Is it your New Year’s resolution to tackle the piles of ‘stuff’ that has mounted up in your home over the last few months or even years?
As a self-confessed maximalist, this is a huge challenge for me. However, I need to streamline, so I am going to look at this as a project. I can keep the things I love and make sure that the items I want to get rid of go to a home where they are appreciated and used. Or there’s the consideration that they could be re-purposed which will bring a fresh new look to my home whilst helping the planet. A friend of mine, who was recently down-sizing, just asked a carpenter to cut her dining table length-ways as it wouldn’t fit in her new room. It’s has made a great console table in the hall, saving her buying a new one to fit the space available. How fabulous is that?
When I ask clients what they long for at an initial design consultation, the most common responses are peace, space and freedom. Clutter keeps us from achieving these goals and we can spend thousands of pounds buying larger homes or feeling stressed because we can’t find anything. Empty space is more valuable – psychologically and physically – than almost any object. So, check-out our brilliant clutter busting guidelines, so your home feels calmer, clearer and less chaotic.
- Schedule a time. If you don’t think you will be strong enough to make decisions, then recruit a friend or family member to help.
- Walk into a room, allocate 3 different areas and black bags.
- Area/bag 1 – keep.
- Area/bag 2 – re-purpose, recycling, sell or donate to charity.
- Area/bag 3 – rubbish.
- Then focus on 10 objects in that room and ask yourself:
- Do I truly need it?
- Do I truly adore it?
- Do I use it or will I use it again?
- Does it have a purpose?
- Will the room look better with it?
- If your answer is ‘yes’ – allocate to area/bag 1, if ‘no’- place in area/bag 2 or 3. Don’t feel guilty someone else will enjoy your past beloved items.
Done? That didn’t take long did it? How do you feel?
Just think – you have less to clean, less to organise, feel less stressed, however, more importantly you have achieved some space and inner peace. And BREATHE!
