REAL-LIFE CLUTER

(and how to get it under control)

Ahhh, quick! The in-laws have just rung to announce their imminent arrival. You survey the scene; your home looks like a tornado has struck. There’s a mountain of post and paperwork swamping the kitchen table and abandoned shoes strewn across the hallway. Well, that’s what life with two kids looks like. You’re pretty sure it was tidy not that long ago… wasn’t it?

Time to take action. You open the hall cupboard and throw offending shoes, bags and coats in, pile up the carnage of the coffee table and pop one of your interiors books on top, then gather up as much as you can and redeploy to the spare room, closing the door quickly behind you. With a few minutes to spare, you plump up the sofa cushions and successfully retrieve the TV remote from its new home in the dog’s bed. If they don’t go in the kitchen, you might get away with it…

But what if you can’t go on like this? Perhaps the above has finally tipped you over the edge, or maybe there’s been a change in life circumstance. As Vicky Silverthorn, author of Start With Your Sock Drawer, explains, ‘Clutter is like one giant to-do list of stuff constantly surrounding you in a place that should make you feel calm, relaxed and in control.’ But it’s important not to get overwhelmed. ‘This fear of it all being too much is one of the reasons people don’t get started,’ she explains. ‘I always say, “start small” with a corner, cupboard

or drawer, and stop yourself from continuing unless you know you have a little more energy and time to spare.”

Helen Sanderson, professional organiser and coach (helensanderson.com), agrees. ‘Clutter is a pile of decisions that have not been made; things that have been put off until tomorrow, avoided and stepped over until they build up.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with stuff, but clutter becomes an issue in our homes when it starts to impact on you practically or emotionally.’ Cue the in-laws’ arrival.

Your home reflects your state of mind, too. A wellorganised household that never loses PE kits, never forgets a birthday and knows where key paperwork lives makes you operate better. ‘Feeling ashamed of your home is often a symptom of low self-esteem,’ says Helen, ‘but you can use taking care of your home – tidying, cleaning, decorating and decluttering – as a way of learning to nurture yourself.’

Getting rid of stuff can be very liberating, and it changes the way you look at future purchases. Helen believes it gives us a new energy or ‘lust for life’. People tell her they feel a surge of power and, often, significant things start to shift in other areas of life – relationships improve and new possibilities open up.

But what’s causing this clutter in our homes? Lots, Vicky believes, is a result of our attitude to buying. ‘My home is far from empty, but I consider myself to be pretty minimal in many ways,’ she says. ‘I don’t shop for stuff frequently, getting paid and then spending it online isn’t my thing, and I avoid gimmicky sales like the plague. When you shop mindfully, it feels great. To me, a treat is an experience, not an object.’

Helen agrees: ‘Some of us have a hunter-gatherer instinct and live to collect things, which was fine when we gathered berries for dinner, but not when you have to have every single kitchen appliance or gadget, many of which you rarely or never use. Filling yourself with something from the outside will never fill your soul with happiness – we all know that, don’t we?’

That aside, you might feel that buying tons of storage is essential for your decluttering journey, but Nicola Lewis of thisgirlcanorganise.com believes this is where many of us go wrong early on. ‘You need to eliminate the excess first,’ she explains. ‘This will give you more room for the things you do use in your home, showcasing the items that make you smile.’ For Nicola, this excess is paperwork, shoes and… bath towels. ‘How many bath towels do you really need?’ she laughs. ‘A family of four needs 16 max! Give the rest to local dog shelters.’

Many of us have insufficient storage space or haven’t made the most of what is available. ‘The key to maintaining a tidy home is to put things away,’ says Helen, who’s just launched her own Home Declutter Kit, ‘but if you don’t have a place for them to go, then it becomes very hard.’ Being attached to things is normal, but it becomes a problem if it’s taking over whole rooms. ‘You might feel that you’re dishonouring the person or memory you have associated with certain things, which is really important to address,’ Helen adds.

Likewise, Nicola is a great believer in making lists, crossing off clutter hotspots as and when you tackle them and focusing on what’s important to you. It could be your cutlery drawer, which now makes you smile every time you open it and see knives where, funnily enough, the knives should be. Nicola also follows a donate, keep, bin method when it comes to sorting. Vicky suggests hanging a carrier bag on a door handle to give you a place to discard things rather than putting them back where they came from.

There’s no fast and furious solution to decluttering.

Small wins are what give you the incentive to continue (although not too small – Helen recommends a day, or at least a few hours, so you can make a real impact, rather than just papering over the cracks). Perhaps when the in-laws descend on you next time, you’ll be able to let them into the kitchen…