The decorations are down. You have finished almost all of the leftovers. The alarm clock is your new best friend. And the house is a tip. There is the little pile of presents you don’t really know where to put. A pile of chocolates and other “interesting” delicacies that nobody wants to eat. Worst of all there is all that stuff you hid in cupboards and under beds before Christmas because you hadn’t got the time to sort it out then and you didn’t want it cluttering up the house over the holidays.
So what do you do? You start decluttering. You hit IKEA or the Pound Shop for interesting storage ideas that will help you be more organised. You spend hours on FlyLady (which is excellent btw) and realise that the reason you are in such a mess is that you don’t have the right cleaning tools. You invest a small fortune on house planners and organisers. And by the end of the week you are (a) poor (b) knackered (c) the owner of clutter in boxes as opposed to clutter on the floor.
So I introduce you to the essentials for a good house declutter and start to the new year.
Hairbrush
Do not attempt to declutter in your pyjamas. I am right there with Flylady on this. This is a job. Would you go to work in your onsie? Get up, get dressed, brush your hair (and tie it up if it is long like mine, it will just keep getting in the way), clean your teeth and address your clutter from a position of organised superiority. If you feel clean and organised you have already won half the battle. If you feel grubby and unkempt you are not going to be in the right mindset. Get the mindset and the body will follow.
Shoes
You will be taking stuff out to the rubbish, to the compost, to the car. It is winter (well for half of us anyway) it is wet, cold and even snowy. You do not want to be wearing slippers. Also see above (1) above.
Once you are up, dressed, shiney and ready to go you can assemble the following. I’ll take you through each item day by day over the next week. I am not going to go over the sorting process (keep, bin, donate) you are all grown up. You know how to actually do the decluttering, you do not need a book or a blog to tell you what to do. This is about how to keep you on the ball, how to change little things in your daily life that can help all that stuff getting through the door in the first place
- A house walk
- The fridge and larder
- 12 dividers and a simple ring binder
- A blackboard
- A small box
- An apron
See you later 🙂
one pair of shoes at a time 
“Address your clutter from a position of organised superiority” now THAT is something I like the sound of!!
I can’t wait to find out what a larder is!
Essentially today it is identical to a pantry. Originally before the use of refridgeration it was a cold room.. We are lucky enough to have a cold room. But as parts of our house are over 750 years old I am just grateful we have plumbing!
Flylady saved my life, my family and my marriage when she first started – I was one of the first and am eternally grateful. Many of her mottos became mine and though I haven’t been on her site for a year or so, I would still always recommend her in a heartbeat (such as to my daughters!)… Most touched and amused to see you cite her this week ;).
Hi, just wondering what the folder and dividers were for? I can’t seem to find later posts where you said more on this and I am curious! Thanks
I am so sorry Amelia, I should have followed that up! I don’t post on here any more but I do keep the blog up for reference and as a resource, particularly for clients. I will write a post on the file, dividers, blackboard, box and apron and post it up by the end of the week 🙂
Thank you so much!