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Old-Fashioned Decluttering Rules We’ve Forgotten

Fighting For Simplicity

102,972 views

Decluttering advice usually focuses on what to get rid of. But what if some of the best decluttering lessons are actually the old-fashioned habits that stopped our homes from filling up in the first place?

In this video, I’m looking back at some of the things I remember growing up, keeping things for longer, buying more deliberately, choosing function over aesthetics, and making or repairing things rather than constantly replacing them.

This isn’t about pretending everything was better in the past. It’s about asking whether some of those simple habits could help us create less clutter today.

If you’re decluttering your home, trying to buy less, or simply looking for a more realistic way to simplify life, I hope this gives you a different way to think about what comes into your home, not just what needs to leave it.

#decluttering #clutter #simplifyinglife #declutteryourhome #simpleliving

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⏲️ CHAPTERS ⏲️

00:00 - Intro
00:46 - We kept things for longer
02:43 - Shopping was deliberate
04:26 - Function over aesthetics
06:49 - Less options to buy
08:54 - Repaired or reused more

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20 Comments

@fightingforsimplicity Creator 1 month ago Pinned

What’s one “old-fashioned” habit you grew up with that you think actually helped keep clutter under control? I’d love to hear what you remember 🙂

@stitchinghistory5109 1 month ago

My Mum was staying with us and my partner came was about to do some washing when he said to me, 'these towels are getting worn along the sides. We'll probably need to get some new ones'. To which Mum replied, 'just run a zig-zag stitch down the sides and they'll be good for another 30 years yet.'

@diedradeutsch930 1 month ago

Yes, there was limited choice, but also there seemed to be more basics. You could get functional household items and clothing. It didn't take an entire shopping district to find white socks or linen tea towels.

@Old_Scot 1 month ago (edited)

I'm definitely over 40! Shopping wasn't a leisure activity when I was young. You shopped because you needed stuff, and the stuff lasted. Half the "decluttering" articles I read are about buying storage items!

@Emiliapocalypse 1 month ago

Better quality things are becoming harder to find, too. My mom recently wore a cardigan with lots of cute colored varying thread, and based on the style I could see it was 1980’s. It had ZERO pilling!! No fading! Looked brand new. Hard to find things these days that hold up to washing without becoming totally worn out looking. It’s a shame. Makes it harder to live sustainably

@leannecanty8821 1 month ago

I miss my old washing machine and dryer so much. We moved and the new house had new appliances. The old ones worked so much better. The loads were done faster. You could put more in. The lid didn't lock in place, so you could throw in something you'd forgotten. They were sturdy and lasted for decades.

@Doris-r5x 1 month ago

I think one of the problems that was not touched on is that items that we purchase now are either so cheap and disposable or the opposite, terribly expensive and out of the price range regulars folks. Even second hand things are being out priced because those who are selling them check on the internet to find a value and rather than being reasonable they price things at the highest end of the "value" of the item. Even when someone genuinely want to dispose of something and they try to give the still good item away, people refuse the item because they would rather have disposable but new.

@davidbennett9691 1 month ago

I still use a lot of kitchen tools and equipment that were in use in my home before I was born over seventy years ago.

@rachaelhall1164 1 month ago

Something I've been pondering for a while is how easy it is to casually start browsing, if you are a bit bored or kind of a bit vaguely interested in something, or just want to check out what second-hand items have been listed today.

If my parents had wanted to buy a book, or a jumper, or browse through a thrift shop they would have had to leave the house, go into town (or more likely the nearest city if it wasn't from the supermarket, the shoe shop, the card shop, or some kind of tatt from the weekly market because that was all you could get in our little corner of the world).

There is a real bar to clear there if you want to buy something - are you willing to get up, catch a bus, deal with crowds, and give up a good chunk of your Saturday for whatever it is? I'd certainly buy a lot less if I couldn't hit checkout online or in an app unless it was between 10am and 4:30pm on a Saturday and I had to be willinng to burn 2 hours or so of time just on travel etc.

There is no late night insomnia scrolling around or trying to fight boredom by looking at novel things and I think, honestly, the less chance I have to see things, the less I actually want.

@IndigoAwakener 1 month ago (edited)

Agree! My hand mixer went up that I had bought two years ago and rarely used. It was inexpensive because I had decided I could get something cheaper since I would be rarely using it. This time when I replaced it, I investigated vintage models and purchased a vintage one that was made well and in great shape. Works like new.

@korenbrigham5922 1 month ago

I go to several clothing swaps per year, and recently took along a lovely top, with cloth-covered buttons, that my mother bought in Th 60s. It is still in perfect shape and it's with its forth owner now.

@lorescien4148 1 month ago

I watched my mother and grandmother go shopping whenever their husbands had been awful to them... which was often lol. Even when pinching pennies to afford flowers for the yard or food for the table, they would save aside money for frivolous therapy-shopping and not get rid of any of the old therapy-shopping items until years later after dozens more purchases. I've realized at 33 that I'm following in their footsteps (ngl, it's probably a genetic mental disorder, but I won't diagnose another person lol) and have been working hard to eliminate the excess and not just replace it with the same amount or more. It's making a difference for sure, but it's still slow.

My husband on the other hand has a mother who only hoards paperwork and not much else, so while I'm way better with getting rid of paperwork, my husband takes ages to decide something can go. He and I are helping each other with our weaknesses, and I love it.

@victoriawitte7672 1 month ago

Probably someone has already mentioned this but it used to be that there were little "fix it" shops around. You could take a small appliance that has stopped working and find out if it could be fixed (in which case the handyman there could do it for you or order the part and you could do the replacement yourself). Those are gone like the dodo bird. And so many things now are truly not fixable by just a regular person----you really do have to be a trained technician. This winter we managed to crack the cover on one of the taillights on our truck. The light part still functioned perfectly. We took it to the dealer and got an estimate for replacing the cover only to find that you couldn't do that. The whole shooting match had to be replaced to the tune of more than $2,000!! Holy Smokes what a deal!

@GenerationJonesi 1 month ago

We grew up poor. We got new school clothes every fall, and a new pair of runners every spring. Otherwise things were repaired, and used until they died. I still do that.

@amg9163 1 month ago

I just had a flashback to 50 years ago when you mentioned that our parents kept things for so long. Around 1975, my parents and I were visiting my uncle and watching home movies from 1968. My mother was wearing the exact same outfit during the visit as she had on when the movie was being recorded, some 8 years earlier! Me, the obnoxious 10 year old little girl I was, could not hold back my embarrassment and I blurted out that it was the same clothes!! The family laughed, including my mother. I don't think she was bothered by it at all, but I am now thinking that may have been a pivotal moment for me realizing that being thrifty was something to be embarrassed about. I had a lot of shame (not from family) growing up, and that got rolled into it: nothing I owned, especially if it was "old", was good enough. I buried this and no therapist could get to the root of my problem. I did hoard for at least 30 years of my adult life, but have put a buying moratorium this year to save $$$ and not create more clutter.

@isabellerininger6249 1 month ago (edited)

Totally true. My dad would not replace something until it was not repairable anymore. Purchases were thought about for MONTHS commensurate with the price. I remember the sofa being delivered when I was 4 years old. (It was orange flowers) I sent it to the dump when my dad died at 90. He had it for 50 years. Same with the carpeting in the house. I remember it being installed 50 years ago. If it wasn’t burnt orange color I probably would have left it, it was in great shape. (Not like today’s products).

@Haghenveien 1 month ago

Spaniard here. My parents grew up during the post-war period and the dictatorship. And they are the kings of "what if". Last summer I was trying that my mum got rid of certain things because my parents are now of an older age and it's too much inventory for them to handle. It was like:
-Mum, what about this coffee set?
-No, it's good, it's useful
-Have you ever used it?
-No, but maybe one day we have the need.
The need hasn't come in the last 50 years, but hey, maybe one day all the rest of the coffee cups in the house disappear and we get to use those ones.
And that's how decluttering goes at my parent's

@DevonaHabiburrahman 1 month ago

My mom also made a lot of our clothes. We grew up not wasting anything. Old, stained or holey clothes became cleaning rags. Books and outgrown clothes would be handed down to the next smallest child in the extended family. Our parents didn’t buy unnecessary things. When the sofa got holes in the fabric, it got re-upholstered. Now, if I wanted to do that, it would cost almost as much as a new sofa. It seems that the society we live in is more of a ‘throw away, buy more’ type of society

@debdutch1520 1 month ago (edited)

I’m one of six children. My parents kept everything. Dad fixed things when they broke. We sewed our clothes and handed down clothes. They were children of immigrants and of the depression and World War II. We also had one small TV, no cable, no cell phones, one house phone and it was a much simpler life.

@OrganisedPauper 1 month ago (edited)

I recently got rid of a large mixing bowl I bought when I was pregnant with my eldest daughter as it has had its day. She’s recently turned 40. 😅 I really want less stuff not more. I’ve never owned a new sofa though. They’ve all been secondhand. When I was a little girl my grandmother made me a dressing gown that was cut down from an old dressing gown of my grandad’s. Both myself, my husband and our siblings all had secondhand bikes and jumble sale or handmade clothes. It never bothered us. Have to say I miss jumble sales.