Why decluttering can make your life better.
Your best friend messages you Thursday evening, ‘Shall we catch up at the weekend?’. Part of you is desperate to see her and you keep telling yourself that you need to ‘make more time for the people you care about’, ‘life is short and unpredictable and making memories is important’. The problem is you’re working full time, the kids have some weekend commitments you need to ferry them to and from, your elderly relative could do with a visit, the rabbit has a vet appointment and you’re then left with a tiny window of time to catch up at home. The washing has been mounting up for a while, there is clean stuff ready for sorting, some piled ready to be put away, the washing basket’s overflowing and the bedding could all do with a wash too. You’re behind with the housework, goodness only know the last time you did a deep clean of the kitchen or cleaned the oven. Every work surface, table, piece of furniture has random stuff dumped all over it and there are half started jobs here and there.
The easiest thing would be to have your friend come to visit to cut down on travelling time but it’s too embarrassing to have her round plus quite simply you need the time to get on. Sometimes your need to socialise seems to take centre stage so you walk out the door and try to forget about the chaos but it’s always there waiting for you on your return and now there’s even less time to get on with it all. When you decide to stay in and try to ‘get on top of it all’ generally there’s a sense of paralysis about what to start with, what is most pressing? Several cups of tea later and once another list is written you roll up your sleeves and start. You spend a few hours drifting from room to room just trying to tidy things away whilst mentally adding more things to the list; you find a set of picture frames you bought to put up once you’ve decided which photos to get printed. There’s a bag of charity stuff in a corner – it’s been there so long maybe you need to go through it again. As you’re putting clothes away you know there are items in there that no longer fit, items you never wear and definitely a couple of items you know don’t really suit you but they seemed like a good idea at the time; should you try and sell them? Charity? You should probably try them on before you decide so that’ll have to happen another time… As you’re darting about trying to get the house looking more orderly the mum/partner/friend guilt hits you, really this valuable time should be spent making memories, enjoying quality time with the children – they’re at school/nursery all week so the weekends are precious but you can’t relax and be in the moment with the chaos all around and the jobs stacking up. Before you know it, the weekend is over; the house is still far from where you want it to be and what you thought you’d be able to achieve in your mind was totally unrealistic. You didn’t see your friend and you have another stressful week ahead.
If this narrative sounds familiar to you then you might be surprised if I told you that it might not be a lack of time problem, instead it could be a too much stuff issue. There is therefore a strong possibility that you may benefit from decluttering and home organising. The problem is how and when to do it and that is why hiring a professional can be a great solution. It might seem frivolous to spend money on someone to help you tidy out your wardrobe or organise your paperwork but if you consider how much you’d spend on a lovely dinner out, a nice pair of shoes, more storage to house the overflowing cupboards… If you were going to do it on your own perhaps ask yourself why you’ve not done it yet? Perhaps prioritising time is the issue? Possibly the fact that other things always take precedence. If you were to hire someone to come and assist then that would be you committing to the task. Spending the money immediately makes you focus on the task and my job as a declutterer is to guide and help you to decide what stays and what goes and essentially keep you focussed and accountable. One of my most favourite client feedback quotes after a session is ‘I can’t put a price on how this feels’ – (Kaz, Cheltenham). If you can re-frame spending money on yourself as self care and focus on how good you will feel after those unfinished jobs and piles of clothes have been tidied away then perhaps you can start to see the reason to hire a professional. Think of me as a personal trainer for your home. I’ll teach you how to do it for yourself moving forward, decluttering is a skill which needs to be learnt and practised regularly as unless you plan to stop buying any more things from this day forward, it’ll be a process you’ll need to repeat over and over to keep your home clutterfree.
What could the result look like though? Imagine everything having a designated place? You and the rest of your family or housemates know exactly where everything goes and practise putting things away correctly after they’ve finished with them. Your clothes fit comfortably in your wardrobe and drawers, you can see everything you own and therefore you wear all of it and it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. Someone needs a plaster – you know where to look – all the first aid is in the same place. You never overbuy things at the supermarket because it’s easy to see what you’re running low of. Your friend wants to pop over, no problem – you know the house is presentable. The children want to play with you, that’s fine too because the laundry is under control and the house will only take a short while to dust and hoover as there’s not stuff all over the place to move before you can begin.
Of course, perhaps it’ll never be absolutely perfect, there are always jobs to do, laundry to wash and things to clean but having less clutter and less stuff in general will make you feel more in control. You are less likely to be paralysed with indecision about what task to do most urgently and keeping the house relatively tidy and organised is far simpler. Drawers will not be stuffed full, surfaces not overflowing with items waiting to find a home and floors covered with things waiting for a decision to be made about. Most of all, any feelings of shame and embarrassment will be gone. Anyone dropping in wont need to be apologised to for the ‘state of the kitchen’, even if in reality your guests don’t give two hoots about how your place looks, it wont stop you feeling uncomfortable, upset or experiencing dread when someone asks to pop in.
If any of this resonates with you and you think you might like to investigate getting some help with your situation then please get in touch. I’d be absolutely delighted to help you and would love to help you live a simpler, more stress free life.