Looking for Decluttering Help?

Sometimes your clutter may be too much and you want some professional help. The Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers (APDO) is an organisation which can help you to find someone in your area.

APDO have organised their site so that you can search in different regions in the UK. There is a little information about each APDO member and then links to each organiser's site.

They also have a page which has a very useful list of links that can help you with decluttering. The info is a little hidden as it is contained within a link to finding help in 'other countries.'

As this type of service is very new there are no set guidelines as to how different declutterers work. There is a code of ethics which members have to agree to when they sign up, however it is quite basic.

Feeling Comfortable
The most important things to consider when choosing someone to help you with clutter is how you get on with them. Decluttering can be a very personal and emotional experience. In order to feel comfortable you need to get on with the person who is helping you. Efficiency, skill and experience all come in at a close second in my opinion.

I have heard of people feeling bullied and uncomfortable. Even though clutter clearing can be intense it should also feel liberating and renewing.

Take some time to get to know anyone that you are considering working with.

Post Office Ease

Sometimes cluttered people get this way because they are too busy for one reason or another. Finding ways to make things simpler and easier can help. Recently I found out that you can print and pay for postage online.

Decluttering is also about finding easy systems and ways of doing things. Reducing hassle and complication reduces not just physical clutter but mind clutter too.

I was delighted to discover that you can now print and pay for postage labels online. If your package is small enough to go in the letter box then you don't even have to go to the post office with it.

You do need weighing scales and a ruler however so that you can pay the right amount of postage and a printer to pring out the labels. I use my kitchen scales.

If you do have to go to the post office it means that you don't have to queue up and spend a valuable part of your lunch hour waiting to buy postage. Or waiting with impatient children who are hungry and tired. You can just leave your parcel and get on with more interesting things.

Stop Clutter Coming In

If you intend to declutter then one of the most important things you can do first is to plan how you are going to stay clutter free. Start today and stop new clutter coming into your life. Here is a list of the main clutter culprits and how to tackle them today

Paperwork
Stop junk mail. The Mailing Preference Service (MPS) is a free service that gives you control over the junk mail to your home or business.

Deal with the post immediately - starting today. Stand over the bin and dump all items that are not important. This includes things that you 'might look at someday', or that 'might be interesting'. When you are decluttered you might decide to keep some things like this. For the moment - no - you are focusing on decluttering not on increasing your workload by adding things to your piles.

Stop Buying
Until you are decluttered make it a rule that you will not buy any more 'things' unless they are absolutely essential to your existence. This obviously includes food. But how many other things that we buy are absolutely essential?

Cutting your purchases will help to stop any more 'clutter' coming into your life. You will also see how much more money you get to keep for the things in life that are really important to you


Stop taking other people's clutter
Some people are always accepting other people's clutter. Its the magpie effect - nice shiny new things that you can take to your own nest. Only your own nest is already full. Get your friends to take their surplus items to charity shops or car boot sales.

Unsubscribe to email lists
Email can be a big clutter issue. Make it a rule to stop subscribing to any more sites until you are clutter free. This will help your inbox. Also unsubscribe to as many lists as you can.

Unsolicitated calls
You can take yourself off any call lists and this will stop companies ringing you when they have not been invited. This kind of thing is clutter too. The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is a similar service for your phones (landlines AND mobiles). It really can cut out most of the unsolicited sales calls.

Stopping clutter coming into your home is really vital because it shows a commitment to getting and STAYING clutter free.  Sometimes people declutter their whole lives really effectively only to find that a year later they are back to square one.

What Can I Declutter in 10 Minutes?

Decluttering in tiny steps breaks down resistance and gets the job done in bite size pieces. I always recommend doing ten minutes of clutter clearing everyday if you have been cluttered for a long time and have really been avoiding doing something about it. Sometimes people ask me what you can do in ten minutes. You'd be surprised by how much you can achieve. 

Suggestions for your ten minutes

• Pen pot
• Pin board
• A file
• A small drawer
• A handbag/briecase
• Several emails
• A book shelf
• One fridge/freezer shelf
• One storage box
• A make up bag
• A box of children's toys
• A carrier bag
• A pile of junk mail
• The boot of your car
• Your medicines
• Your shoes (providing you are not Imelda Marcos)
• The coat stand
• A window sill
• Of course you will also take on the bigger job but just do it in ten minute chunks.

Happy clutter clearing.

Why Should I Declutter?

Some people are perfectly content with lots of clutter all around them.  They know where everything is despite the clutter. That's great.  They don't have a problem and they don't need to change anything.  Decluttering is for people who feel that their clutter is hampering their lives in some way.

I had a friend at school who had a fantastically messy and cluttered room.  But if she needed anything or if I asked to borrow something she just got up and went straight to an enormous jumbled pile and pulled out the item that she was looking for.  Easy.  Her brain was so ordered that she knew where everything was.  The clutter was not a problem and it did not bother her. 

So....... Why should you declutter? 

If clutter is interrupting your life
Do you find that you spend too much time looking for things when you really need to be getting on?
Have you 'lost' important paperwork in the chaos?
Do you miss deadlines because you are so disorganized? 

Does your clutter cause problems in the family?
Are there arguments between members of your family because things are too chaotic? Clutter can really affect other members of your family. If one partner is happily cluttered and the other is not then there needs to be compromise. 

Are your children being affected by your clutter?
The children of cluttered people sometimes have to put up with a lot. Sometimes people who are cluttered are also chaotic and disorganised. This can impact on their children who are pretty powerless to do anything about it.


Is clutter affecting your social life?
Sometimes people are so embarrassed about their clutter that they do not invite people round.

Does the clutter seem ugly to you?
If you enjoy being in pleasant surroundings your clutter could really bug you. A cluttered room is not as relaxing and enjoyable to be in as a clean and clear room.

So the answer to the question: Why Should I Declutter?

Declutter if the way you live is not the way you want to live or if the way you live is having a big impact on the people you care about. That's it.

If you recognise yourself here don't panic. Small easy ten-minute decluttering steps can get you from being cluttered to decluttered. The most important thing is that you make a start.

Get Organized

When you are planning a major declutter it is important to get organized. Here are a few organizing tips to help your sessions go smoothly.

You will need:

Three boxes:
Things that belong elsewhere
Items in this box can be moved to where they belong at the end of the decluttering session.Some cluttered people are also disorganized and find that they do not have obvious places where things 'go'. 

Getting better organised helps with clutter.  If you are not sure where something should go but you know you don't want it to stay where you found it, put it in this box.  At the end of the session, you can begin to think about where the items in the box could be best kept and move them where you want them.

Things to pass on
Anything that is decent can be passed on. You can sell things, donate them to charity, or pass them on to friends and family.  You can also give things away to people who might need them via an organisation called Freecycle.

Rubbish
This box will contain things that are absolute rubbish and cannot be sold or given to charity, family or friends. At the end of your decluttering session remove these things from your home. You don't want them taking up precious space.

These three boxes will take care of almost every piece of your clutter. As you go through your possessions decide, there and then, which box they need to go into.

Paperwork chaos
If you have problems with paperwork (and lots of us do) then an extra file/box for this type of item is also essential. Cluttered people sometimes face serious problems when they cannot find or neglect important paperwork.

Paper and pen
Paper and pen are really useful when you are decluttering. Ideas and inspiration about good ways to organise your home can strike as you are working.  Its a shame to let them go to waste.

Declutter for 10 minutes a Day

When you have so much clutter that you are overwhelmed with it all then one of the best ways to tackle it is to take tiny steps.  The '10 minutes a day' rule can really help you to overcome your resistance to de-decluttering.

The Rule
Do 10 minutes of decluttering every day.  Set a timer and off you go (you can use the one on your phone).  Stop after ten minutes. Record your results.  It will feel fantastic.

The Reasoning
When you feel that your clutter or disorganisation is a huge, insurmountable problem it can become very difficult to start at all. So, you don't do anything.  The clutter gets worse and you get more and more despondent.  But it is really easy to interrupt this pattern.  Even when something is very scary we can usually manage to face it for only ten minutes. 

The Result
You will be amazed at how much decluttering you can actually achieve in ten minutes.  What happens is that you begin to loose the fear.  You see that the problem can be tackled.  Sometimes you want to do more than ten minutes and that is great too.  Before you know it, you are no longer afraid and your clutter is beginning to decrease.

What to Keep?

One of the big problems people have when they start de-cluttering is deciding what to keep and what to get rid of.  When you have to get rid of a lot of clutter it can seem very overwhelming but there are only a few simple guidelines that can really help.

Ask yourself the following questions for each and every item that you are sorting through:

Do you use it?
Is the item something that you use?  It may be something that you don't use every day but if you do use it at some point during the year then its a good idea to keep it.

On the other hand if its something that you haven't really ever used but are waiting for when it 'might come in handy' its probably time to move it on.

Do I love it?
Feeling passionate about something is a fantastic reason to keep hold of it even if there seems to be no other 'sensible' reason to hang on to it.  Enjoying our possessions is part of being human.

Do I have to keep this item for legal reasons?
This can apply to legal documents and important paperwork.

That's it.  There are no other reasons to hang on to something.  It sounds simple and that's because, fundamentally, it is.

Be Clutter Free

Hello.  This blog will be looking at how easy and rewarding it can be to be clutter free, get organised and start living the life you want.

You will get tips and downloads that will help you with your clutter clearing goals.  There will also be reviews of websites and books and ideas on how to keep clutter at bay.

Your imput is really important and I welcome your ideas and feedback: I like the idea of learning from eachother about decluttering and getting organised.