Are you in need of a professional de-clutter? How Zoey is helping people tidy their homes and change lives
A PROFESSIONAL de-clutterer has revealed her top tips to keep your home tidy if you tend to hoard and are sick of untidiness.
Zoey Roberts, 28, who transforms the lives of her hoarder clients, runs her own business called Human Space.
She has provided advice via online consultations for the past two years, but has also visited the houses of people all over the Midlands, including in Leicester, Nottingham and Birmingham, who need advice about how to de-clutter their homes.
She says people are realising that they may need to make some changes to how their houses are arranged to help manage their many belongings as they spent more time at home during the covid pandemic. This, Zoey adds, ultimately benefits her customers’ mental health.
Now she has revealed her top tips for keeping your possessions in line:
■ Reduce bedding sets and towels per person (up to three bed sets and three towels is recommended)
■ Donate any shoes and clothes that don’t fit right now or that you do not enjoy wearing
■ Categorise all items down to the smallest like chargers and batteries, and find a home for each group
■ Only keep items with intention and items that serve the person you are now or the person you want to become, not the person you were
■ Set smaller goals such as removing two items per day for a week so that it’s not as overwhelming
Zoey, from Derby, has also provided a list of reasons why people’s jumbled and potentially stressful surroundings can sometimes gain the upper hand:
■ People downsizing from bigger homes try to fit all of their belongings into a smaller space. We tend to fill the space we have
■ Coping with bereavement and also taking on belongings or an entire house from someone who has passed
■ With online ordering being more convenient, people are making more purchases and after a while that builds
■ Neurodivergent people commonly have executive functioning difficulties, such as ADHD or autism, so can find it difficult to initiate decluttering or to finish a room that they have started
■ Limited resources, either financially or emotionally. People find it easier to declutter with support alongside. Without that, people often delay decluttering. Clutter is simply a collection of small decisions that haven’t been made yet, and mental health has an impact on decisionmaking.
Zoey said: “This business is more an American type of thing, and in the past there have been a lot more cleaners here. But organisers are more apparent now, especially now things are getting more expensive and people are at home more due to the pandemic. This means they realise how much stuff they have got that they don’t need.
“It’s an interesting field. I’ve run
my business for coming up to two years in October. I was working as a probation officer in Birmingham. It was a stressful job and at weekends I went to business school.
“During that time I spent a lot of time organising friends’ houses. This massively changed everything for me, I thought, ‘You need to do this as a job.’ I didn’t realise you could make money, but there’s a big need for it.
“A cleaner doesn’t necessarily organise. Mostly I work with clients alongside them and support them. With my wellbeing-based background in psychology and mental health, I also do one-to-one coaching helping people clear their space. I teach them how to create calmer spaces and declutter to create a functional home.
“I’ve been partnered with the Derby mental health charity Stay Well and have also contracted with the city council whilst helping people with hoarding disorder. This involved a programme with Derby Homes which started in December and ran until June this year.
“I worked with 10 clients specifically and had a 100 per cent success rate. I was just a small business on my own but it has been cool to be able to run a programme and have somebody believe in my work and how effective it has proven to be.
“It’s still pretty much just me doing the work, but I’m at a point now where I’ve hired an admin assistant and I might also need to take on a staff member who is also an organiser soon to help me out further.”
Zoey’s long-time friend and new admin assistant, Danielle, 36, says her role is to safeguard Zoey while she is out and about as well as handling marketing and wider paperwork.
She said: “We’ve been friends for a number of years since university so it was a natural progression to work together. I have an interest similar to Zoey’s and she required assistance.
“I mainly work by video call as I’m based up in Lancashire. It works perfectly for what she requires assistance with. I also put together marketing plans, fliers, room designs, colour pallets, admin and general organisation. It’s also important to keep track of her when she’s out and about from a safeguarding point of view.”
One of Zoey’s satisfied customers, who decided to dispose of excess clothing, cloths, towels and clutter, said: “I’d just reached the point of not being able to cope with it any longer. She instantly put me at ease and I didn’t feel judged in any way.”
Another, who was struggling to cope with stress, said: “Lots of things going on meant I couldn’t concentrate on my organisation of things. She worked magic. It takes a huge weight off your shoulders.”
They realise how much stuff they have got that they don’t need.
Zoey Roberts