Professional decluttering services cost

[SprinkleOfSunak]

I have a serious amount of stuff in my house, and we need to declutter and organise every single room, the loft and shed. We’re completely overwhelmed and were thinking of hiring a professional declutterer and organiser to help us.

We are going to put our house on the market, and need to do so asap, so urgently need to sort our stuff.

In my area, they are saying they need to be hired for a minimum of 4 hours. I have no idea how long I would need, and I know they would tell me after making a start.

Those of you who have used a declutterer - how many hours did you hire them for in the end? What did you achieve in the time hired?

I just need to get an idea of what is achievable/what I can afford, and have no concept of how long it would take with a professional. I don’t expect to have them work in every room, but in 2 rooms (mine and my Husband’s bedroom, and my children’s bedroom).

As Fly Lady says, “You can’t organise clutter, you can only get rid of it.”

Can you have a garage sale and then bin the rest?

@NonBinaryBlanket

We couldn’t do a garage sale, but could do a boot sale.

The problem we have is that there’s only the two of us emptying everything out and checking through everything and doing the charity shop drop offs. It’s very slow to see a result. I was thinking it would be good to get a professional declutterer in so there’s an extra pair of hands, and someone who can be strict with me about parting with things.

Just my personal thoughts, it depends on whether you struggle to make decisions. Or do you just need someone to dispose of stuff for you after you make the decisions abd save you a lot of time.

Can you visualise your new space and how you would use it? Do you have a plan for not cluttering up again? Or would you prefer to have as little as possible when you move then replace things as and when you need them.

@EarlyBird12345

I struggle to make decisions, and I really struggle with letting go of items.

There‘s a history of hoarding and collecting in my family and I’ve grown up with this going on around me. I’m better than I used to be, and have read the Marie Kondo book, and I’m desperate to get things sorted.

I can visualise exactly how I want my home to look.

@SprinkleOfSunak. Oh that makes it so much harder. I also struggle with decisions. Emotionally far too attached to things and the memories that come with them. For me, it’s very much a mental health issue.

Have you tried starting a thread in the Housekeeping topic? Someone there may have experience of professionals.

Hope it all works out for you.

@EarlyBird12345

Thank you for that, and for sharing your experiences - it’s so difficult. No, I didn’t start a thread there - I didn’t think!

I have anxiety and depression, and as I mentioned, I have learned behaviours from growing up with those who are hoarders and collectors and all have impacted me.

Love that no one has actually bothered to answer your question. In around 2018 I believe it was about £60 an hour in London - that obviously may have changed post pandemic and depending on where you’re based.

There is an association of professional declutterers that might be more helpful and I believe also have a directory so you can try and find someone https://www.apdo.co.uk

Good luck. I declutterered a few years ago (didn’t use a professional but I was barely working at the time, had an empty room to use as a base and it still took me around 18 months but that included disposing of many things ethically/selling where possible) and it is life changing. If you do it properly it then requires regular upkeep, so I now do a mini declutter of a room once or twice a year.

I’m happy to answer any other qs btw as I’m quite evangelical about decluttering now. I followed the Marie Kondo method and one of the most helpful things about it was understanding that you appreciate items more the fewer of them you have and also that things people give you have served their purpose already in the process of being given to you - very very helpful for letting go of unwanted gifts. I joined a large KonMari Facebook group at the time as well which was helpful for motivation.

And getting rid of things by category rather than by room is the most effective way - “the power of the pile” they called it in the Facebook group (ie gather every single biro from around the house and you’ll be horrified by the total rather than just seeing them room by room).

And then I became obsessed with the Home Edit for helping me organise everything I had left.

@BallerinaArm

🤣 I thought the same!

Thank you so much for your very valuable insights and advice.

I will definitely check the professional association for information and guidance.

My Husband thinks we can get it all done within a week but he is very different to me, and doesn’t share my tendencies. He would literally throw all manner of things into bin bags and take them to charity and get it done fairly quickly, whereas for me it’s a painstaking and deeply emotional process.

@BallerinaArm

Thank you so much for your further advice, it really is very helpful.

I tasked myself with the understairs cupboard this afternoon, and I was totally shocked and overwhelmed at the amount of bags for life (plastic and fabric) that we own. I’d bought a bag holder from Ikea to store the plastic bags in, but realistically we’d need at least 3 of them to hold all the plastic bags, and then we’d still have a large amount of fabric ones, and stiff plastic ones to store.

I am going to put a large bag of bags and leave it in the car boot, as the main reason we have so many is because we forget to take them out shopping with us and have to buy more. I will still be left with a huge amount of plastic bags. My heart is telling me to buy more bag holders from Ikea so I can keep them all, but my head is telling me we only need one holder full of bags - but usually my heart wins. It’s taken me so long to clear these bags from the cupboard, it’s ridiculous! My Husband would have spent 5-10 minutes maximum, but I can’t expect him to do it all, not so I want him to, as I know I go back through and check everything he bags for charity and question him on so much of it and take things back out and hide them. I also know that I need to be able to do this for myself to and be able to let go.

What you said about appreciating items the less you have makes really good sense. It’s also I treating regarding the comment about gifts. A lot of the items I have and don’t want are gifts, and I really struggle to part with these for fear of upsetting the recipients when they visit, or because I associate them with a happy time.

Thank you again.

FYI the bags
Food banks are crying out for bags. You can do something good!

We spent £45 an hour on a professional, in an affluent southern town (not London).

The key for me has been that if I agree with her that stuff is going to charity it needs to go into the bag, and into my boot, right away. Otherwise it just sits in a pile and then we start looking through it and reclaiming things.

You are going to need lots and lots of bags to donate stuff to the charity shop. Put shopping bags in a specific box that you use as a decluttering base.

So my “declutter box” contains shopping bags, clear sandwich type bags (for small things that should be kept together), post its and pens to label the shelves/boxes that I’ve done or still need to do, bin bags for the trash. When I’m starting a session I take my box to the relevant place and then at the end I take out rubbish/recycling/charity shop stuff.

And my top tip, that I read on here years ago, is that you start with the deepest least used cupboards. It’s out of sight, so may not be your priority at the beginning. But it’s all stuff you don’t use much so will be easy to get rid of, and then you’ll have lovely empty cupboards for the stuff you want to actually keep!

Thinking along the lines of 'who else can this serve' works quite well for me. So the carrier bags, why would you keep them? They're pennies new. But a foodbank would snap them up.

The presents, take a photo of them, say thank you to them as Marie Kondo would encourage, then pop them off to a charity shop where someone else can benefit from a nice thing in their home. Maybe they'll buy it as the perfect gift for someone.

Days. I mean they are either going to go through your stuff (with you) properly or not. Then it's keep, bin , donate or sell, and if they will do the selling for you it's normal for them to split the price minus fees and then deduct your share from hourly decluttering fee.
@BallerinaArm I found the Mary Kondo method time consuming and doing the job twice. It was better for me to go room by room, though asking the 'spark joy' question when deciding is useful!
I'm sure they can give you an estimate like mixers do when they come see how much stuff you have.

I didn’t find the Marie Kondo method that helpful (and she even admits now she’s had kids it’s not practical!). You’d have to already have a pretty tidy/organised house to be able to find every single biro or whatever - I’d guess we have pens in the kitchen, living room, playroom, the kids’ rooms, the shed, maybe some in boxes in the cellar, etc etc.

It works better to decide where pens go, in each room you use them. Then you can sort pens as you go round your house.

I have a friend who has a company doing this and charges £50 per hour min 4 hrs. houses with a lot of clutter end up being very expensive.

you've mentioned charity shops and honestly if you’re that overwhelmed I wouldn’t bother, just get a skip and start binning stuff.

Set yourself a target: 4 hours; a day; a 100 items; a skip bag full or whatever works and then just go for it. If you’re struggling to make a decision pass over - the declutterer can assist with those things if needed.

I think your attitude to shopping bags says it all. I think the key is, not to think about where to put them all, but to think about how many you use. I had lots of sheets, pillow cases etc. Now, I only have two complete sets of bedlinen - one set on the bed and one set that goes in the wash and then put away until next time. In truth, there is a spare set because we have two beds in the house, and each has two sets. In two years, I've not found that I needed any more, and it just makes life simpler.

Could you do that with shopping bags. Go for the maximum number you need and donate the rest? I bought one of these sets, and it's very rare that I use any more. They live in the car and when shopping is unloaded, wait by the front door, so they don't get forgotten.

Thank you all so, so much for all the advice and suggestions.

I have been super busy over these last few days getting on with the decluttering. My Husband and children have also been helping.

What we have done so far:

Donated 12 large black sacks of clothes, fabric, toys etc to charity.

Donated 10 extra large bags for life full of books to charity.

Donated around 40 board games and craft sets to charity.

Donated around 150 bags for life to charity.

Dismantled a bed and a chest of drawers that were beyond repair and taken them to the rubbish tip.

Sorted 2 suitcases full of clothes to sell on EBay.

It has been a relief to see the sheer amount of stuff leaving our house - most of it due to my Husband and children I hasten to add. It is shocking however to see how full 3 of the rooms still are though, and there is literally nowhere to store these things, so we really need to continue. It is exhausting physically and mentally though.

Wow you've done so much, that's such a massive achievement already!!!

I declutter as a hobby I charge £200 per7 hr day
I start from the top down moving through each room
I have a carboot pile and a skip pile it’s very therapeutic!

Incredible - well done!

You've done brilliantly. Well done.