If I haven't used it in a year, and don't see myself using it in the next few months, and it's relatively inexpensive and easy to replace should I suddenly NEED one asap, then out it goes. I have a few exceptions (my sewing and knitting stuff) but everything else is judged by that rule. Another rule I have is if I have, say, multiples of something, I try to get rid of at least half. If I have 10 perfectly useable glass jars, and plan on using a few but not all immediately, then I'll recycle 5 of them. Same with boxes or bags. If I"m worried I might need them, I still force myself to get rid of half of them. Generally, I never need the ones I got rid of anyway. And just getting rid of *some* of what you have can make a ton of space available.
My biggest clutter issue is my kids' toys. I have 4 kids - that means a lot of toys (they are the only grandkids on both sides of the family too). It's hard to get them to get rid of toys they rarely use. I've tried to organize what they do have, but they never put things back in the right bins and before you know it, there are birthday party loot bag toys, mixed in with playdoh, barbies and the odd sock, lol. Every 6 months or so I challenge them to fill a garbage bag full of toys, and usually they are only able to fill half - even with my prompting of how they haven't played with this for over a year and some other little boy or girl would probably love it, how happy it would make them, etc. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I try not to force them though - I remember coming home to some of my favorite toys missing because my mom thought "you don't need those and they were baby toys anyway" and how devastated I was! Hopefully allowing them to make those decisions will be good practice for the future. Before my 'one year' rule I had a hard time with those kind of decisions. After seeing a few episodes of hoarders, I decided I had to make myself a rule and stick to it. It's worked well for me.
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