That pile of stuff that belongs to no one...

[Gardenarian]

When you live in a group (family, whatever) stuff tends to kind of pile up and no one has a claim on it. We have this problem with dog stuff (toys, leashes) board games, paper of every kind, old gardening things (plastic pots, broken-but-usable tools), hardware (why do we have these hinges? hooks? paint?)

As the Mom, it tends to fall on me to go through this stuff and decide what goes where - then dd says, "oh, I wanted to keep that" or dh finds that I'm throwing out an 'important' document.

What do you do with this stuff? Even going through our scarf/hat/glove drawer is a challenge.
A lot of these things were gifts to the family. Do you just make a unilateral decision? Divide the work up?

[razz]

Imagine that you are going to move and see what happens especially if you say it will be a downsizing move. I am going through this right now because I need to move and it is amazing what suddenly becomes less important and worth retaining.

[creaker]

Not that it would actually work, but what about putting it in their hands and say "here"? And letting them know they need to find their own place for it (their drawer, closet, storage bin, whatever). I've found family members become much less attached to keeping things when they become the ones responsible for them.

[Spartana]

Now that my clutter-bug sister has moved out and gotten her own larger place, and taken much of her stuff with her, I no longer have this dilemma. But basicly what we did was have baskets on a special large table we got just for her junk. If her stuff sprawled out of control, I'd just stick it in her basket or on the table. Since I'm a minimalist and am always trying to get rid of things, I found that I never had my own "piles" ever so there really was never any dispute. It was ALL hers as far as I was concerned (even if it was mine) as I didn't want to keep anything myself for the most part.

[Teacher Terry]

When I was raising my kids I just made the decision for them when they were not home. My hubby I usually asked. When you have a family things can easily get out of control.

[mschrisgo2]

I used to grab a brown grocery bag, scoop it all in, staple the top shut (so it wouldn't spill), and mark it with the date and location (kitchen counter, family room table, etc.) then put it on the shelf in the garage. After about a month, I'd toss it in the garbage! I figured if no one asked for anything in that length of time, it wasn't useful and they didn't need it, lol.

AND if they asked for something, they'd have to tell me _where_ they left it so I could retrieve the correct bag. The rule was that once a bag was opened, it had to be gone through. Actually, it didn't take too many times before the important things were properly taken care of, and what was left laying around really was trash. My next step was to put wastebaskets in close proximity to those locations.Over about a year's time, we eliminated this problem.

(I did the same thing in my classroom. For some reason my fourth graders learned much more quickly!)

[Tiam]

One possible suggestion. Set stuff out on a table, on the floor, wherever and ask people to look at stuff and see if there is anything they really need to keep. Use the "last time you used it" rule. Of course, you would have to have cooperation for that to work.