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My Favorite Way to Avoid Clutter Guilt

October 24, 2014 By Dana White | 20 Comments

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My Favorite Wat to Avoid Clutter Guilt - A Slob Comes Clean

No script today. You can totally do this one without even opening your mouth.

Just take the box of clutter, stick it in your trunk, and drive over to the nearest donation place.

Basically, it’s the Declutter Now, Answer/Avoid Questions Later approach.

Click here if you can’t see the video.

I have had WAY too much fun doing these videos this week. Y’all have helped make it fun with your responses, but the very best moment was when my oh-so-cool almost-thirteen-year-old laughed out loud (several times!) when I made him watch them.

I’m brainstorming another video series for later this fall . . .

If you can’t bring yourself to just donate without letting the gifter/guilter know first, check out my other posts from this week with strategies to help you move past that point of paralysis:

Help! Please Save Me From My Stuff!!

It’s Not You, It’s Me

The Playing Dumb Approach

When All Else Fails (If Snark Is Your Style . . . )

And here’s a podcast about Clutter Guilt.

Save

--Nony

Related Posts:

Read Newer Post How International Bird Rescue Partners with Dawn
Read Older Post When All Else Fails (If Snark Is Your Style . . . )

Filed Under: decluttering, vlogs | 20 Comments

Comments

  1. Jewlz280 says

    October 24, 2014 at 12:23 pm

    LOL!!! My preferred method for sure! HA! My version of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’!!!! I do love your vids.

    Reply
  2. Cathryn says

    October 24, 2014 at 12:25 pm

    A pre-emptive conversation I have had with some family & friends is about how sometime we pass objects on that we can’t throw out ourselves (emotionally) and sometimes it’s easier to throw stuff out for each other. We have an unwritten rule of once passed on “don’t ask!”. My mother in Law knows that if she wants it back if I don’t need it she needs to say otherwise don’t complain …

    Reply
    • Kelekona says

      October 24, 2014 at 2:39 pm

      I think that people in my family have that problem as well. Each time I moved out of the house, random relatives offered me furniture. (Fortunately I knew enough to look at it and choose only what I wanted.) I think it’s implied that once you pass it on, you have no say in where it goes next.

      Borrowing is completely different, and does have responsibilities.

      Reply
  3. Ti Anderson says

    October 24, 2014 at 2:16 pm

    Yay! That was an elegant finale. Can’t wait to see more skit series!

    Reply
  4. Kelekona says

    October 24, 2014 at 2:47 pm

    I think that maybe there is something to add to the etiquette of passing stuff on. The giver should say “pass it on when you are done with it.” Or the givee should prompt, “I have use for it now, but what should I do when I am done with it?” during the exchange.

    Reply
    • Dana White says

      October 24, 2014 at 4:15 pm

      Yep. Totally agree.

      Reply
  5. Courtney says

    October 24, 2014 at 4:25 pm

    LOL…too funny! I read your post to say “Just take the box of clutter,…and drive over it!” I thought “well that is ONE way to get rid of it.” I had to slow down and reread it again. Good advice, but I so can picture you out there just ‘driving over it’.

    Reply
    • Hazel says

      October 24, 2014 at 5:07 pm

      This is in line with my favorite approach to the “it’s too good to throw out, but I really don’t need/want it in the way any more” scenario. Just leave it in reach of the kids for a little while and then it definitely can’t be used again… The kids get half an hours entertainment with a new “toy” and I get to throw it away guilt free!

      Reply
      • lydia purple says

        October 25, 2014 at 9:30 am

        yep, i tltally do that too… let the kids play with stuff i want to get rid of. and the other way around, sometimes i purposely won’t clean up junk toys so that accidentally someone steps on them or rides their bike over them…

        usually i just declutter and get rid of the stuff without telling the giver (or sometimes my kids) and usually they don’t notice that the thing is missing. out of sight out of mind. however if my kids or see the things i want to throw out before i do, they will most of the time protest and demand to keep it. one reason to send them to school, so mom can declutter freely 😉 same goes for MIL, i must make sure that she does not see the donation box with the stuff i want to get out when she comes over, or she will tell how nice and usefull all these things are…

        Reply
    • Dana White says

      October 25, 2014 at 9:49 am

      Hmmmm, that IS a good idea . . .

      Reply
  6. Amber says

    October 24, 2014 at 8:45 pm

    Better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Most of the time this really works.

    Reply
  7. amy collins says

    October 25, 2014 at 10:25 am

    “YOU DON”T HAVE TO WEAR SHOES-JUST GET IN THE CAR. YOU WON”T EVEN BE GETTING OUT” True Statement- flies from my lips on a weekly basis.

    I had a good chuckle at that one. I don’t think I had heard someone say it in exactly the same way before. I also have the preferred method down- just drive and drop- no asking, no discussion, no debate over who is goes to next- just get it OUTTA MY HOUSE- NOW!

    and yes- I am a slob too (messy not dirty most of the time, although in this past year I have found some messes after I declutter)…like this morning when I paid my 8 year old $2 an hour to help me declutter the masterbedroom while my husband was at the county fair ($2 is fair pay for an 8 year old who has very little concept of money and we shop garage sales so $2 goes a LONG WAY- plus come on… I’m her mother-she wants to help right?!?!) What did I unearth in my decluttering- something I said I wouldn’t do…….dirty mugs that I left in my bedroom after sneaking a late night mug of ice cream. She even asked as she was carrying the mugs to the kitchen (in true slob fashion placed on the counter and NOT in the dishwasher mind you)….”Mommy these mugs look like they had ice cream in them-do you eat ice cream in your bedroom?”

    BUSTED.

    Both of utter slobdom
    and
    Sneaky Mother Practices

    Well…moving on now =)

    Reply
    • Dana White says

      October 25, 2014 at 8:07 pm

      Hahahaha on being busted!! I’ve been there!

      Reply
  8. Marybeth Smith says

    October 25, 2014 at 10:26 am

    Thank you for the idea’s and for all the laugh’s.My 20 yr old very seldom laughs at anything I show him but he loved your skit’s and said, now you know how to handle Mamaw’s junk she is always giving you and then constantly checking to make sure you still have it.

    Reply
  9. Judy says

    October 25, 2014 at 12:24 pm

    Nony, these were great! I donate stuff, and rarely, if ever, have I been asked about the fate of anything (except by a kid.) I have found that phrasing is everything: I never say “I got rid of that” (sounds so harsh!) I always say “Hmmm…I don’t think we still have that” (just an observation, doesn’t sound like a judgement) and it’s always gone over well.

    Reply
  10. Kristy K. James says

    October 25, 2014 at 5:59 pm

    I once gave a dishwasher and hutch to a neighbor who claimed they needed it. A few weeks later, they sold them in a rummage sale. I was almost offended, but then I thought … I gave it to them. What they chose to do with them was their business. They were out of my house and that’s all I cared about.

    If someone dumps something on me, I figure it’s mine. If I choose to run it to the Hospice store or Goodwill and they don’t like it … oh well. Maybe they’ll stop trying to pawn their stuff off on me. The only thing I can’t manage to do that with is a large electric roasting pan my mom gave me, but another few days and that sucker is OUT of my house … after almost ten years of taking laundry room and pantry space.

    Reply
  11. becca banana says

    October 25, 2014 at 9:11 pm

    You are hilarious. Videos have been so fun…. the wigs, the dialects, the rolling eyes….. thank you!

    Reply
  12. Melissa M. says

    October 26, 2014 at 8:45 am

    I’ve had fun watching all of these, Nony, but I did just want to note for everyone that I’ve heard (don’t know for sure) that Goodwill is actually a for profit store, whereas someplace like Salvation Army, you are truly donating to folks who need it. We don’t have either option where I live, so I usually donate to the Big Brothers Big Sisters boxes, where I’m assured they are taken someplace where they are sold/used and whatever profit there is stays here in our area for our local BBBS group. So that’s good enough for me. I mainly want things to be used, somewhere, and not sent to the landfill!

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      October 26, 2014 at 8:13 pm

      That stuff about Goodwill being “for profit” is from an anonymous email circulated in 2005. It was a crock then, and it’s a crock now. Just google “Goodwill for profit” and you can read about 50 debunkings.

      I can’t imagine what agenda the person who made this stuff up had but don’t be taken in.

      Reply
      • Melissa M. says

        October 26, 2014 at 10:12 pm

        Thanks very much for the info–I just did a Snopes check and it was eye opening. I appreciate learning about this. As I said, we have no place here to donate, other than local thrift stores or the Big Brothers Big Sisters group.

        Reply

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A Slob Comes Clean is the completely honest (and never-ending) story of my deslobification process. As I find ways to keep my home under control, I share the truth about cleaning and organization methods that actually work for a real-life slob. And I'm funny.

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