Have you seen the Australian decluttering TV show Space Invaders? Or the British one Sort Your Life Out? Or those hoarder shows? You can see that it IS possible to quickly declutter even the most cluttered, overwhelmingly packed home. It’s easy to get it looking FABULOUSLY organised, easy to keep clean and simple to live in. And looking pretty amazing too, at the end of it all.
However, it takes a LOT of dedicated time, many hands and a ruthless get-rid-of-it attitude!
If you happen to be one of the chosen few who get the help of those massive teams behind the scenes, lucky you! If you WISH you were one of those lucky few, here’s another way of getting those results.
Donate, Gift and Share.
The key to it all, is getting rid of stuff. Sometimes all that really slows us down is the thought of getting rid of it all.
When you know what you want to get rid of, it’s a lot easier. You can contact charities, post things on your community Facebook page (for free or $$) or sell them on Facebook Marketplace or Trade Me.
If you’re worried about not being able to take things to the right place, don’t worry, most charities will pick up big things that can’t fit in a car and people will go to a lot of trouble to collect something that’s a great deal.
If you have lots of smaller things like clothing, linen or kitchen stuff, give a few charities a call and see if they’re accepting things like that. Some may be overwhelmed with a particular kind of donation, some not.
Many, Many Hands.
Watching those shows we have no idea just how many people are working behind the scenes. We can’t see how many hours those teams of people are working either.
Depending on how much stuff you have to deal with you might need a whole team of people to help you, or just a helping hand. Family and friends, are an option of course, but this can be fraught with emotion, stress and relationship-ruining behaviours.
Cash, Money, Ka-Ching! You can always pay someone to help you, from one professional organiser (like me) or a whole crew of cleaners and movers.
Or you could spread out the working hours over a whole year and do it yourself.
Get Stuck In To It! (A Little Bit At A Time)
Make a plan. It’s a good idea to work on one room at a time. Make sure it’s a smart time to work on any space – if you have a house full of family staying for the holidays, better to declutter those rooms BEFORE they arrive (unless they’re your helpers.)
Prepare. Get boxes or bags (You have heaps of reuse-able bags right?) Keep some in rooms where you know you’re going to come across stuff you want to declutter, like clothes your kids have grown out of.
Schedule time to sort it out. Make sure you set aside enough time to sort the space you’ve decided to work on. Add a bit more. Get your calendar and write down the name of the space (or type of thing) that you’re going to declutter. Get really specific.
Choose one small space to work on at a time. The top shelf of your wardrobe, one shelf in the garage, or maybe the utensil drawer in your kitchen. Take my word for it – this will help your overwhelm. If you finish it in heaps of time, move onto another small space.
Your Year Of Decluttering – 2022.
I know, you’d really like to have the magical results you see in these TV shows in the time you watched the show from the comfort of your couch.
But if you’re REALLY determined to have those results, you can.
Look at the upcoming year. 365 days. 12 months. 56 weeks.
Just imagine if you had a charity truck arrive at your door to take away stuff every 3 months. That’s 4 truck loads.
Just imagine if you took two boxes of decluttered stuff to a local charity shop, every week of the year. That’s 112 boxes!
If you took 4 boxes each week that’s 224 boxes of stuff that have GONE from your house!
Doesn’t that sound AMAZING!
Liz The Tidy Lady.
Professional Declutterer, Home Organiser, Tidyness Expert, Declutter & Life Coach (Whew!)
