Professional declutterers offer tailored methods for every personality, from perfectionists to hoarders. Photo / 123RF
From perfectionist to hoarder, there’s a method for every personality type – so which one suits you the best?
For some of us, decluttering our homes is our Everest – a seemingly interminable task requiring more commitment, time and neat storage boxes than is possible to muster. Whatever excuse you come up with, be it an attachment to sentimental keepsakes, your self-diagnosed ADHD that makes sticking to the task so hard, or simply a lack of time and motivation, the professional declutterers have seen you coming. (What a world of stuffocation we live in, by the way, that this is even its own industry.)
“Letting go is such an ‘a-ha’ moment,” says American declutterer Kayleen Kelly. “It’s so healing when people gain back their space and peace of mind.” Joshua Fields Millburn, podcaster and one half of The Minimalists, calls it “the paradox of minimalism”. “As a minimalist, I get far more value from the few items I own than having thousands of useless trinkets getting in the way.” Here, then, are the best solutions to your worst excuses.
It’s the most famous question in the decluttering world: does your stuff spark joy? This is the essence of the KonMari method, devised by Marie Kondo, Japanese tidying pioneer and author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying. Of course, it’s more complicated than that, explains KonMari consultant Katrina Hassan. “A toilet brush might not spark joy, though it will through its practical use.”
But this is no “start with the useful drawer and see how you go” kind of approach – it requires a deep dive and adherence to a strict set of rules. You’re expected to declutter category by category, so all related items are laid out together: clothing first, then books, paperwork, “kimono” (basically everything else, which Hassan recommends sub-categorising into medicine, make-up, electronics etc), and finally – the hardest category – sentimental; though, hopefully, by then “your decision-making toolkit is fully honed,” Hassan says. You’re also expected to apply Japanese levels of good manners to your possessions: “Even if you’re passing things on, you’re encouraged to thank them,” she explains.
So block out your diary – a lot of it – and you might just experience that life-changing magic. “It’s a much deeper process than organising drawers,” says Hassan. “It makes you intentional about every aspect of your life: friendships, relationships, your career.” In fact, Hassan quit her teaching job after KonMari-ing her home. Start at your peril.
sparkjoylondon.com
For those who need a deadline nipping at their heels in order to achieve anything, try imagining you’re moving house. Set a strict but realistic date, and then ask yourself this question of all your possessions: “Would I take this with me if I were moving?” “It makes you the most ruthless declutterer,” explains the concept’s creator and self-confessed procrastinator Katie Holdefehr.
As a New York-based journalist regularly moving between apartments, Holdefehr came up with the Move-Out Method (which she included in her 2023 book, Organising Ideas and Stylish Upgrades for Every Room on Any Budget) with just a few hours to go before the removals van arrived. She suddenly realised the pressure gave her focus and decisiveness, and she powered through her decluttering. One advantage of the make-believe move-out date is that you decide whether to declutter your entire home, one room, or just a cupboard. Keep it authentic, Holdefehr advises, and remove every last item from a space as if you’re actually moving out. If an item is not worth packing up and hauling to the next home, donate or recycle it, and then clean the area: “It should feel like you’ve hit reset.” For indecisive moments, she recommends the Cardboard Box Test. Pack your “unsure” pile into a box, set a date several months from now and if by that time you haven’t needed its contents, get rid.
If you’ve ever found yourself, mid-declutter, wondering why you’re in a totally different part of your house, carrying a million random things requiring new homes, this one’s for you. The point here, says American organiser Kayleen Kelly, is that instead of “bouncing around, thinking, ‘This belongs in my bathroom, let me put it there,’” you stay in one room until you’ve finished it. It minimises distraction and makes a mammoth task more manageable. Plus – hooray – “you can take time off between rooms,” she adds.
There’s a four-step process to each room: Clear Out, Categorise, Cut Out and Contain. Key to success is having a series of bins (or large receptacles) in front of you, each designated for specific rooms. Starting with Clear Out, chuck everything that belongs elsewhere into the relevant bin and address later. Then Categorise: lay out everything that’s intended to remain in the room. “Being able to compare and contrast makes it much easier to process,” says Kelly. The hardest stage is cull time: Cut Out. For this, Kelly advises spending just three seconds deciding whether to keep an item (hesitation means an automatic keep). This three-second rule eliminates overthinking or regrets, she says. Finally, the Contain stage requires you to put everything into neat, designated spaces. Your freshly decluttered space, says Kelly, is a “positive, healing environment. Letting go of clutter is letting go of psychological baggage.”
kayleenkelly.com
“When people come to my home, they are always surprised that it is so cosy,” says Margareta Magnusson, the 90-year-old Swedish artist who found fame with her 2017 book Döstädning: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. “They always expect that I live in an empty, cold, monastic place. But I enjoy nice cushions and candles, artwork and a few knick-knacks.” However, she adds, “The stuff I kept for sentimental reasons went a long time ago.” Swedish Death Cleaning is about eliminating unnecessary items from your home, so loved ones won’t be burdened with them after you pass. “Men are terrible at this,” she says. “They’ll keep a rusty nail for years. For God’s sake, if you need a nail in 10 years’ time, go to the hardware store.”
The key question to ask is, “Will anyone I know be happier if I save this?” Magnusson advises starting with an “easy” category “without too much sentimental connection”: furniture, clothes, books, linen (sentimental things can be offered to friends and family), and she suggests death-cleaning two hours a week. “It will become a habit. It will make you feel good. But do not wait too long – when you are old, you are also tired.”
“The easiest way to organise your stuff is to get rid of most of it.” This is the mantra of the Minimalists, American authors and podcasters Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who, since 2010, have advocated a simple, stuff-free life. So how to get rid of it? Firstly, try the 90/90 rule: i.e., have you used this item in the past 90 days? Will you in the next 90? “If both answers are ‘no’,” says Millburn, “let it go.”
The 20/20 rule, or the “just in case” rule, is for those things we keep in case they prove useful one day. “I might need that shirt for some painting project, even though I don’t like the fit,” explains Millburn. “Then you end up with 30 painting shirts.” So ask yourself: could that item be replaced for less than $20 in less than 20 minutes? If so, out it goes. In almost 15 years, Millburn says he’s only replaced five items, “but it’s given me permission to let go of thousands.”
But the best way to declutter your life, he says, “is to avoid cluttering it in the first place”. The 30/30 rule is if something costs more than $30, wait 30 hours before buying it: “It puts some friction between you and the impulse purchase.” Letting go gives you freedom, argues Millburn. “Owning fewer things means less time spent worrying about them and taking care of them.”
theminimalists.com
You might want to read the small print here, because you’re actually being encouraged to declutter for an hour daily for 30 days. The idea originated from TikToker Britt Scaffidi (@britt_scaffedi), an overstretched working mum and Florida-based estate agent. “My house was not always clean and tidy and organised,” she explains in one video. “It caused me a lot of stress and anxiety – I was overwhelmed.” So she thought, “How about if I spend one hour and get as much done in that hour? I was shocked at how much I got done – I got rid of a lot of junk and made my life so much more manageable.” The One-Hour Method is about building a sustainable daily habit that gives a sense of achievement and motivation. “It really changed the game for me,” she says. “I felt lighter, less stressed.” If one hour feels too much, “break it down into smaller amounts,” she suggests. “Take more breaks.” Just stay away from TikTok, the ultimate time thief.
For the overwhelmed, time-poor, sentimental hoarders out there, could you find just 15 minutes for a Dolly Dash? It’s a declutter challenge from professional organiser Dilly Carter, from the BBC’s makeover show Sort Your Life Out. “It’s achievable, it starts you off,” says Carter, who also founded Declutter Dollies, a home organisation service. “You could even do it when having a cup of tea; could you tackle the cutlery drawer, for example?” This is about making a molehill out of a mountain; a no-pressure, commitment-free taster, and Carter is confident it will give you the declutter bug. You’ll find, she says, “that you spend much longer than 15 minutes”, and even this micro makeover will “give you that sense of relief,” she promises. “You’ll feel lighter.”
dillycarter.co.uk
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