Are you decluttering or tidying up? Tidying up and/or sorting generally means you’re keeping everything but just finding different places for the items. Sometimes people also pack things away in boxes, to be relegated to the garage or an attic, and think that they’ve decluttered. The problem with that is that you often forget what you’ve packed away, and probably didn’t need the items anyway, so those boxes become redundant. They are also taking up space which you could better utilise.

Decluttering is about letting go of things, in other words moving items out of the home. This may take the form of donating to charities, or filling up a few rubbish bags. I don’t donate anything that I believe cannot be on-sold i.e. if an item of clothing is marked or ripped. Once something has past its use-by date then I suggest dumping it.

Okay, so back to ‘decluttering’… I love helping people to create space in their home, to not have things cluttering up the floor or coffee/dining tables, and to be able to relax and enjoy their home rather than looking around and seeing endless clutter. That is not relaxing.

If you’ve been receiving my newsletters for a while, and I’ve been writing them since September 2009, then you will know one of my favourite expressions:

“the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time”

This means, tackle your areas to be decluttered in a piecemeal fashion, gradually working through something eventually gets it done. Here’s what I suggest:

[Read more…]

I have read a couple of very interesting articles over the last few weeks, basically dealing with reducing our stuff. Before I begin, let me just point out that I am not a minimalist and certainly not an advocate of bare bland spaces which were the object of minimalism back in the 1980’s. Having said that, I love to get stuck into decluttering in my own home, I enjoy the actual work itself, and I relish the feeling of accomplishment afterwards, not to mention the pleasure of opening up the space. And I experience joy when working with my clients in their homes to help them create beautiful uncluttered environments, and to see them let go of the stress and tension that clutter and disorganisation can bring.

Let me tell you about these two articles. The first I read a few weeks ago, written by Clara Bensen, who told the tale of how she agreed to an idea put to her by her fairly new boyfriend who she had met via the internet: ‘let’s take a 3 week jaunt around Europe [they’re English so didn’t have far to travel] and not take any luggage at all – in other words, just the clothes we’re standing up in, and the few bare essentials that we can carry.’ [Read more…]

This is a tricky issue for many of the clients I have worked with over the last ten years – what to keep from our kid’s childhood as memorabilia not only for us, but also that they may want in the future when they have children of their own.

Most of you will know from my earlier newsletters that I don’t tend to hold onto anything either from my past, or from those loved ones who have passed on. One of the reasons for that is that I just don’t have the space in my small home to store memorabilia, although I do have a couple of boxes of photos which I enjoy. So as you ready through my suggested guidelines below, I want you to really think about these objects, and are they actually creating value in your day to day life now or is the space they are taking up causing ‘storage stress’.

Here are my suggested guidelines that might help you to make these decisions.

– What are you going to hold onto either from your past or your children’s? Are they school books and reports, artwork, toys, wee baby clothes and those gorgeous little first shoes? The list here can be endless. [Read more…]

I hope you had a lovely, and not too hectic, Christmas and a very joyful entry into the New Year. And that you had a relaxing break too. January has certainly been a mixed bag with the weather, and our gardens have had a jolly good watering. Despite the inclement weather though, I did get to most of the items on my list relating to my home; which included painting my kitchen, staining the patio trellis and buying new patio furniture, finally sorting through my books and magazines and taking a few hefty bags to my local Hospice, and since I had also painted the interior of my kitchen cupboards I took the opportunity to have a cull and reorganised everything so it now fits into the cupboards beautifully. Although I only had 2 weeks off, I’m very happy with what I managed to accomplish, and I had oodles of relax time as well.

At this time of the year many of us think about, create, and start working on new goals. Maybe even some New Year’s Resolutions… I relish the beginning of a new year because it feels like a brand new slate on which I can pretty much create what I like. No, that doesn’t mean huge goals or onerous resolutions. I think of it rather as creating new habits that are positive changes. Here are a couple of my new habits which I’m having fun with:

– Something that I had been thinking about for ages and finally got started on is a new weight training regime at my gym. With the help of a personal trainer I now have a programme which I’m not only enjoying, and sticking to, but also feel that it’s making a difference – already! So it is a habit now that I’ve been working on my programme at least 3 times a week for almost a month. I have been going to regular classes at the gym for some years, so this new routine is an add-on [rather than a new gym membership!]

– Secondly, I’ve started creating a menu plan each week which I shop for in one hit. This saves time and it’s also good to try out delicious new recipes with a focus on fresh and healthy products.

So you may say at this point, what has all this got to do with decluttering? Well I’m a firm believer that keeping the clutter at bay is about good habits. And what makes us stick with new habits is seeing and feeling the difference they make, much like me and my gym work outs and healthy meal regimes. Both activities make me feel better. [Read more…]

Christmas is fast approaching and many of us are turning our minds to Christmas shopping… And yes, I’ve done mine early this year, well the end of November is early for me. I was working with one of my clients this week and she said she didn’t know what to buy any of her family as they already have everything! My suggestion, which prompted this newsletter was “why not buy an experience instead of a gift”. That’s the reason I wanted to send out this month’s newsletter earlier than usual, in case there are some of you who are stumped for ideas on what to buy for your loved ones.

So back in my car a bit later I started thinking about the kind of experiences that would make wonderful gifts, and here are a few that I think could suit men, women and kids alike. I understand that you’re going to want to buy the kids something tangible, but an event or experience for them to look forward to could also be fun.

– Spa treatments, maybe a facial or massage. I love beauty treatments and they’re not something I generally buy for myself. One Spa clinic even offers ‘couple treatments’ which sounds rather romantic. [Read more…]