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Wednesday 2 January 2013

First steps

My first step in my clutter free journey was to realise I cannot do this alone. My habits are so ingrained I need help to unpick those in order to maintain living clutter free.

There are many options available for help in this area:
  • Declutter consultants. These are professional declutterers who come in and and work alongside you as you begin to declutter. They offer support and guidance in how to proceed and often provide insight in how decluttering habits form and work with you to maintain a clutter free lifestyle. Great I hear you cry, and yes it does seem like an excellent solution. It is the more expensive solution (compared to going it alone or with friends/family to help) and one that may be out of reach to many CHs. The average cost for 4 hours decluttering in my area is between £150-200 (including travel costs) However if the thought of starting by yourself is too much they will be a brilliant starting place. Search on www.apdo-uk.co.uk/ to find those local to your area who are registered with the Association of Professional Declutterers & Organisers.

  • Clutter self help books. I was amazed at just how many books there are out there to help in this area. In fact there are so many it can be very overwhelming. My advice is read the reviews. We often ignore reviews on shopping sites such as Amazon but they give us a much clearer picture of how helpful the book may be to our own particular brand of CH.


  • Friends and family. When I first admitted to my friends that my clutter problem was becoming unmanageable I was inundated with offers for them to come over and help "be ruthless" as one dear friend put it. This option has many appeal factors such as the cost (cups of tea and decent biscuits are a must) and the fact you are surrounded by those who know you instead of a stranger. On the other hand it can be very daunting opening yourself up to those you hold dear, clutter is very shameful for many CHs however much we try to put a brave face on it. This may an option for when the initial bulk has gone.
I personally went for option 2. I made the mistake of telling my family my plans and got laughed at. This may sound horrid but see it from their point of view, they'd been told this so many times before. I will prove them wrong this time. So option 3 was out because of that and the shame factor. Option 1 was simply too expensive for me but I have bookmarked my local declutter consultants just in case it all gets too much going it alone.

The book I chose was No More Clutter by Sue Kay. Based on the reviews and the blurb I felt this was the best choice for my needs. Yours might be different so do take time to look around. This book has simple steps in which to proceed and what I liked was that clearing the clutter is actually stage 3. There are steps before you leap in which help you to realise what you want your home to be like (do you actually want a completely minimalistic home or something where you know where everything is but still surrounded by the things you love), and what behaviours are triggering your cluttering habits.

Kay defines 8 types of hoarders. There are more detailed descriptions in the book but to summarise they are:
  1. Rainy-day Hoarder: those in fear of times of hardship or lean periods.
  2. Sentimental Hoarder: those who attach sentimental value to everything thus making it hard to part from.
  3. Frugal Hoarder: those who cannot resist a bargain and love a good BOGOF.
  4. Anxious Hoarder: those who cannot let go, either for perfectionist reasons (as at odds that may seem with clutter) or because of fear something bad might happen if they get rid of things.
  5. Nesting Hoarder: those who surround themselves with material and emotional security through possessions.
  6. Trophy Hoarder: this group is more commonly found amongst men but not exclusively. This type of hoarder has to have the latest thing in order to feel good about themselves or impress others.
  7. Magpie Hoarder: those who love collect objects. Often found at car boots or antique shops. They love the buzz of getting new things.
  8. Rebellious Hoarder: those rebelling against childhood restrictions even on a subconscious level.
I am a mixture of 7 & 8. My biggest downfall is hobbies. I now have several. I am a massive crime fiction fan so our house is filled with books about serial killers. The problem with that kind of fiction is they are not books you revisit time and again because you know who did it! I recently took up baking and sugar craft so have gained a lot of materials and new magazines linked to that. Then I decided that I would make a brand new set of Christmas decorations using a sewing machine I borrowed from my mother-in-law. I really thought I would be useless like I was in Textiles at school but found that actually I'm quite good so a new hobby was born. Into the house came a rush of new material, ribbons, buttons, threads, lavender you name it.

On a subconscious level I'm a rebellious hoarder as mentioned in my last post, it was visiting my parents house for the Christmas break that promoted me into sorting my clutter out. Being back at home and seeing the ease with which my Mum moved around the house and found everything she wanted without having to move stuff out of the way or climb over boxes of this and that. I wanted that and realised I could have it if I put my mind to it.


Thank you to Rachel Papworth at mygreenandtidylife.co.uk who gave me more information about decluttering consultants and I have amended this blog entry in light of that information. All prices etc that I give in these blog entries are specific to my area and will (for the most part) be a high end of scale so do make sure you research costs for your own local area. Clutterbug

3 comments:

  1. Yes, Sue Kay's book is very good, and another book that I found really useful was 'Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui' by Karen Kingston.
    Now I don't 'get' or believe in feng shui, however I still think this is a great and very useful book. Not too long and an easy read, but I found it very helpful in sorting out my thoughts about clutter.

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    1. Thanks for the recommendation, will have a look at that book too!

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  2. Thanks for your blog. I've subscribed and will read your posts with interest. Blogging about clutter takes courage and I'm sure it will be helpful to people all over the world who struggle with clutter.

    I'm one of the declutter consultants you mention above so I hope you don't mind me responding to a couple of the observations you make.

    The thing is, I don't come in and whisk away my client's stuff. Not only would I feel terrible if they wanted anything I'd removed, the progress we'd made wouldn't be sustainable. I help people to develop the skills, attitudes and habits that they need not only to get clutter-free but to stay that way. That means working at a steady pace (set by my client) and it means my client doing the decluttering, albeit with my support, training and coaching.

    Also, the average cost you cite of up to £75/hour is way higher than the rate I, or any other declutter consultants I know, charge.

    Finally, there's no particular level of clutter to reach before you 'need' to work with a declutter consultant. I work with people ranging from clinical hoarders to people who most people wouldn't even describe as cluttered.

    Because there are so many common misconceptions about getting support with decluttering. I wrote this myth-busting blog post: http://mygreenandtidylife.co.uk/2012/04/myth-busting/

    As I said, I hope you don't mind me countering these points. I love your blog and wish you every success on your decluttering journey.

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