Spring Clearing!
I was asked today if I thought the faze of spring clearing (and cleaning) is slowly disappearing over the years…my answer is absolutely not!
As the new season approaches we are ready to shed, clear and organise and I believe that goes hand in hand with better weather and a fresh feel in the air. Throughout the year there isn’t always time to give things a deep clean, to go beneath the surface and actually focus on what may be cluttering our homes. This is a great chance to do so. It’s a refreshing, energizing and mind clearing exercise I think we should make sure sticks around forever!
If you, like many get slightly overwhelmed at the thought of starting this process then don’t be. I am going to give you some tips on how to get started, how to best approach it and just as importantly what not to do!
Getting in the right head space
Firstly, it is very important that you don’t see decluttering your home as a giant job lurking around waiting for you to start. Remember why you’re doing it and all of the positives it will bring – the headspace, the clarity, the boost in energy and productivity, the ease of tidying and cleaning more efficiently. Less stuff means less responsibility and less to weigh you down.
Getting started
What NOT to do:
Start pulling the entire contents of your room out and throwing it in a big pile on the floor. This will cause overwhelm and believe me, it takes longer than you think to go through, make decisions and reorganise your belongings properly.
What to do:
Choose a small section of a room like a cupboard or corner and pull the contents out. Don’t focus on anything as yet. Once it’s all out, lay it out a little more neatly and then work your way through the items making a decision on what is staying and what is going.
Area by area and bit by bit.
What NOT to do:
Over think where to start. Everything will eventually get done and giving yourself too much time to think will make you procrastinate!
What to do:
Choose an area that bothers you the most and get started! It’s the same feeling as when you are deciding whether to go to the gym or not – you have to just do it before you talk yourself out of it!
What NOT to do:
Ask yourself too many questions in order to make your decisions which drawer out the process and decision-making. Does it matter if you’ve worn or used it in the last year? You may not have seen or had access to it in the last year because of other surrounding clutter so this question isn’t necessarily relevant!
What to do:
I think the strongest question to ask yourself is ‘Can I live without this?’ Go with your gut feeling and realise you know the answer. You know if you are going to wear or use something again, if you wasted money on it or if you simply don’t have a use for it anymore.
What NOT to do:
Don’t use sentimentality as an excuse
What to do:
Remember something isn’t necessarily sentimental because we have owned it for a long time – our true sentimental items should be treasured and not brought down by things that aren’t
REMEMBER –start – work on the area – complete – finish with the feelings of success
Additions:
Don’t:
Go out and buy a mass of storage before you know what you need. Going to Ikea and buying baskets isn’t the start of getting organised, it’s the final step.
Do:
How do you know what you need until you have first decluttered? You don’t is the answer and more often than not you will find that your home has a lot more storage than you think once you have culled!
Declutter – then work out what you need – then purchase as necessary!
Don’t:
Aim for instagram perfection – it’s not always a practical way to live. Does every single item in your food cupboard need to live in a basket? Probably not!
Do:
Put the items in baskets that would benefit from it. Think practically as well as visually. Of course there is nothing wrong with your space looking great – that’s what we do! But ‘over the top organisation’ can be a burden not a help!
Vicky Silverthorn started her Professional Organising business in 2010.
After ten years working as a PA for well known names such as Lily Allen and professional sports people, she decided that she wanted to concentrate on decluttering and physically organising peoples homes and spaces.
Vicky and the team find themselves inundated with requests from people wanting to get their homes in order – so they organise, implement practical, simplistic systems and make spaces more streamlined and efficient.
Vicky is passionate about knowing what’s new in the world of storage and makes it her job to keep up to date with the latest trends. Although the majority of her work is based in London, she has recently begun expanding to cover Surrey, Berkshire and Hampshire.
Her belief is that it starts at home; if your home is in shape, other elements of your life will follow.
Find out more at www.youneedavicky.com