Top 5 things I hear when decluttering
I meet the most amazing and accomplished people on my travels as a professional organiser. I’ve worked alongside doctors, lawyers, television personalities, real estate agents, actors, authors, teachers, mothers and business owners, and the list goes on.
I find no matter their stripes or where they live, when it comes to decluttering their homes or professional spaces, clients generally always say the same things to me.
Here’s my top five (and it’s in order):
- How and where do I start?
- Why do I have all this stuff!?!
- Am I getting rid of enough?
- This is overwhelming!
- How do you do this all day? (I would’ve lost focus a long time ago… )
Number four probably encapsulates decluttering the best, it’s overwhelming! And believe me, I get it. Life changes constantly and your need for your ‘stuff’ does too and before you know it you’ve accumulated lots. For example, you have a baby so you need (lots) of baby stuff. The baby grows and you don’t need the baby stuff anymore, so it gets shoved away, stored and you don’t focus on it. When you unearth and start to declutter baby’s things it brings back memories, the good and the bad (example, the baby wouldn’t sleep). There’s no way we don’t have an emotional connection to our things. The question is how do we let them go?
Which leads to number one in the list – how and where to start? Keep it simple. Pick the room or space that annoys you the most; possibly the kitchen, the pantry or a closet, it may be a drawer. It may feel like everywhere but focus on that one spot. Like in anything, starting is the hardest part. Believe me, I see the quickest of transformations in people once they start and they realise how easy it is to let go of things that don’t suit their lives anymore.
Decluttering doesn’t have to be overwhelming, it doesn’t mean throwing out the memory, nor is it meant to make you feel guilty. Keep an eye on the prize – declutter to clear your space, allowing you to enjoy it again.
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