Serious de-cluttering time

I have way to much stuff, all types of stuff and me and my house are drowning in it. 

Craft stuff, sewing stuff, genealogy stuff, music stuff, 

books stuff, dvd stuff, clothes stuff, paper stuff, 

exercise stuff, diet stuff, cooking stuff and oh yeah organisation stuff! 

Up till now I've done some minimal decluttering but mainly I've been trying to get organised more and find places and ways to store all the stuff I have. 

The problem is now every surface, corner, cupboard, drawer, box, shelf and table are stacked high with stuff. And while I do know what it all is and where its all kept and can usually find things quite quickly when I need to,  I can't really do much with what I've got as there is no room left for actually using the stuff.

My life has becoming continually maintaining the organisation of piles of stuff. There has to be more.

I've finally come to understand Flyladys comments when she says you can't organise clutter.

So, enough is enough!

I'm starting on properly clearing out years worth of stuff and as I haven't moved home since I was 3  I have a LOT of stuff and some of it is going to have emotional attachments but quite a lot of it won't.

Some of it I've kept for fear of offending the people that gave stuff to me, ornaments I don't like, books I won't read and clothes that don't suit.  

I've decided as my house is now so cluttered I never invite them round anyway how would they know if I kept their gifts or not, and would most of them even remember what they gave me.

Flylady had a little list that may help

• Do I love this item?
• Have I used it in the past year?
• Is it really junk?
• Do I have another one that is better?
• Should I really keep two?
• Does it have sentimental value that causes me to love it?
• Or does it give me guilt and make me sad when I see the item?

I'll post here as I work through the various stages, and hopefully writing it down will help when it comes to some of the harder decisions of what can go and what can stay. 

Anyone up for joining me or any suggestions on making it less painful, feel free to comment.