We just hired a declutterer AMA!

[drspouse]

OK a bit niche but it wasn't like Sort Your Life Out.
Our DCs are very random and the house was getting us down and we are due to spend a little while abroad with a housesitter coming in (we were thinking we might have a family come in but thankfully it's just a single adult) so we (well, I) decided to give it a go.

I've arranged a phone call with a declutter on Friday. Though having second thoughts as it's expensive and I really could do it my self. Just can't face it though.

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures!
I think the best techniques are to start in a corner of a room (doing it by area not necessarily by item) but then think about whether things go together (e.g. we had food stores in two rooms and all the kitchen gadgets in three different cupboards and now they are consolidated, and I had my and the DCs' memory boxes all over the place but there was a large shelf I hadn't done anything with in DD's room and she's happy to have her and everyone else's memory boxes in there.

@BornAWoman I have kept two boxes of clothes that are listed on Vinted but got rid of loads of toys that had been listed on FB Marketplace for ages, which of course are really bulky too. I did keep really special upcycling projects (vintage napkins from my grandmother, my old Guide top) but others I have just decided life is too short.
I had a spell a few years back of trying not to send things to landfill but actually, very little of what we got rid of did have to go to landfill and the things that did were tiny bits e.g. broken end of a scoring board from DS' table football that kept turning up in every place imaginable with us obviously thinking "let's hang on to it". I recycled about 10 cards from a card game I thought we'd donated (incomplete) but then found the card game a few days later - but clearly the children weren't playing with it. I think making a lot of decisions in a few days meant I didn't overthink each one, which if you do it in your own time you tend to.

One really interesting concept I've come across is the Mere Ownership Effect. It's why people won't sell things for less than they THINK they are worth though in fact nobody else will buy them for that price.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_ownership_effect

I also felt quite a lot better when the declutterer said I didn't have THAT many books or clothes and she'd seen a lot worse!

@Toddlerteaplease I find this with a lot of things e.g. we have a meeting at work to make serious decisions and everyone says "but this could have been an email" and yes, it could, but we would have dragged it on and on and never got the decision done and sometimes you need the accountability.

I do find that MN has an attitude of "you should just pull your socks up, you don't need anyone else to make you eat healthily/get out of bed on time/do exercise/declutter your house/get on with your work instead of faffing around on MN" but actually we are human beings and need help to get over our imperfect minds!

@drspouse the person I'm interested in a declutterer for is on board, she's invited me over to help her sort stuff. She's also in the northwest, and not in a city, so would you mibd PMing me the declutterer name please, then I can see if it covers her area too? Many thanks.

@drspouse , thanks for the reply and the link.

One thing I've noticed is that if I bought something online or in a retail shop, I'll be more willing to return it for a refund, having had the pleasure of buying it and owning it for a few days, then deciding that I won't ever use it.

My downfall, I think, is that I've been buying cheap things to keep or sell. We didn't have much growing up, so I would only ever buy from bargain rails. I got quite good at it.
The charity shops where I live are grotty but have real gems. Not unusual to find things for £2 and sell for £20 on auction site. Sometimes buy something for £4 and sell it for £65, etc
Most of what I buy is a bit niche, so generally will sell eventually. Some things fly, others hang around for ages. Some things won't shift, not that there's anything wrong with it, but it won't be. Obviously, I'm reluctant to donate something perfectly nice that I might well get £15 for in a few days

I know that people see hoarding as a MH issue, but I feel that the 'stuff' is stressing me out, not that a MH issue is causing the hoarding. I could give more detail of my 'thinking', and I could see a counsellor, but I don't think it would help me.

I think the biggest problem for me is that the amount of stuff is daunting and I just see a midden, not neatly sorted stuff but too much of it.

There isn't anywhere to put 3 boxes.