Spring cleaning!

[Storyteller.]

I'm currently in the process of trying to declutter/reorganise my house. Unfortunately I've accumulated so much junk stuff over the years that it's a pretty daunting task, so I figured I'd see if anyone here has any advice. How do you go about deep cleaning and clearing out your house (or room, storage space, etc)? How do you choose what to keep, sell, donate, or throw away? How do you organise your belongings and keep your living space, well, liveable? Any tips, tricks, or insight would be very much appreciated!

[Arabesque- golfing girl.]

Hi Charlie,

I am sorry that you are having a hard time with this and I hope that you will be okay soon. When we have a lot of stuff in our house it can be hard to organize everything. Would you be able to try to get some totes and folders to help you to organize your stuff? You can write on the top of the totes or you can get different color post-its and put them on top and label everything that you have in them. If you have artwork or pictures, maybe you can put them on your walls. If you can put totes or boxes under your bed, this can help clear up your bedroom because they are under your bed. Also, if you like to read or draw or painting, try not to have everyone out, try to have one, two or maybe three out so that is less out on the table or whatever you have them. For pet stuff, toys and anything else that you have, find a toy box and put everything in them. Try to find a place for everything that you have and if you haven't used it in a while, try putting this in a box or in a tote and stack them on top of each other. When you are organizing everything, try to put everything together, clothing, shoes, ect and have them all in a different pile and see what you like and if it is something that you haven't used in a while, maybe you can give it away. It can be hard to jump into this, try to take your time and if you are getting overwhelmed or upset, try to step back for a little bit and then go back and you can always have a friend or family member to help you out with this. I wish you the best with this and I hope that you are able to get everything organized soon.

[Celyn]

I've struggled with this too. I've spent years trying to declutter my space and while I still have more to do I have actually made a lot of progress too.

I don't know about you, but when I decided to get to grips with cleaning and tidying, I was also dealing with burnout and so the thought of tidying felt exhausting and I felt overwhelmed not knowing where to start. I decided to break it down and just pick an area (perhaps the easiest one) and start with that. When I'm satisfised, then I would move on to the next area etc. I would try to do little and often so that I didn't feel overwhelmed with all the tidying I had to do.

Choosing what to keep/sell/donate/throw out was difficult for me and it's something I still struggle with.

Throwing out stuff isn't too bad as I would just throw out whatever I couldn't really use anymore and wasn't good enough to donate either. Sometimes I keep some stuff like clothes that have holes in because I can wear them around the house or for tasks like going up the garden, but if otherwise if they don't fit or aren't good quality then I throw them.

Stuff that I haven't used in a while and can't see me using now or in the future will get donated if it's decent quality. So far this has included shoes that were too big, clothes that are too small or the style doesn't suit me, dvd's and books that I tell myself I'll get around to watching/reading but never do etc. A good way of distinguishing between what to throw out and what to donate is asking yourself would you be happy to buy it or not. If not, then chances are others might not buy it either so best to throw it out.

I haven't actually sold anything but if I were to sell anything I would weigh up the cost of packaging and posting an item to see whether it's worth selling it. In some cases, it might be best to do a 'job lot' rather than sell items singularly e.g. if you have a particular style of jewellery or items of clothing that you could sell together at a higher price than if you tried to sell them separately.

Keeping things, for me, largely depends on whether I use things regularly or whether I am likely to use it in the future, or whether they have sentimental value. I tend to 'hoard' things that I feel attached to which isn't good when you don't have a lot of space. So for some things that are pointless keeping but I don't want to let go, I might take a photo of the item so I'll have something to hold on to even if I no longer keep the item. Though I haven't got rid of many sentimental items yet

I'm not particularly good at organising things either but have found for me, I value ease of access. So things I regularly use I try to keep at the forefront of areas. I try to file away important letters and things when I don't need them and then every few years go through the folder and recycle/shred the letters I no longer need. I think it can also help to set aside some time each week to do a brief clean and put things away so that it doesn't get too cluttered.

Hope this helps a bit!