Declutter your space without stress now

When I hear the words’ it’s time to declutter, I want to cry!

The more space you have the more there is to declutter

My house is big, at any given time we have between 6-8 people living in it and the bigger the home to more space there is to fill.

To give some perspective, I will share the abbreviated story about a farmer and his wife who complained to the village elder that their house was too small. The elder told them to bring all the animals into their home for a few days. When the farmer went back to the elder to complain, that the house was now even more cramped than before, the elder told him they should take the animals out again. Suddenly they had this large empty house, with more than enough space!

My family is privileged, in that they have never had to share space. However, with that privilege has come the ability to hoard.

It doesn’t matter whether you have a large home or a small one, if you stay for a while, you will collect stuff.

Think of the children

When we packed up my late grandmother’s 1 bedroom apartment over 30 years ago, my mother and I found correspondence from the 1940s. It took us months to sort and pack up this one-bedroom apartment.

When my parents moved to a retirement village, after 45 years in the same house, my mother spent months clearing out and downsizing, in preparation to move. I know that in the hopefully far distant future when I will either have to pack my husband and myself up to move to a retirement village or when my children will have to sort our family home I don’t want them to have the same problem.

DIY

How do you get rid of clutter successfully without having to hire professionals at R300/hour or more?

If you follow decluttering blogs you will have learned that most professionals have their own methods, from Marie Kondo https://konmari.com/in the USA to MrsOrganised http://www.mrsorganised.com.au/ in Australia and All Sorted Now https://www.allsortednow.co.za/, here in South Africa.

You need to find a method that works for you! I have chosen to do 15 minutes per day.http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/can-it-be-done/

Decluttering can be overwhelming and very stressful, it doesn’t matter whether you have domestic help or not. Getting rid of your clutter must be done by you if you want your home to stay a decluttered space.http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/cutting-clutter/

Your domestic helper cannot decide what you need to keep, what you want to keep and where you want it to go. Even if you do hire a professional, you will be required for input in the process.

I need a day between Sunday and Monday please

If you work full-time, you have probably been saying, and rightly so, that you are too tired after work, you don’t want to give up your weekends, or that you will do it when you are on leave. Just after the lockdown began in March, I know plenty of people, myself included that said they would get started and here we now are in August and nothing is sorted.

Plenty of people actually landed up with more clutter during this time not less. Don’t feel bad, you are not alone.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to help you work through your clutter one step at a time, while I work through mine.

Join the challenge

I will be posting my shame and my achievements on Facebook and Instagram. I would really love to have you join the journey with me and share your triumphs with the groups.