What a pain in the ar$e this is. I am not exactly a hoarder, and I arrived in France last year with a small van full of items. I clear things out regularly. I have been living in a rented house for about 19 months and seemed to have accumulated an enormous amount of crap. Where did it all come from? I have been moving bit by bit, but it still seems that the pile hasn't gone down. I feel like going to the tip at this point......

Before you start the packing and moving, it actually looked like I didn't have that much - who was I kidding....

Most of the crap seems to be my daughters, toys, teddies, games, clothes bits missing and so many.

I am going mad. nearly finished, I think but as always, its still not "quite" there yet.

I know the feeling. Moving as well and I keep saying to myself. Where the hell did that come from or What on earth is this. The keller is the killer... it's like a tardis

Even when you deliberately try not to accumulate stuff, it somehow piles up, it is shocking.

Keep chipping away at it one box at a time. Decide what you can donate/give away, put out a free box near the house/flat (if you won't get shunned for doing so), recycle what you are able to, and just keep going. I find the hardest is the last few boxes because it is random stuff that doesn't fit or make sense with other things, but at some point, it just all needs to be put in a box.

Good luck.

I've just moved, after 10 yrs. in the same house. It was quite small, but had a cellar, attic and a big size shed/outhouse.

Our new house is over twice as big, with a huge 4 room cellar, which is full of crates and boxes. I totally agree with the Tardis comparison - so much was crammed in to every corner of our old house .... and we've filled up a skip, had taken trailer loads of cardboard and sacks of old clothes to the recycling.

For a move of less than 20km away, I clocked up over 600km between the two houses, in a big Mercedes van (almost twice as long as a transit).

In the shed was (mostly flattened) empty cardboard boxes of practically everything I'd ever bought - to safely pack the original contents back in, should I ever move again - needless to say I didn't.

And, I blame the Antiques Roadshow .... "It would be worth a lot more, if it was in it's original box" .... for all the cartons for kiddie toys, past and present.

I don't necessarily hoard stuff, but if something may have a future use, then I don't like to throw stuff out either.

I don't hoard stuff either and yes you only know how much stuff you have when you move. How must people feel which do hoard?

I know the feeling. We've been here nearly a year and we still have some boxes to unpack. The new house has much more storage space thban where wecame from but we seem to have filled it OH thinks that if we haven't needed it in that time we probably don't need it but I really can't throw anything away just in case I need it sometime.

It must be hereditary I think. When my mum moved several years ago we went up to empty the loft. You would not believe the stuff my dad had hoarded up there over the years. On top of the usual bits of old carpet etc there was a railway sleeper God knows how he'd got it up there without destroying the house andas for what he was going to use it for who knows? Needless to say it stayed there for the new owners to deal with.

As for the empty boxes, our movers very kindly packed them all carefully so I can always pack the stuff up in their original boxes should we move again Ha ha

I just moved 240 bloody boxes. Don't know where all the stuff came from....while packing I returned three times to ikea to buy more boxes...I blame it on the kids, because I really gave tons of things away. At least I thought so...

Ok you lot are all inspiring me because it sounds like you are doing the move yourself ... or are you getting a removal company to just move big items? If so, did it reduce the bill a lot ie. was it worth the hassle?

I'm game to move a certain amount myself but the problem is more what to do with the toddler during the days it takes me to do it ...

.. so if its not hijacking your thread too much, tell me how you found moving/partly moving yourself?

No, we had a moving company, but the packing and unpacking we did on our own. That gives me the opportunity to check the stuff, to give things away and to get somehow an overview....the moving company transported and built all furniture.

Phew...I hope I don't have to move the next ten years...