Shelley Howells: Take your rubbish problem to the experts

I've had it with junk, clutter, bits'n' bobs - all the dang stuff that surrounds me.

The word "stuff" is so appropriate - it's stuffed into drawers, on shelves, the mantelpiece, windowsills and boxes under the house.

When you're not shopping for and buying more stuff and exchanging it with friends for birthdays, you're maintaining it - dusting, repairing, finding somewhere to put it (buying/making storage stuff), budgeting the 450 easy payments or working your stuffed butt off earning money for more of it.

Stuff literally stuffs up your life. I know this because of a brief, blissful, clutter-free period a couple of years ago when we moved back to New Zealand after six years overseas.

We had to survive for three months with only what we could fit into a couple of suitcases while we waited for a ship to arrive with the rest of our stuff.

We found a house to rent and borrowed, bought or rented a few basics - a telly, beds, a pot or two, a handful of plates, a fridge and a couch.

It was fantastic. Daily life was a doddle: what's for dinner? Whatever can be whipped up using one frying pan and a casserole. What to wear? Easy, one of three drip-dry outfits.

Things were easy to find. Things were easy to clean. Junior (eventually) learned to live without 50,000 toys. He made his own and did all that imaginative play that parenting books recommend.

Despite that experience, we're now back to square one: a clutter of stuff has crept into every nook and cranny.

Even the computer is cluttered - I've downloaded so much useless stuff that the poor old iMac is having seizures thanks to hard-core extensions conflicts. The browser is jammed with more than 400 alleged "favourites" and Outlook Express has about 3000 stored email messages. Clearly, I need help.

Obviously, because the floor is too cluttered to let me get out of the house, the net is the place to turn to.

First, establish there is a problem. Complete the 12-step group Clutterers Anonymous questionnaire.

If you answer "yes" to three or more questions (starting with do you have more possessions or items in your life than you can handle comfortably? Do you find it difficult to dispose of many things, even those you haven't used in years? Do you rent storage space to house items you never use?) you may have a problem.

Clutterless Recovery Groups "run by clutterers, for clutterers", provide a downloadable meeting kit that explains how to start a clutterers' support group.

They are terribly sympathetic about the problem. "When we understand the psychological and emotional reasons we clutter, we can stop cluttering. Cluttering is not hoarding. It is often a manifestation of deeper issues like depression, anxiety, or AD/HD tendencies."

Yay, that's not a disgusting pile of trash on the back seat of the car, it's a manifestation of my anxiety over meeting column deadlines.

To find out how to start clutterbusting, you have to wade through a right jumble of websites devoted to the topic. Mind over Clutter "dedicated to clutter free living", has a nice uncluttered list of internet declutter resources.

Organized Home has step-by-step decluttering guides, including the nifty "four box method", as well as a declutter message board where you can bond with others with stuff issues.

And on Be Clutter Free creator and organising consultant Linda M. DePaz runs an online class (costs $50) called Learn to be Clutter Free.

So help is out there, it's just a question of following the advice and not putting off the dreaded declutter mission by searching websites on the topic (many clutterers are procrastinators, too).

If you're still in denial about how all that stuff lurking in the house may be affecting your life, check out The Six Costs of Clutter on the Dollar Stretcher US budgeting site and you'll see how it's costing time, money and peace of mind.

Just don't add any of these sites to your "favourites" until you've cleared out a few hundred old ones.

www.stretcher.com/stories/990426h.cfm

www.mindoverclutter.com

www.clutterersanonymous.net

www.organizedhome.com/

* Email Shelley Howells