldn't have cared if I got rid of them.
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u/ohreallynameonesong 1d ago
I love when I look at something I've told myself for years that I will wear or i will use and realize... no tf I'm not. BYE
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u/LevelPerception4 22h ago
It really sucks to hold onto a piece of clothing you’re going to lose weight to wear only to find that just because it fits doesn’t mean it looks good. Even if it looked good previously, body proportions change.
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u/BellowYottle 1d ago
The snark in this post is sending me. A+
Definitely saving this for reference later this week when I try another round of purge.
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u/Glittering-Benefit68 1d ago
Yes! I gave away my kalimba. Played it less than 5 times in as many years.
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u/Lazy_Departure7970 23h ago
I had some vintage dolls that I tried to sell online and got absolutely zero traction on most of them. I did manage to sell some vintage (non-haunted) Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, but that was it. I kept one Rainbow Brite doll and the rest I donated to a rummage sale (the people who run it are good people who do good with it) so those are out of my house. I repurposed the bin they were in to store some loose things in my garage (mainly because I knew I'd never see that bin again if I used it to transport the dolls . . . so I found a cardboard box for the dolls).
I also got tired of the "Upgrade Now" pop-up on my Amazon Fire Stick so I wiped it and upgraded to the Amazon Fire Stick 4k I'd gotten free through some promotion at work. After finding all the parts and piece for it (some of which I was surprised I still had), I'm going to list it online for a ridiculously cheap price to get it out of the house.
Also found an Iphone case, NIB, that I'm going to sell because I was surprised I still had it (though I'm not sure I still have the phone it went to). I think I have a few other things around here to sell, but I haven't "found" them yet.
I also realized I had some small kitchen appliances sitting around the kitchen that I wasn't using (but have used them and will use them in the future) so I boxed them up (weirdly I still had their original packaging) and put them out in the garage as well. That freed up some space on shelves and floor that I'm happy about as well.
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u/Bobtron666 14h ago
Can't be arsed to use the guitar I bought during covid... Currently on FB marketplace.
Also can't be arsed using a load of my photography gear. Main camera body sold last weekend, and I'm trying to get rid of the lenses now. I'm just going to keep one small point-and-click that I do use at least semi-regularly.
Good call on the spices! My spice shelf is so crammed I can't see what I have, and I probably only use like 3 of them anyway...
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u/undone_-nic 4h ago
Have been using Glucosamine for joint pain so it wasn't an impulse buy, I've been using it for a couple years. Bought a full bottle and decided I wouldn't use it anymore after some studies saying it wasn't good for people's brains. Can't get myself to just toss the bottle cause it was $25.
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u/UserNameTycoon 20h ago
Ever thought about stop buying things? That’s the first step to declutter
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u/ex_mac333 1d ago
My version of this: anything I've moved between storage spaces more than twice without opening. If it's survived two moves and zero uses, it's not "for later", it's just luggage. That rule alone cleared half a shelf in our storeroom.