Spring into action and clear out the clutter!

Clear and clean to let the spring sunshine in!

Spring has arrived, and that means spring cleaning time – a seasonal tradition that’s perhaps not so welcome for those of us who just aren’t natural housekeepers!  

The penetrating rays of the first really bright, warm days of the year can shine an unwelcome light on to cobwebby windows and into grubby, cluttered corners. But if the thought of scrubbing and polishing and clearing mountains of clutter fills you with horror, a proper plan of action can definitely lighten the load. 

And if you’re putting your house on the market, remember a super-clean, fresh-smelling, uncluttered home will be far more attractive to buyers and will sell for a higher price than a tired-looking, untidy property.  So when it comes to selling, investing time and effort in a really good spring clean and sort out is a really cost-effective way to boost your home’s ‘buyer appeal’. 

But whether you're on the move, or just want to improve your home, a good old clear-out and clean-up is a cheap and cheerful way to refresh your surroundings. Not only will your home look fresher but you'll feel better in yourself too, so you get double the feelgood factor Investing some effort and elbow grease really be worth it in the end, I promise, so here are my top spring cleaning tips.
  
1 Plan in advance
Spring cleaning is all about organising your home so it pays to organise your ‘battle plan’. Set aside a day or two for a proper cleaning and decluttering blitz and let everyone know you will be busy – distractions can make the best-laid plans fall apart. 

Draw up a list of all the tasks you want to achieve and be realistic about how much time it will take to do them all properly. 

Make sure you have all the cleaning and organising supplies you need before you start – it can really disrupt the rhythm of your work if you have to dash out to buy bleach or dusters in the middle of your cleaning campaign. 

If you haven’t already got one, invest in a cleaning caddy (or two, one for upstairs and one for down) to help you transport cleaning products from room to room easily, so you don't have to keep running back and forth to get what you need. 

On your spring cleaning day or days, turn off your phone, turn on some upbeat music, and off you go.

2 Make it fun
Don't think of spring cleaning as a chore. Instead, think of it as a 'feel good' exercise – one that  will really help you to feel good about yourself and your clean and well-organised home.  

Play some lively, fun, music while you work. Dance your way through your home with your dust rag or vacuum – remember you’ll be getting some good exercise and burning off calories too.  Rope in the family to help if you can – regular ‘picnic-style’ refreshment breaks and a final reward to celebrate when the job’s done in the form of a meal out and a movie, or just a takeaway and a DVD, can help persuade reluctant younger recruits! 

Play 'beat the clock.' Set time limits for completing small tasks, and try to complete those tasks before the timer goes off.  Plan a car boot sale to sell old toys, unwanted games and books and other clutter and promise to spend the proceeds on a family day out.  If you don’t have family to help, ask a friend to help, or do a swap – you’ll help spring clean their house if they’ll help you.

3 One room at a time
One of the most common mistakes people make when spring-cleaning is moving randomly around the house. 

One minute you're clearing out the cupboard under the sink, and the next, you're in the bedroom trying to stuff all your winter jumpers into a bag. The result? A great big, unsatisfying, exhausting mess. 

Instead, try to clean methodically: this will conserve your energy and ensure nothing gets missed out.  This is why drawing up a plan of action before you start is time well spent.

4 Work from the top down
If you decide to tackle one room at a time, work from the top down to the floor – that way you won’t be making a mess of an area you’ve already cleaned. 

So, in the kitchen, get out the step-ladder and sweep away cobwebs and clear away off and clean the tops of cupboards first. Then clear out and scrub your over work-top cupboards – throwing out any out of date items and remembering to wipe the bottoms of jars and cans before you put them back on those lovely unsticky, ring-free shelves. 

Worktops, windowsill and sink next, then clean out those under-worktop cupboards and drawers, fridge, freezer and oven, before getting freestanding appliances out and cleaning out the crud you know will be lurking behind them. 

Sweep up all the accumulated debris and wash the floor as the very last job – then stand back and admire your handiwork!

5 Wonderful windows
Curtains need cleaning at least once a year to prolong their life and keep them looking as good as new. If the fabric's washable, you should be able to clean and iron them at home so choose a warm sunny day when you can line dry big items. Ironing is most effective while they're still slightly damp.  If curtains are pleated or gathered at the top, untie the header tape strings and release the pleats when spring-cleaning as they're real dust traps. And look out for mildew. This can accumulate when the fabric rests on a damp windowsill or against patio doors, where condensation gathers - so remember to wipe sills and windows down regularly.

While the curtains are down, take the opportunity to reach every corner easily to clean and polish the inside of your windows and the dust and wipe down the windowsills.  And open them wide to let the fresh spring air in.

For dusty venetian blinds you can now buy inexpensive ‘three-fingered’ dusters designed specially for cleaning and wiping the slats quickly and effectively.   

6 Freshen up your carpets
Carpets take a lot of punishment and over time accumulate a lot of ingrained dust and dirt that even regular vacuuming won’t shift, particularly on the stairs and in the living room . 

Hiring steam-cleaning equipment (most DIY superstores offer this service) for a day or two. Be warned, you will be shocked at how filthy the cleaning water is as you pour it away! 
Alternatively call in a professional carpet cleaning service to leave them smelling fresh and looking like new again. Again it’s best to choose a dry spell of weather so you can move living room furniture out into the garden. 
  
7 Spring clean your oven
It's a job that no one likes, but the inside of your oven will be in real need of a proper spring clean after all those winter roasts and casseroles. There are a lot of powerful chemical oven cleaners around that are no doubt effective but come with health and safety warnings. 

A simpler method is to mix water and some bicarbonate of soda into a thick paste, then smear it all over inside your cold oven - including the door - and leave for a few hours or overnight.  It will dissolve burnt and baked on mess and all you have to do is wipe it away with a damp sponge. 

8 Revamp your wardrobe
Putting away your winter garb and getting out your summer clothes is an ideal time to rationalise what you really need. First of all get EVERYTHING out of your wardrobe and drawers, then vacuum thoroughly before washing down the insides to discourage moths who love to lay eggs in dark undisturbed corners.  

Look at your winter clothes and accessories first – is there anything you didn’t wear at all in the last six months? Then donate it to a charity shop or sell it on eBay.  Now be ruthless and do the same with your spring and summer clothes – if there’s anything you didn’t wear last year, are you really going to wear it this year? And get rid of anything that in a size you once were but aren’t any more – even if you are really planning to lose weight, keeping slim clothes in your wardrobe is not an inspiration, they just induce guilt. 

When you put the clothes back in your wardrobe organise them by colour, from black, through navy and the rest of the rainbow to white – it really will save you time and effort co-ordinating outfits when you’re getting dressed in the morning. 

9 Clear out the clutter
Clutter is the curse of our age – most of us have got too much stuff and not enough room to store it in. So a properly organised decluttering session can be really cathartic. Here’s a great mantra to declutter by , from Victorian designer William Morris, on whose 182nd birthday (at least that's what Google tells me today!) I'm writing this: 

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful"

An easy way to remember this pearl of wisdom is to ask yourself these three questions for every item when you are sorting out your stuff: Is it useful? Do I love it? Does this fit my life NOW? If the answer to any of those questions is no, it’s got to go! 

Keeping things just because you might need them one day may seem like a good reason for clogging up your cupboards and corners. Remind yourself that what you REALLY need is uncluttered space and a well-organised home you can really enjoy living in. And remember how much time you wasted trying to find an important item last time you had to dig it out of a disorganised  drawer or an overstuffed cupboard. 

Use the ‘chuck, charity, cherish’ method to sort clutter
Get four large boxes or plastic storage crates/bins. Label them as follows and sort items room by room or cupboard by cupboard according to the categories. 'Chuck, charity or cherish' is an easy way to remember your sorting classifications. 

And move stuff you are getting rid of out of the house as quickly as possible – whether it’s to the bin, the tip or the charity shop – to stop you (or your family) changing your mind and hanging on to it! 

• Rubbish:  This is any item that you do not need or want, but that you cannot sell or donate to charity.  
• Give Away/Sell:  Be generous. Think about the uses someone else might get out of the items compared to the use it currently gets in your home. Consider the financial benefits of selling this stuff at a car boot sale or on eBay. Or the feelgood benefits of knowing your unwanted clothes and other items will not only benefit the charity of your choice but will be of real use to a new owner.  
• Storage:  Put items in here that you cannot part with but do not need on a regular basis. Make an inventory of the items as you box them. Group similar items together ready to be stored together. 
• Put Away:  This should be your smallest category. These are items that need to be out on a regular basis. Monitor yourself by working out if you have a place for each item. If the items in this box will not fit into your home without cluttering an area up, try to reassess if you really need them. If you do need these “essentials”, try to come up with a storage solution that fits into your home.

10. Bring spring into your home
When all your spring cleaning is done, add new cushions, towels or bedlinen in zingy spring colours to freshen up the look of your home. And of course, a freshly polished vase of spring flowers is the perfect finishing touch! 

If you need help with decluttering or home organisation, staging your home for sale, or ideas or inspiration for a new look for your home for spring, Clarify Interiors are the experts. Call 01865 594955 or 07917 716004 or email clare@clarifyinteriors.co.uk

Clarify Your Christmas - declutter and keep it simple

The run-up to Christmas can be a sure-fire recipe for stress, especially in tough economic times when we have less money as well as time to spend on presents, preparation and entertaining. 


Lots of us have a grand old clear-out in the New Year, but decluttering BEFORE Christmas to make space for all your gifts, goodies and guests over the festive season can go a long way to creating a welcome sense of peace and goodwill. And remember that the true spirit of Christmas ISN'T all about splashing the cash so why not make yours a simpler celebration this year?

Here are my tips to streamline and simplify your Christmas planning to help you save time and money, make your home feel calmer and more spacious, and you feel more in control in the run-up to the festive season.

Make space BEFORE you go Christmas shopping 
This sounds obvious but have you ever come home from a marathon gift-buying session for the family then wondered where you’ll ever find space to hide all their presents till the big day? Better to clear the decks before you deck the halls and spend all your lolly. The bonus of a big pre-Christmas clearout  is that those secret corners may hide unwanted or forgotten items that could either make more presents or be sold to give you more Christmas spending money. 

While you're at this early stage make time to draw up a master checklist of ALL your seasonal tasks and deadlines – menus, food shopping lists, who you need to get presents for, etc. It beats trying to keep too much in your head, it will almost certainly save you money by avoiding panic-buying in crowded shops – and don’t under-estimate the satisfaction of ticking things off as you get them done!

Reduce the toy mountain

If you’ve got children, they’ll get loads of toys and games for Christmas. Chances are you are struggling to store the ones they’ve already got so enlist their help in making room for what Santa will bring.  Either hold a car boot or garage sale and let the kids have the proceeds to buy their own Christmas presents, or give them to charity – children can be very generous if you explain that some other youngsters aren’t as lucky as them, or that their unwanted toys can help animal charities.

Cut the paper trail 

Christmas means wrapping paper. Lots of it. But before you rush out and buy rolls and rolls of it, are you sure you haven’t got leftovers from last year sitting around somewhere waiting to be used up? One tip is to buy gold, silver or coloured foil wrapping paper that doesn’t have obvious Christmas decorations or greetings on it – then it can be used for wrapping gifts for birthdays and more throughout the year.

Avoid decoration distractions
Christmas decorations are the set-dressing that helps create a magical backdrop to the celebrations, but there’s no need to splash out on a new look every year just to fit fashion’s whims.

A vase of decorated twigs is simple but elegant

This autumn Mother Nature has given us a fantastic bounty of fruit and berries so why not take a countryside walk and turn hunter-gatherer to harvest some natural decorations that won't cost you a penny? 

A jug of berried boughs - it doesn't have to be holly - will make a lovely traditional red and green table or mantelpiece arrangement. A bowl of polished red apples or platter of pinecones with a few baubles added for sparkle looks wonderfully festive. 

And who says you must have a Christmas tree? Why not ring the festive changes this year by hanging decorations on a bunch of interesting twigs in a tall vase and adding a string of simple white fairy lights? If you like you can spraypaint the twigs white, silver or gold to look extra Christmassy - or a different colour to compliment your baubles and living room colour scheme. The internet is a great source for more simple and inexpensive decorating ideas.

If you do find decorations you don’t need or like while decking your halls, box them up and give them away to brighten up someone else’s home or a perhaps a local charity’s Christmas event.

Thoughtful giving
Instead of rushing around spending more than you can afford on presents, how about giving those important people in your life the gift that money can't buy instead?  As Rick Warren, American philantropist and author puts it: "Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can't make more time. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you'll never get back. That is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time."

So how can you package up and gift-wrap your time? With some creative thinking about how your time and skills can provide a tailor-made treat for a loved one or special friend, the possibilities are almost endless. You could give them a 'gift voucher' that's valid for a day's gardening or decorating, or a few hours' sewing, or a special occasion cake you will make when they want it. A busy mum might really appreciate a day off with you taking the children off her hands more than yet another collection of bath oil. An elderly friend would probably love being taken for an afternoon out in the car far more than given a box of chocolates. 

The best-received present I have given this year was to a male friend who is mad about the comic book character Iron Man. I couldn't think what to buy him and then hit on this idea: I searched out and printed a range of Iron Man images from the internet (cost: nothing apart from printer paper), cut them out and arranged into a collage (cost: two hours of my time), then displayed it in an unused box frame I found in a cupboard (cost: nothing). Result? A unique personalised artwork that has pride of place on his wall and he was so chuffed with that it made ME feel like a super-hero!  

Clarify your wardrobe
If your wardrobe and drawers are already full to bursting, where will you put new party glad-rags or clothing gifts? Have a proper sort-out  and give a Christmas bonus to the charity shop of your choice by donating all your unwanted clothing and shoes. The best way is to get EVERYTHING out of your wardrobe and go through every item – if you haven’t worn it in the past year, let it go. Do the same with your drawers and shoe and coat cupboards.

Quality items could earn you some welcome festive dosh on eBay or through a local dress agency. Another fun way to recycle festive fashion items is to organise a 'swishing party' where you can swap good quality clothes, shoes and bags with your female friends. That little black dress that’s just TOO little these days could be exactly what a slimmer pal is looking for, while the heels and bag she wore last Christmas might be just the thing to jazz up your 2013 party wear. Find out more at swishing.com

Clear out the kitchen 

Christmas means lots of extra food to store, so why not save on the food budget for a week or so by making store-cupboard meals to use up all those tins and jars that have been sitting around waiting to be used. You’ll save money so you have more to spend on delicious festive fare and it’s an opportunity to clean and reorganise the cupboards ready for Christmas. And when it's time to stock up again remember to stick to your festive food shopping list. It's oh, so easy to be tempted by all those seasonal special treats and offers in the supermarket - but remember how much uneaten food you probably ended up throwing out after LAST Christmas?

Flush out the fridge and freezer
Have a proper clear-out of the fridge and freezer – throw out all those leftovers you are never REALLY going to use, and use up the food that’s in there so there will be plenty of space for storing all the Christmas necessities as well as room for some pre-cooked meals to ease the festive cooking burden over the holiday period.

Have a bathroom blitz
As with the kitchen, so with the bathroom. Some body and bath products are almost bound to be in everyone’s Christmas stocking, so make way for them by clearing the bathroom of all the half-empty or unused products that are cluttering the shelves and cupboards.  Sort the best of the used products  into  men’s and women’s and  offer them as free job lots on recycling sites such as Freecycle and Freegle if there’s a group near you - less well-off families will be very grateful for them.   
Unused bathroom products can also be donated to your local domestic violence service for use in their refuges, see womensaid.org.uk
Animal charities will often take towels, tea towels, and bedding.  Check first before donating.

On your (book) marks!
Are your shelves groaning with books you’ve read and will never read again? Or even never read? You know what to do .. donate them to a charity shop or Christmas bazaar or recycle the unread ones as gifts.  The same goes for CDs and DVDs. There are also community conservation initiatives in many areas to save books and household items from landfill. Healthy Planet  has Books For Free Centres across the UK which distribute books that would otherwise be pulped to individuals, libraries, charities and schools. Healthy Planet also organises regular Stuff For Free events, a community re-use initiative to redistribute good quality furniture, clothing, toys, household items and sports equipment to new homes.

Gadget giveaway
Sort out those gadgets and gizmos that were ‘must-haves’ when you got them.  If they’ve been gathering dust, or superseded by a better, newer model, are you REALLY going to use them again? If the answer’s no, they’ve gotta go.  This applies just as much to unused kitchen ‘essentials’ (when did you last use that fondue set or cappuccino frother?) as ‘boy’s toys’.  Flog 'em on eBay or give them to a charity shop and you could make someone else’s  Christmas.

Make space for your guests
Is your spare room a depository for all the stuff that won’t fit anywhere else in your house? Then it’s sure time to declutter if you’ve got guests coming for Christmas. If you don’t have the time or the task feels too overwhelming why not treat yourself a practical pre-Christmas present?  The Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers has friendly experts based all over the UK who can help turn a spare room clutter mountain into a welcoming bedroom in just a few hours. 

Make space for your new gifts
Decluttering can be a pretty good Christmas present in its own right, but let’s hope Santa will bring you something nice too.  Homes can feel pretty crowded at Christmas time so it makes sense to encourage everyone in the family to make a space ready to store their gifts so they are not cluttering up the living room once opened.

Recycle and get ready for a clutter-free New Year
Once Christmas is over,  clear the house of all the festive clutter as soon as possible – wrapping paper, cards, tree and bottles can all be recycled.  And as for those unwanted presents?  There’s someone out there who would LOVE them – so let them go and make someone else happy, whether you sell them or donate to charity.

If you would like help with decorating your home for Christmas or decluttering before or after the festive season, get in touch with Clarify Interiors - the clue's in our name! See www.clarifyinteriors.co.uk, telephone me on 01865 594955 or 07917 716004 or email clare@clarifyinteriors.co.uk

Winning ways to tame the teen bedroom battleground

Working as a home stager, interior stylist and professional organiser/declutterer means that I often get asked by parents  - and this question is usually asked with a heavy sigh and raised eyebrows -  “I really don’t know what to do about (insert name of teenager)’s room …”

Does this look familiar?

A common battleground between parents and teens is the young person trying to assert their growing independence from Mum and Dad. And very often the theatre of war where this battle is most bitterly fought is in the place that is their personal space, the bedroom.  

So shouting matches ensue when teens hide the walls with posters and the floor under piles of discarded clothes, unwashed mugs and plates, and parents trespass on their offspring’s sacred space in desperate guerrilla raids to clean up the muddle. In fact the untidy teenager phenomenon's so common that the word 'floordrobe' has recently become an official Collins dictionary definition on the basis of public submissions! 

It’s true that teenager’s bedrooms can be the most challenging to deal with, either when  you are trying to get your house looking its best to sell, or when you want to get the family on board to declutter and get the home more organised. I often find myself in the middle, with a teen intent on self-expression digging their heels in on one side and a frustrated parent on the other. 

An independent second opinion can be helpful in breaking the deadlock and finding a way forward that works for everyone, which is why I now offer family decluttering sessions (these can be very illuminating, and empowering for younger members, when it's pointed out that yes, Dad's out-of-hand 'piles of books in every room' library collection and Mum's overstuffed wardrobe are just as much clutter as a teen's treasures). Along the way I have learned ways to get younger members of the family on board with home organisation and makeovers as well as the business of staging your property for sale - which can get especially sticky when moving means leaving the home they've grown up in.   

So here are a few suggestions which I hope will help defuse teen room hostilities if you feel like a family at war ...

Don't impose when you can involve

Allow your teen to be involved in decisions about organising and decorating their space. You may not be particularly keen if they want to paint their room black or purple or in their football team’s colours but they may have other creative ideas that you haven’t thought about.  And negotiation is good – you could be persuaded to let them have one dark or vivid feature wall but point out that all-over black/purple/red/fuchsia pink can be overpowering and will make their room feel smaller and darker.

If Blu-tacked or sticky-taped posters are damaging paint or wallpaper, putting them in inexpensive clip frames and hanging them properly will also protect the posters from tearing or curling at the edges. 

Making a wall feature of a giant pinboard is another way to allow your teens to display their stuff without ruining the decor. Here's one way to make one from Amber Interiors  or you could hang several smaller pin boards together to make a larger display space.

Moves to help motivate a move

However if you’re planning to move, pale and neutral wall colours are always best to show your home - and that includes teen bedrooms - to its best advantage when you put it on the market. In this case you could have neutral walls and incorporate your teen’s interests and favourite colours in new accessories instead (that can go with them to your new home). Then the room won't be quite so over-powering for prospective buyers. 

Tidying the 'floordrobe' and toning down teen
decor pays off when selling. Incentives can
help if they are resistant to change! 

When getting ready to move, previous clients with teenagers have found that my suggestion of an incentive scheme (OK, yes, it's a bribe in other words) will persuade their offspring to 'buy in' to changing their rooms to help the sale. It takes the form of a promise of a special treat or outing - or even a cash payment - once the house is sold. Music or match tickets can be a powerful inducement to get kids on side to tone down a loud colour scheme or take down some of their, er, very personal taste in wall posters! 

If YOU need an incentive to go down this route because you anticipate resistance (opposing your parents is the very essence of teenage rebellion, after all) it pays - literally! - to remember this: prospective buyers will look out for things they would need to change as excuses to make a reduced offer. Too many 'red flags' will make them pass over a property altogether for one they can move into and not have to do anything straight away. In one recent case de-personalising a dark and cluttered teen bedroom was the only redecoration needed to clinch a sale for over £13,000 above the previous best offer. That more than paid for a fabulous family holiday to celebrate once the family had moved, and all for the minimal investment of a few hours' effort and a couple of cans of paint! 

Another time-and-stress saving tip when preparing your property for sale is to have special 'staging bedding' (lightweight quilts and pillows dressed in clean pillowcases and quilt covers in plain and simple white or a pale neutral shade) ready to put over the top of the bedding your children are sleeping in when there are viewings. This saves (often unproductive) nagging to make the bed and a nicely dressed bed means at least the main focal point of the room will look clean and tidy to prospective buyers. 

Storage that works

Recognise that it’s important for your teen to have a haven they can call and make their own.  If they don’t like hanging up their clothes, no amount of nagging is going to make them do it. But putting up some (temporary) shelves in the wardrobe with storage crates to fit provides a quick and easy way to scoop the piles off the floor and out of sight. So what if their clothes are crumpled? Other than school uniform is it really so important? Anyway, they’ll need to learn how to use an iron sometime …

And so to bed ...

One inexorable sign that your 'baby' is growing up is when they want a double bed. OK, the boyfriend/girlfriend sleepover dilemma may yet be a way off, but they ARE growing up in size and they DO spend a lot of time in bed so it may simply be a more comfortable option. It doesn't necessarily mean they are planning on having sex the moment you're out of the house (and frankly, we all know you don't need a double bed for that anyway!)

A loft bed can be built in as here or
free-standing 

If your teen needs a new bed and you do go for a double I'd recommend avoiding divans with built-in drawers (in my experience they'll never put anything in them). Instead choose a simple frame bed which not only looks less bulky in a small bedroom but offers storage space underneath that you can make good use of with lidded storage crates (semi-transparent so it's easy to see what's in them without having to turn everything out.

If you have rooms with high enough ceilings a loft bed will almost double your teen's personal space, giving them a cosy sleeping platform-cum-relaxing reading/listening to music area and plenty of room below for storage, study and entertaining friends. 

And another big plus-point of a 'high sleeper' bed for a teenager who's not naturally tidy is that it's not immediately obvious if the bed's not been made! 

Clear-up incentives

If your teen’s room is bursting at the seams with stuff they no longer need or use, it can be hard to persuade them to part with it by just chucking it out. But teenagers always need money, so why not help them sell it at a car boot or garage sale or on eBay with the promise that they can keep the profits?   

Lots of teens are environmentally aware too, so show them that saving the planet can start at home by recycling their old stuff, either by donating to a charity shop or giving it away via sites like Freegle  or Freecycle  or the Books For Free initiative run by Healthy Planet 

This approach can be particularly persuasive in getting your offspring to have a clear-out close to birthdays or Christmas when you can stress that they’ll be giving a gift to help others less fortunate than themselves (and not just doing YOU a favour!)

Finally, remember that your offspring are not teenagers for ever. And when they leave home and you're an empty-nester, you may even find yourself missing their noise and mess. Strange but true. I know I did!

Clare Parrack, owner, Clarify Interiors   

Clear the decks for Christmas with the 99 Day Declutter Challenge

So, we’ve finally seen some summer at long, long last and – what do you know? – it’s already less than 100 days to Christmas. As I write today it’s exactly 99 days until December 25 to be precise.

But before you panic and start drawing up gift lists and menus, how about some seasonal preparations that will bring you real dividends in the form of more space and extra Christmas  spending money? Try my 99-day declutter challenge.

It’s very simple. All you have to do to start is choose one unwanted item that’s taking space in your home, and dispose of it today.  And do the same for every day from now until Christmas. Of course you can choose to get rid of more than one item at a time if you want to, but if you make a pact to get 99 or more unnecessary items out of your life by December you’ll have much more space, not just to hide the pressies you need to keep a secret till the big day, but to store the gifts that (hopefully!) you’ll receive. 

A good place to start is with turning out the unwanted gifts you had last year – come on, I know you’ve got at least a couple lurking somewhere!  I had a big clear out of my bedroom cupboards and drawers at the weekend, and found three presents I’d forgotten about and clearly won’t use. Now they’re listed on eBay and with luck will bring in a few pounds to my own personal Christmas savings club.  

Make space for this year's Christmas presents by
clearing out your clutter

Alternatively you could identify someone who would welcome them as a gift this year – saving on your festive pressie spending at the same time, but if you can’t clearly remember where something came from in the first place, don’t risk embarrassment and offence by unwittingly passing an unwanted gift back to the friend or relative who gave it to you!

What about the books you’ve read this year that are now overcrowding your living room shelves? Give them to a charity shop and give yourself the warm glow of knowing that someone else can enjoy them and you’ll have helped a good cause at the same time.

Putting away your summer clothes and looking afresh at your autumn/winter wardrobe offers another clear-out opportunity.  If there are summer clothes that you didn’t wear –  not just because the weather wasn’t right but because they don’t fit any more or are looking dated – don’t waste storage space putting them away for another season, give them to a charity shop or clothes recycling bank. And likewise, if you dig out your  winter togs and are wondering what that moth-eaten woolly or crumpled cardy is still doing taking up space in your wardrobe, let it go!

If you’ve got children, start noting what toys and games they have stopped playing with, and they too could be recycled to make way for the new treats Santa will bring in a few months. 

As the next few weeks go by, weed out your kitchen, bathroom and spare room cupboards, and don’t forget those clutter-magnets, the garage, loft  and the shed. You never know what forgotten stuff you’ll discover that could make fab Christmas gifts for somebody else – or bring in some much-needed festive dosh!

If you'd like professional help with clearing your clutter this autumn, Clarify Interiors covers Oxfordshire and surrounding counties, or get in touch with one of my colleagues in the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers, which has members all over the UK.