1 – Money

I’m talking about this first because I feel like it’s the most important thing. If you’re worried about your money, it will impact on other areas of your life. Getting to grips with your money can be a big job if we are talking about EVERYTHING to do with your finances – but here, I’m going to concentrate on the basics. The first thing to do is get yourself a baseline – how much money is in your current account, how much is due to come in and how much is due to go out? Once you’ve established that, if you haven’t already got one, I suggest you set yourself a budget – you don’t need to be too specific here, but general budget headings of what your expected costs are and what income you expect will help you understand whether you are living within, or beyond your means. A great app that I use is You Need A Budget It’s free for the first 34 days, after that it’s $99 a year (it’s American, so that’s about £73 depending on the exchange rate). That’s quite pricey, and there are free alternatives available (such as Money Dashboard and Emma – which is free with paid options), or you could make your own spreadsheet. The key is finding one you will use and that suits you. Once your budget is established, you need to ensure you keep it updated with what you are spending, earning, and saving – so set a time every week when you will sit down and update it with what has happened over the past week – and balance it to your bank accounts. If you keep on top of things this should take you no longer than 20 minutes or so weekly. Every month, you can then (if you want to) review how your overall budget is going, whether you need to tweak any areas – for example, did you spend more on groceries than you planned? Have you got money left over in your ‘social spends’ category? Decide what to do with these categories (especially any overspends) and prepare your budget for the following month. If you are checking in on your budget every week, you will feel closer to your money, and much more in control.

2 – Laundry

Ah, the never-ending pile of laundry – whether it’s washing to be done, sheets to be dried or clothes to be ironed, it never seems to be finished! Well, making a routine out of doing it (several times during the week if necessary) means that this task becomes less overwhelming. This, along with cleaning, is one of those tasks that is very visual – a bulging laundry basket or overflowing ironing pile is a very obvious reminder that you do not have your s**t together with the washing! Breaking it down over more than one day helps to stop this feeling of overwhelm. If you have a big family (or even if there are only two of you and one is a young adult son who plays ice hockey….#justsaying), doing it more than once over the week is absolutely vital. If not, it can take up a whole day and you will be heartily sick and tired of it by the end and vowing never to touch it again (until the following week!). Have a routine whereby you wash and dry sheets on one day, towels on another, light coloured clothes another day, darks on another – or even go mad and do two loads in one day! If you have a washing machine with a ‘delay’ function, this magic little button can REALLY help you feel like you are on top of stuff – simply load up the machine before bed, set it to come on an hour before you get up and then bingo, washing is all waiting for you when you stumble into the kitchen to get your morning coffee….

The key is to do the washing, drying, and putting away on the same day – and the putting away doesn’t necessarily have to mean ironing it – I mean to fold and put away anything that doesn’t need ironing. If it needs, ironing, pop it into the ironing basket. But you do need to plan one or two days when you will actually do the ironing. Keeping the ironing pile to a reasonable level means that it doesn’t become overwhelming in itself. A couple of ways to deal with this could be – declutter your clothes, and buy less stuff that needs ironing, and often if you hang something up to dry, it won’t actually need to be ironed. Bonus!

3 – Meal planning

This is kind of one that links in with budgeting – after housing costs, the biggest cost for most people is their weekly food shop. If you are not on top of having something prepared (or even just thought about), you will spend money on extra groceries, takeaways or a surprise meal down the pub. Plus, having a plan in mind saves having to make a decision about what to eat when you’re probably at the end of a busy day and have decision fatigue, which often leads then to buying takeout or eating something unhealthy.

The first thing to do is find out where you are at with your current food stocks – so again, forming that baseline or starting point. Check what’s in your fridge, throw away the mouldy stuff lurking at the back of the shelves or in the salad drawer, check the use-by dates on what’s left and make a note of them. Then check your cupboards – put ‘like’ things together (so all your pasta and rice in one area, all your tinned meat and fish in another, all your beans together and so on). Check the best before dates and get rid of anything a bit iffy. Remember though that best before is a recommendation – it’s use-by dates that must be kept to. Don’t forget to look in your freezer – again, organise it by putting similar items together – so all meat in one area, bread in another, frozen chips/peas/veg somewhere else. When I’m particularly on top of things, I have a running list of what’s in my freezer, so I don’t have to root around in the frozen wastes to see what I have; it’s written up and pinned next to my kitchen noticeboard. Then you can start to think about a meal plan, beginning first with what you already have. If you need a little inspiration, there are websites that you can plug in your main food item (e.g. tinned tuna) and it will come up with a list of recipes. Lovefoodhatewaste is one that I like – there are plenty of recipes on there, plus lots of information about why it’s good for us and the planet to use up leftover food, tips on thrifty cooking and much more. Bonus tip – if you can, try and think about having a meal where you can make a double portion and freeze the rest – these are fantastic on those days when you really don’t want to cook, just get it out of the freezer, whack it in the microwave to defrost and it will be ready quicker than your local takeaway can deliver.

Write up a list of what you need that’s not already ‘in stock’ and you are ready to go shopping. Which leads me nicely into……

4 – Online grocery shopping

Ordering your shopping online is an amazing convenience. I really love it, and it’s even better now that Aldi have got into the market with ‘click and collect’. It can really help you to save money, because you’re not in the supermarket, wandering the aisles, looking at all the very tempting stuff that somehow then finds its way into your trolley. You do have to be careful not to be drawn in with the messages that pop up about ‘have you seen this special offer?’, or ‘you usually buy this’ – stick to your list! You may have to be organised and book your slot in advance or depending on which supermarket you choose you may be able to book a last minute one. And yes, sometimes the substitutions can be a bit strange (onions instead of white wine anyone? ) and you do have to make sure you’re ordering the right size – I once thought I had an absolute bargain with a pack of Diet Coke that turned out to be the mini cans that you use as a mixer….. BUT – overall, the supermarkets have ALSO got themselves organised (generally) and give a good service.

5 – Cleaning

Having just spent what feels like the whole weekend dealing with household tasks, I feel your pain on this one. Last week got away with me, and I didn’t stick to my daily habit of cleaning, and so it all piled up and was waiting for me this weekend. So last night I sat down and went back to planning out my week, on a day-by-day basis, of cleaning tasks to be done. This is very loosely based on The Organised Mum Method and Flylady whereby the task of keeping on top of your cleaning is split into zones and days. So for me, Monday is cleaning my living room and dining area (which currently is one long room). So I dust, polish where necessary, get rid of dead flowers, water any plants, I might wash throws, I vacuum the floors and look for anything to declutter while I’m cleaning. Tuesday is bedroom day – dust and polish, change sheets, hoover upstairs, clean mirrors etc. I also empty the bins and put the bins out as it’s binman day on Wednesdays! Wednesday is hall day – but as my hall is small I also use this day to do any other jobs, which includes cleaning the bath and shower cubicle, cleaning windows, admin work, making phone calls). Thursday is kitchen day, when all the surfaces get a clean down, I clean out the microwave and toaster, wipe the cupboards and door handles and clean the sink out properly (i.e. put some hot water and disinfectant in, and then clean it with a cream cleanser). I might also wipe out the dishwasher – if I don’t do this weekly, I do it every couple of weeks or so.

Obviously, as I am using the kitchen daily, I will be keeping on top of the daily stuff like clearing away any cooking dishes, filling and emptying the dishwasher, emptying the kitchen bin and the food waste/recycling as needed.

Friday is hard floor cleaning day – so I will vacuum downstairs and the bathrooms, get out my squirty mop for the downstairs LVT floor, and the steamer for the bathroom floors, and get to work. I also check and clean out the fridge, meal plan for the following week and prepare my shopping list.

Through the week, there are some things I will do every couple of days – for example, cleaning down the basins and the toilets, and vacuuming the high traffic areas. I will pop these onto my schedule where I think they need to be done, and where I have the time to fit them in. The important thing is that I don’t have it all to do at the weekend. The other important thing (for me) is that it’s written down, so I have a clear plan for the week ahead and I get the achievement of ticking things off as they are completed! I used to think that doing housework every day would be much more work than doing it once a week, and that the house would never feel clean, but I have been proved wrong. Maybe when you first start, it will take slightly longer to clean daily but as you get into a routine you will definitely speed up, and knocking something off every day means you do not have to spend a huge chunk of your weekend cleaning the house.

6 – Birthday cards and gifts

This, I have to say, is one of the things which, if I am on top of it, makes me feel like I rule the world. If I am not on top of it, I feel like the worst mum/friend/sister/aunty in the world! Hero to zero….. The trick is to plan ahead – use a system (either a calendar, planner, or your phone) to log the birthday of everyone that is important to you, and then put a reminder in your phone or on your planner, a couple of weeks ahead of time, to organise the card and present. I would give yourself the buffer of two weeks to do this rather than one, because then if, for whatever reason you don’t do it two weeks out, you’ve still got a week to get it done. You could set another reminder in your phone if necessary if you didn’t get to it. Another way to manage this could be to buy a stack of cards that are suitable for birthdays and keep them in a box, refilling them every so often – I find that the lower priced shops have some really excellent cards, instead of using more well-known (and higher priced) stores. If you have more money than time, you could also put some money onto an online account (such as Moonpig) annually, or every six months, and then use that to despatch your cards. This is useful if it’s a friend or relative where you don’t buy presents, or they are too far for you to deliver in person. What I’ve started to do recently is to buy all the cards for the upcoming month’s birthdays at the start of the month, usually by shopping at a specific card store. Any of these ways will work, and it will mean that you don’t feel that dread when you realise it’s someone’s birthday in a couple of days and you do not have their card already sorted.

With presents, this is something that may need a little more consideration. I tend to keep a running list through the year as I see things that might be a good birthday idea – for example, something you see on a Facebook or Instagram ad, or your friend mentions something they like. If you were super-organised you could buy them there and then of course – but if not, then buying them at the start of the birthday month is also a good idea. Of course, online stores like Amazon will also deliver presents directly to the recipient – which is especially helpful if they don’t live nearby.

7 – Paperwork organisation

This, for me, is a tricky one. I am still, in this digital age, a fan of paper. I like to have a physical journal or list of things to do to tick off, and I also have paperwork which I really don’t need to keep but still do (estate agent’s booklet on the house I sold 8 years ago, for example). So, writing this for me is quite cathartic, and a bit of a kick up the bum to up my paperwork game!

Start off with checking what comes through your front door and have a method for dealing with mail straight away. Anything urgent should be dealt with immediately, junk mail either straight into recycling or (better still) return to sender so you get taken off the list.

I tend to have a folder where stuff ‘to deal with’ is put, with the plan being that I look at the folder once a week, having set aside an hour to do so. As I say, that’s the plan…..

Household gadget manuals is something that can quickly pile up, and that also takes up a lot of space. But you don’t really need these if you have access to the internet – manuals are usually available online (double check before you throw something away that you think you might need to refer to though!).

Finance paperwork is another thing that can pile up – and sometimes you do need to keep this for a period of time – e.g. payslips. Many employers now have switched to digital versions though, so keep these online if you can (making sure you also have a backup of important files!).

If you have access to a scanner, you could also scan in important documents – and then have a filing system using folders that makes sense to you.

You may still need originals of some documents – e.g. birth certificate etc. Don’t get rid of or digitise these! Have a place to keep them – I have a fireproof portable safe in which I keep my really important documents – passport, birth certificate, divorce paperwork, car ownership documents.

So there you have it – these are the things that make me feel like I’ve got it all together, but I’d love to hear what makes you feel organised! Drop a comment below, or message me on Instagram and tell me your methods!

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JFDI

One of my personal favourite acronyms is JFDI – or, Just F***ing Do It.  It works like this – you think to yourself, ‘I’m going to get up early in the morning and smash out a workout before I start work.’  Full of good intentions, you set your alarm for half an hour earlier in the morning.  The alarm goes off, and you reach for the snooze button.  Several snoozes later, you haven’t got time for that workout, so as you are getting ready for work you vow you will do it when you finish work.  All day, in the back of your mind is the promise you made about getting a workout in later.  After your work is done, you convince yourself that it would be better to eat first (you are starving…) and workout before bed.  Once you’ve eaten, you sit with a cuppa on the sofa and before you know it, it’s bedtime and you haven’t done that workout.  The answer to this is to JFDI – when your alarm goes off in the morning, DO NOT allow yourself to even THINK about hitting snooze.  Just get up.  Once you are up, head over to where you have laid out your workout kit, get changed and head to your workout area.  DO NOT sit down, and DO NOT lie back down on the bed (been there, done that ).  You don’t necessarily have to apply this to just getting up and getting your workout done – you may plan to do it as soon as you finish work.  Just don’t let yourself think about NOT doing it.  Walk into your house, head to your bedroom, get changed and get into that workout without pausing to do anything else.  One of my favourite speakers is Mel Robbins and she has a version of this called ‘The Five Second Rule’ – watch this clip about it.

When you feel more like lying down than downward dog…JFDI!

Photo by Form on Unsplash

Contain and control

A great way to organise your stuff is to use baskets or containers – for example, in your kitchen cupboards.  Group ‘like’ items together – packet sauces, packets of rice or pasta, tins – and put them into baskets that you can pull out.  That way, you do not have to individually take out every single item to find the thing you want which is right at the back of the cupboard.  You pull out the basket, take what you want, and put the basket back.  If you are feeling uber-organised, you could even label the basket, so you know what’s in there.  You can also use baskets to store stuff which is out on your counter-top – for example, your face creams and lotions, your makeup, your body care stuff.  Then when you come to clean, you only have to lift off the basket rather than move eleven different items to clean.  Use baskets, or tidies in drawers too – again, put like items together and use containers that fit in your drawer alongside each other. 

Feast your eyes on these beautifully arranged baskets…

Photo by William Felker on Unsplash

Category strategy

Make the best use of your time by categorising similar tasks to do together, in a block of time.  For example, if you have several trips to do or errands to run, schedule a block of time to do them all together, rather than leave the house in the morning, then go back out again later that day.  Think about where you are going and plan your route to make the most effective use of your time (and your petrol!).  If you have a few calls to make, do them one after the other.  If you have several things you need to research on the web, make a list and do them one after the other.  That way, you are not jumping between tasks that use different parts of your brain, and it also maximises the ‘flow’ of work.

Wait to buy

I am a spender, not a saver, and this can be my downfall at times.  That, and the Amazon app….and Pinterest.  And vloggers on YouTube.  But I digress. One trick I have learned is not to immediately give in to my impulse to buy the latest gadget, or miracle cream or makeup item, but instead to save the idea and come back to it in a couple of days – or even better, after a week.  Very often (in fact I would say 9 times out of 10), that impulse to buy has disappeared.  The urge to buy that item that is going to make your life so much better, just seems to die away if you don’t give in to it.  Use the time to consider whether you really need it – if it’s a costly item, do some research.  Can you buy it cheaper elsewhere?  Can you get cashback on it (Quidco or Top Cashback)?  Can you buy it second-hand?  Do you really really need it?  If you do – and you can afford it – then go ahead.  At least you have given yourself space to make the decision a considered one.

Same old, same old….

Very often (for me anyway), the daily routine can lead to decision fatigue.  What to wear?  What to eat (X 3 – breakfast, lunch and dinner).  One way to make this less of a bind, is to rotate the same clothes/meals over a weekly or fortnightly schedule.  For example, plan your outfits across a week, using the same tops and bottoms (within reason…) but swapping them around.  Build yourself a wardrobe where your clothes will go together multiple times.  Use accessories to liven them up and ring in the changes.  There are lots of good ideas on Pinterest for capsule wardobes.  The key is to plan your outfits, preferably for the week ahead but at the very least the night before. 

With your meals, again planning is the key.  Personally, I eat the same breakfast on a weekday – Monday to Wednesday it’s granola, berries and Skyr or Greek yoghurt.  Thursday and Friday, I have overnight oats with frozen berries (thawed out) on top.  Lunch wise, I have either soup, sandwich or jacket potato in the winter – summer it’s salads all the way, prepared on a Sunday/Wednesday.  I just couldn’t face having to make those decisions every day – making it weekly (even though it’s still a pain in the ass) is so much less hassle.  And keeping it to the same ‘family’ of meals, makes it so much easier to do!

Your time is up!!

You’ve been too tired to do the housework all week, and you’ve set aside the weekend to get it done instead.  Well, chances are, unless you set yourself a time limit, it will take you all weekend to get it done.  ‘Work expands to fill the time available’ otherwise known as Parkinson’s Law.  If you set yourself a time limit, it is amazing what can be accomplished.  Write yourself a list of what needs to be done (obviously lists were going to be mentioned here… ) and set your timer going for short periods (10 – 20 minutes max) and then just GO!   Clean the bathroom?  No problem, 10-minute timer then move on.  Vacuum downstairs?  Got it – 5 minutes and we’re done.  This will work for many projects or tasks – for example, when I was looking to change jobs, I would spend literally hours crafting my application until I was sure it was perfect.  Until that one time, when I was on a deadline, and I had to submit the application without my usual perfectionism, and in a much shorter timescale.  I was sure it wouldn’t be successful.  Well guess what?  I got an interview.  That taught me a valuable lesson – ‘done is better than perfect’.

Gone in 60 seconds…

Photo by Jaelynn Castillo on Unsplash

Another simple hack that really works is also on the theme of time.  If something is going to take you less than a minute – just do it.  Don’t put it to one side, thinking you will get to it later.  Do it now.  Those small jobs mount up and can then feel overwhelming.  Plus, it motivates you to do more – productivity encourages productivity.  Many tasks feel like they will take longer than a minute, and so you put them off – e.g. tidying away magazines, or straightening cushions, or putting something back where you got it from.  I promise you, keeping the ball rolling on the small tasks will help you to achieve the big ones!

What hacks have you got to help streamline your life?  I would love to know!

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That feeling when you need something and you can lay your hand on it right away…or it’s your best friend’s birthday tomorrow and you bought her the perfect gift two weeks ago….don’t we all aspire to that?  I know I do!  Some people seem to do this naturally; they have systems in place so that they are on top of their work, or their house is uber-tidy, or they pack for a two week beach holiday in one carry-on piece of luggage.  The trouble is, what no-one tells you is that for most of us this is an effort.  It just doesn’t come naturally and we have to work at it.  There are, however, ways to make this easier, and below are the principles which, through years of reading books, scrolling through Pinterest, watching YouTubers, and trying my best every damn day, I have found are key principles to help you become – and remain – an organised person.  Let’s begin.

Decluttering (and keeping decluttered).  This is the first principle.  If you can only do one of these, then this is the one to do.  When you feel the joy of shedding all of those ‘things’ you have been saving ‘just in case’, it will inspire you to move along your organising journey, and it will make you feel free.  There are several ways of doing this, and one of the most popular is the Marie Kondo method.  As I have already said, organising is not easy and decluttering is as hard as it gets – after all, you have kept all of that stuff for a reason, haven’t you?  And it’s much harder to make a decision about whether to keep something, than it is to just not think about it, keep hold of it and defer that decision to another day.  But – you have to pull on your big girl/boy pants and make a start.  Kondo recommends you start with clothes – these are the items we have the least emotional attachment to and, in theory at least, it should be easier to start with these.  Be ruthless.  It does get easier…

Think of it as a way of freeing up valuable space in your home – you may be considering moving to a bigger home, which will cost you more, all because you have Too.  Much.  Stuff.  How crazy is that? The other thing to remember about decluttering is that it isn’t something you do once then forget about, it’s a constant process.  You can’t let your guard down or before you know it you’ll be featuring on one of those ‘hoarder’ programmes (joking..)

Keep ‘like with like’.  Now that you have decluttered (or have made good progress), it’s time to think about how to store your things.  Firstly, think about the most logical place to keep things – for example, if you are into gardening you probably have gardening equipment.  Keep it all together, for example in a shed, or an outside storage box.  If you have spare parts for your lawnmower, keep them near the lawnmower.  Sounds obvious doesn’t it?  It’s easy to fall into the habit of keeping ‘like’ things in different areas, but if you think about it logically, you will be able to put your hand on things quickly.

Store your most-used items so they are at hand.  Following on from ‘keeping like with like’, have a look at whether you are storing items you use the most frequently in places where they are easily located.  This was a game changer for me!  It’s probably most noticeable in the kitchen.  Do you store your cups and tea/coffee making supplies near the kettle, or are they on the other side of the kitchen?  Do you keep a blender that you use daily on a high shelf that’s difficult to get to?  Next time you are cooking, consciously think about how you are getting all of your equipment and supplies ready – are they stored conveniently, or do you have to move things out of the way so that you can grab them?  It also applies to other areas – for example, spare bathroom supplies.  Are your spare toilet rolls stored in the garage downstairs when your only loo is upstairs?!

Little and often. So many times, I have put off a ‘big’ organising task (like sorting out the garage of doom…) because I think I need a full day or a weekend to do it.  And that big chunk of time never, or rarely, comes around – so the job remains undone.  The way to tackle these big jobs is to break them up into manageable chunks – and that means doing it little and often.  Taking organising the garage as an example, make a start by tackling whatever is on the floor.  Give yourself a time limit to do it (amazing how a deadline can motivate you to finish…) and by the end of the allotted 20 minutes or so you will be amazed at what you have achieved.  The key is to continue to chip away at it…little and often.  I use the same technique with housework – each day I tackle a cleaning task such as wiping down the sinks and toilets, or wiping the front of the kitchen cupboards, plus cleaning a floor or hoovering, plus maybe a wash load or a spot of ironing.  By the end of the week, you have gone through the whole house (I won’t say without realising it because there will have been some effort and hard work involved!) but it won’t have been that psychological burden of thinking you had to spend a whole day or weekend doing it.

Remembering important dates.  For this one you are going to need a diary or a calendar, preferably an online one.  I know, I know, I’m a paper and pen kind of gal myself too, but after one missed hair appointment too many I realised I had to move online rather than my trusty pocket diary.  Get yourself set up with a calendar – I highly recommend Google calendar; so easy to use, you can colour code it for ease, and share it with family members or work colleagues.  Start by blocking out all the birthdays and special events you already know about.  For birthdays you can even set them to recur every year….genius!!  Set yourself an appropriate reminder, or notification, say two weeks in advance to give yourself time to shop for a card and gift.  You can even add notes in – for example if you are going to a gig, and you have stored the paper tickets somewhere safe, make a note of where they are in the notes section of the event in your calendar.  Get into the habit of adding things as they occur – so when you are at the hairdressers and you’re booking in your next appointment, add it straight away. If you’ve got a work event that impacts on your home life, add it to your calendar.  (use a different colour for work events).  If your son or daughter has an important event that their other parent needs to attend or know about, add them in to the event as a participant.  Everyone needs a calendar – they are not just for busy executives!

Routines aren’t just for babies… I can be a bit impulsive.  I don’t like feeling tied down, and I don’t like things to be predictable.  However, I love routines!  Routines are the oil that greases the wheels of everyday life.  A good routine to create is a bedtime routine – going to bed at the same time every night promotes good sleep health, and we all know how important sleep is!  Way before bedtime, have a routine that includes preparing, cooking and clearing away dinner, getting stuff ready for the next day (meals, clothes, paperwork you may need to do something with etc), relaxing, doing some housework and preparing for bed.  Routines can be helpful for children too, so they learn responsibilities such as feeding their pet, doing their chores, completing their homework.  It just makes life much more simple – and organised!

Lists and checklists…  I couldn’t write this article and not include lists!  My love of a good list is legendary around these parts.  I have daily lists of things to do, yearly lists of goals to achieve, lists of books to read and films to watch…you get the picture!  The key for this is that everything is captured in a list.  Nothing stays in my head – mainly because I would soon forget about it I tend to use paper lists for my deskwork, and electronic lists of other stuff like books to read etc (so that if I’m in a charity shop I can quickly scan my list to see if any of the books are in stock).  The beauty of online lists is that they can be shared – ideal if it’s a family project, or even a shopping list that everyone can add to!  The other things I love about lists is having prepared checklists for regularly occurring activities – for example holiday packing.  I keep lists of things to pack for a camping or caravanning weekend, packing lists for family holidays, packing lists for a short weekend away.  I don’t have to start afresh with a blank sheet of paper when I’m thinking about what to take on holiday.  Such a simple thing, but it makes such a difference!

So there you have it – my top 7 principles for living in a more organised way.  I think these are really simple practices, but they are such a good foundation to build your more organised life on!  I hope these help you in some way; even if you only adopt one of them it might make your life easier!

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Well, it had to happen.  Obsessive watching of YouTube videos about decluttering has spurred me into action (sort of).  I’ve realised that I have a lot of ‘stuff’.  Some of it sparks joy (thanks, Marie Kondo), some of it is there ‘just in case it’s needed’, some of it is there because it cost a lot of money, but whatever, I have decided that I need to streamline my living space.  One thing I read that really resonated with me was about how much it costs to actually store this stuff that I rarely if ever use – for example I have a garage which is, literally, a disaster area.  Prime real estate (as Americans would say), which I could use for lots of different things – an exercise space, a utility room, a workshop – but instead it is a dumping ground.  I’m not sure how much it costs me to use it for dumping stuff in, and quite frankly I can’t be bothered to work it out, but I would guess it’s quite a lot. 

I’ve started to make small inroads into the stuff I have that I don’t need, for example old toiletries and makeup, clothes, but I find it hard to be ruthless.  I also find that things that I get rid of are quite often needed just days later (looking at you, wooden kebab skewers..), which then leads me to resist getting rid of them ‘just in case’.  I have a bit of a slapdash approach to decluttering, I will wake up and decide I need to sort my wardrobe out, or when I go up to bed I will think it’s the perfect time to organise my bedside drawer.  This means that I never feel that a room is particularly ‘decluttered’; only part of it.  What that leads to is a feeling of lethargy, when I can’t be bothered to declutter because it doesn’t feel like I am getting anywhere – and then to motivate myself I watch yet more YouTube vloggers decluttering, which gives me a spurt of energy!

I do subscribe to the old tip of having a charity ‘waystation’, for putting stuff in that you will be donating to charity – and guess where this waystation is?  Yes, you guessed it – in my disaster of a garage!!  However, I have strategically placed it near the exit so it is close to the car for loading up!  I also sometimes do this thing with my friends where we do what is called ‘swishing’ – where you have your friends over, you each have a number of items you no longer need but are good quality (e.g. bags, scarves, toiletries) and your friends can take them home with them.  Sort of a friendship circle version of Freecycle.  Not great if you are seriously decluttering though because the temptation is there to give a home to something your friends are getting rid of, but a guilt-free way of handing on once-loved items to someone you know will take care of it.

Another decluttering method that is sweeping the internet is Swedish Death Cleaning.  Sounds grim doesn’t it?  And it kind of is a bit grim, in that it’s about making sure that your loved ones don’t have a huge tidy-up job on their hands when you die – including getting rid of things that might be embarrassing for them to deal with when you’ve gone.  There’s a good YouTube video where a vlogger called Brittany Vasseur does a comparison between the two methods

I think the one thing to keep in mind about decluttering is this – you are never done!  It is a regular job that you have to do because, before you know it, you are drowning in stuff again.  And who needs wooden kebab sticks anyway?

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