A CLEAN SWEEP
NICK KNOWLES continues his crusade against clutter tonight, as he encourages us to banish the sentimental bits and pieces taking up valuable space in our homes.
This week he meets single mum Sally, who works from home as a child-minder in the Cotswolds. She’s so focussed on just getting through the day that she can’t face the piles of junk encroaching on her life.
Her house is jam-packed with more than a thousand toys (not for her own kids, just for the other children she looks after) and nobody can eat at the dining table since it became a dumping ground for nick nacks.
After a busy day, Sally can’t even look forward to snuggling down in a nice bed – there are piles of laundry all over the mattress that she’s too exhausted to put away.
Sally has become so accustomed to the mess that she can’t see it anymore, and it’s only when she gives Nick a tour of her house that she starts to cringe. And she’s mortified to realise that there’s no room for her children’s belongings among her junk. So, Nick sends the team in to remove 141 boxes of her possessions, completely clearing out her four-bed semi in time for a makeover.
While the painters get to work with their transformation, Sally has the difficult job of taking a closer look at every item she owns to decide whether it’s worth keeping.
She’ll need to be ruthless if she wants to liberate her family from the clutter.