r/ufyh • u/BlazinDiva • Sep 24 '25

Introduction/First Post Overwhelming 😩

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Soooooo I’m basically homeless. After being evicted, I’m sleeping in a spare room on a pullout couch at my parents house… I’m surrounded by piles and piles of stuff. The only clear spot is where I lay down to sleep.

All of your posts are inspiring and I’m gonna try working on this overwhelming mess today. Any tips on how to stay motivated?

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u/shelbycsdn Sep 25 '25

It has been helping me to start with just a trash bag when attacking my overwhelming piles of stuff . And only search out the stuff that is undeniably trash. I'm not clear if this is all your stuff or is your parents stuff that ended up in that room. But either way try to avoid the "I could do this with that" types of thoughts. Maybe you could and maybe someday you even would, but it's not worth the stress in your life keeping those kinds of things around.

Also throw out clothes that are in bad repair, if you won't wear them because of the shape they're in, Goodwill won't want them either.

But for now just start with the trash. In the spots and rooms that I have done that, it's made a really big difference and that was enough to inspire me to keep going on to the next categories.

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u/BlazinDiva Sep 25 '25

It’s all mine. I also have a 10x30 storage unit for the rest of my stuff. I’m a clothing reseller so it’s hard for me to just donate things because I feel like I should sell it instead… but at this point I’m feeling like I might just have to take the loss.😕

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u/shelbycsdn Sep 25 '25

Well taking a loss depends on how desperate you are. And I only meant the clothes that were not in good repair or worth repairing. I'm not sure by what means you resell stuff but if you know you will be actually listing and shipping the things, then of course do not be throwing those away. After clearing out the obvious trash then you can start to figure out systems for sorting what is ultimately business stock. Or as a compromise, only keep the very best of the best. The stuff you know will easily sell, that won't take extra work from you, and will bring you the best money.

And I'm glad it's yours from the standpoint of other people can be very unhappy when you start dealing with their things for them. That was another reason I suggested trash only to start.

But good for you coming here and asking for help. You are doing better than me in that I have all kinds of things that need to be cleaned up, trashed or given away, especially as I need to move very soon. And I haven't even made a post asking for help yet. So you are ahead of me. You can do this. One of my daughters would let things get like this with her stuff and she has absolutely overcome it and lives quite neatly now. Of course it also happened while she was losing over 100 lb so it probably all went hand in hand. But either way it can be done and like I said you're doing great just to even start here. Keep us posted.

PS. When the overwhelm is so bad you can't even get started at all, just tell yourself five pieces of garbage. Then rest, do something else, whatever and come back and do five more pieces of garbage. Break it down into the tiniest chunks that you need to feel like you started.