I'm listening to an audiobook by Peter Walsh, one of the organizers from TLC's "Clean Sweep." I have been gradually decluttering my house.

Our neighbors had a garage sale and they kept wanting us to contribute stuff so their sale would be more attractive to drive-by traffic. I started pulling things out of the black hole of a garage we inherited from the previous owners (more than ten years ago) and from there, started feeling ambitious enough to clean out the entire garage. I was still finishing up when my friend showed up to go out to dinner, so he helped me sweep it up and put the last things away. It looks amazing and it feels great to be rid of some of the clutter.

I only made $7 from garage sale items so far, and I bought $25 worth of stuff from the neighbors, but I got a clean garage out of the deal. I am hoping that the stuff I gave them sells tomorrow. If not, I will take all that stuff to a donation dropoff at Goodwill as soon as possible, because I don't want to give up my nice, empty garage.

P.S. I got rid of a trunk-full of stuff by taking it to my church for their garage sale. I ended up giving away some old bikes by putting them on the curb with a sign that said "FREE." I sold a few things and made $9. I was especially glad that the weight bench and weights that the former owner left in our house is now gone. I much prefer going to the gym than having that stuff here to trip over.

I am guessing that these giveaways/sold items probably freed up 5 cubic feet of space from my house and garage, plus gave me room to better organize what was left. So even a person who claims not to be a pack rat can have a lot to gain by this stuff.

Hooray Cathy and Sheri -- definitely no reason to pay to haul or store stuff you don't really use. I don't think I'm a pack rat, but there is definitely a laziness aspect to clutter -- a lot of the time you have stuff just because you've never bothered to think about whether you want to keep it.

It feels good to donate stuff to a charity or give/sell it to someone who will actually get some use out of it.

My husband gets to clean out the basement since I did the garage.

Kudos to all of you. As a former pack rat, I totally understand how hard this can be.

The upside is that I feel so much lighter because I now live in an almost clutter free house. (The other resident is totally content to remain a pack rat.)

I will soon have my own office so that I can totally avoid all clutter in the current one.

My name is Cathy, and I am a packrat, along with the rest of my family. BUT, we have vowed that with this move, we will toss, throw, pitch, and donate everything that we haven't seen in 12 months. This will pretty much mean everything in out dungeon of a basement....but we are not moving it. A moratorium has been placed on buying anything else until we get settled and find out what we really need. For us pack ratters, t his is very hard, but I am sure we will feel the heights of success after we find a home!

Way to go, Jen! I know what a great feeling it can be to see a floor or a wall that was previously covered by "stuff."

I started "Operation Clean-Up" last weekend and part of that is about de-cluttering (esp. stuff that I haven't used or even seen in years) and giving or throwing stuff away so that I can prepare to move to Delaware within the next year.

One bad thing about staying in one place as long as I have (I've lived in my apt. for 32 years this August), it is SO easy just to keep accumulating stuff and you never get motivated to go through it because you don't HAVE to. Now I do have to because I don't want to pay to move it to Delaware!

Good for you Jen! We are getting ready for a garage sale as well.....and we are also combining with other families for the "curb appeal" factor Looking forward to getting rid of all of this stuff!