Declutter now without stress, can it be done?

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

Declutter the clutter

My house is big, often housing 6-9 people at any given time 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 to take all the animals out again. Suddenly they had this large empty house, with more than enough space!

Too much space

My family are privileged, in that they have never had to share space, each child has a small room of their own. 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.

Don’t leave it for the next generation

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 to have the same problem.

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!http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/the-konmari-method/

Overwhelmed?

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 and restful space.

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

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. http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/can-it-be-done/

Just after the lockdown began in March 2021, I know plenty of people, myself included that said they would get started and here we now are and still almost 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.