to ask for quick decluttering/cleaning advice?

[ChesapeakeEmbarrassed]

I have offered to help an elderly relative of a friend who is living abroad (who is having some cleaners come in for a deep clean in about two weeks) with a pre-clean tidy/de-clutter

I have to travel to get there and have a whole weekened - so basically a full two days.

The room situation is that two rooms are really quite bad - dumping ground for crap - so bags of random clothes on the floor, piles of books, piles of correspondence etc. These are things that as well as taking time to "tidy" would need considerable time to sort through and will require consideration and input of the owner as to what they want to keep and what stuff is and where it should go.

The other rooms are less bad but still need a pre-clean organisation and declutter.

Any advice about where to start? how to divide my time?

I'm worried that if I start with the hard rooms, I'll get lost in time and space and achieve nothing but if I start with the other rooms and leave the rooms of hell, it will mean the worst rooms will be hard for the cleaners to access.

Anyone done similar? or what should I do?

My first instinct is that 2 full days by yourself is not enough if the cleaners aren't also going to be sorting/clearing.

I would suggest you want 3 piles chuck/give away/keep, and that it would be better if all of the give away /keep piles could be boxed and kept somewhere else so the cleaning can be done properly.

Have you watched 'sort your life out' with Stacey Solomon?

Can you sort stuff by category and box it up to be properly reviewed at a later date? So take all the clothes to the laundrette, all correspondence and books boxed up and off the floor. Obvious junk to the tip. Then stash them in the loft/a cupboard while the cleaners are working. When they’re finished, you can sort clean clothes into keep or donate, books either on the shelf or donate, correspondence keep or shred.

Have you watched 'sort your life out' with Stacey Solomon?

Yes I have!

I know that 2 days isn't enough to do a full clear. That's not why I'm going.

The purpose is to get the house in a condition that maximises the cleaning teams opportunity to clean as much and as effectively as possible.

My question was more about what's the best way to maximise the time I have to achieve this end. Where to start. What's the best thing to do and how to divide time.

Sorting stuff into containers is a thought @MotherWol thanks.

This isn't someone I know really - it's just as a favour to a good friend who is abroad - so I wouldn't be involved in a post clearing sorting.

I guess it's partly about getting things contained and off the floor. 1 day in the bad rooms and 1 day the rest? Can you identify where to donate/ tip things before you go?

ooh I'm here to follow this. I'll be attempting something similar with my DF's house when I'm able to get home (abroad) in the summer, and the thought of how to get on top of it is really daunting. (Won't help that he and his partner are resistant to getting rid of anything, but the house is rammed full to the point where they can only exist in a couple of rooms so I'm hoping I can do some convincing via the fact that his daughter and grandson can't visit if nothing is done)

You could ask the cleaners what would help them

But, is the elderly relative actually wanting any of this done? I'm sure it's well intentioned, but seems rather intrusive to me

I'd speak to the person first and come up with a plan.
What are they willing to part with? Whats their priority?

Have you seen photos so know what you're dealing with? Is the person helping? Are they a hoarder or happy to get rid? Do you have an exit plan for all the stuff such as a skip lined up, a local charity shop or recycling service?

Hire a small skip and chuck, chuck, chuck.

Otherwise moving boxes/those clear plastic containers for stuff to be sorted later.

Could you maybe think about getting a charity collection? British Heart Foundation do this (though they’re choosy about what they’ll take) and you might have other options closer to you.

Ps PP makes a good point about hoarding. It’s a mental illness and if that’s what’s going on, the person needs some professional help before you can clear anything out.

Bags of clothes - grab bin bags, put all the clothes in and take them away to a launderette or take them home to wash, dry and iron yourself (if you're feeling generous)

Correspondence - file boxes

Books - put them up on shelves. If there are no shelves, then more file boxes.

I’ve recently cleared a house, that was full of clutter, following a bereavement.

Get loads of those large plastic storage boxes, they are 3 for £10 in Home Bargains or something. Put all the paperwork in there and they can be neatly stacked in a corner.
For the clothes, get as many as they large supermarket bags as you can (the 50p ones) and fill them. Again they can be stacked out the way.
Books can go in boxes.
Large box in the bathroom to put everything in so a deep clean can be done.
Clear all the surfaces in the kitchen.

I clear kitchen. Bathroom, Main bedroom and a living area. Because that’s what really needs a deep clean.

They can come back if there are other rooms.

If it’s really a lot of junk and you have authority, I’d get a small skip. Charities don’t want broken things and ragged, dirty clothes and have to sort and discard theses themselves.

I would definitely speak to the lady first, Mil is a hoarder and she would hate this! She probably wouldnt let you in to be honest... I'd give her a ring to see what she is expecting and then the cleaners to see what they think. The best you may be able to do is box everything up so at least it can be stacked semi tidy

As everyone has said you need a system of boxes and to just start sorting as quick as you can. For example
Paperwork
Obvious rubbish
Equipment / tools
Clothing
Bedding
Magazines and Newspapers
Ornaments / Nik Naks
VCR's / cd's
Depending on what's actually there. Then you could tackle the seperate boxes to reduce them further.

If the owner is agreable then you could chuck out without checking first any out of date foods, broken items, empty cleaning products / toiletries / cardboard / carrier bags / recyclables etc. But that other possessions would e checked by them. Hard to know without seeing how bad it is.

The important thing is not to get bogged down in the minutiae get it catagorised. Big boxes with lid can go outside. Once that main sort is done you need to whittle it down. For clothing sort into piles - tops / trousers / coats etc. Sift out wring sizes and then get the owner to decide how many of each is reasonable. Encourage them to part with any that are damaged or stained and then reduce to a reasonable number...if there are 40 tops then halve the amount or maybr even more if or something to start with. If it's proper hoarding which it sounds like then mucb of the stuff won't be of any use to the owner but they won't be able to part with it.

Good luck!

Start in a room that has the least amount of stuff with sentimental value/ emotional attachment, like the kitchen, so that you and your elderly friend can get the hang of it without to much stress and heartache.

The room situation is that two rooms are really quite bad - bags of random clothes on the floor, piles of books, piles of correspondence etc.

I'd start with the worst rooms and just focus on categorising and containing everything unless you can clear significant space in one of of "better" rooms in a short time (ie an hour or two). If you can, then I would clear that room so that you have space to move things out of the worse rooms as you work through them to give you the space to work. If not then I'd just go straight to the worst rooms and get stuck in.

Before you start make sure you have plenty of bin bags and some boxes/cases to put stuff in. If there are any big items that the homeowner 100% does not want to keep then just get them out of the way ASAP, even if you just throw them into the garden/back yard while you work.

First take a short time - I generally aim for no longer than about 20/30 mins but it will depend on the space/size - where all you do is find and throw out any obvious rubbish - old envelopes, food wrappers, receipts, empty bottles etc. Don't spend too long on this, it's literally just to gain you a little bit of space, get rid of rubbish and get the process started.

Once you've done the rubbish sweep you will have generally at least looked over everything so you should now be able to start compiling some general categories for the stuff - clothes, paperwork, toys, books, miscellaneous etc. I then generally go through the room with a focus on one particular category starting with the biggest - so if there's lots of papers then I'd go through the room focusing on pulling out all of the papers and putting them in one big box first; then once I had done that I'd move on to the clothes and pile all of them into a box/bag etc, if I found more papers in a clothing pile then I'd take a second to put them in the box but I'd ignore any books/toys for the moment.

Once you have worked through the big categories then you should, in theory have a few large piles of like items ... Once you have them categorised you can decide what is to happen to that category and then deal with it (even if it is "books are to go on the bookshelf but first all the crap on the bookshelf needs to just go in a box so the books can be put away and the crap dealt with later if there is time, but if not then they can stay in the box marked "bookcase crap")

If you work with this general process - rubbish, categorise, contain - through each area then you should be able to get some sort of system in place. You might not get everything done but you will leave the homeowner in a better place to continue (they may not be able to sort the whole room but if you get the roomful of clothes all condensed into 10 binbags then they can sort through one bag at a time to decide which items to keep/toss/donate from that bag and then deal with it in smaller, more manageable, chunks)

Thanks for all the advice - some great ideas.

For those asking about whether she wants this cleaning done - she does in fact it's medical related and has been dr advised. I think it's something to do with suspected allergens or something.

I gather it's not really a hording problem it's more a messy/dumping ground problem. Like clothes left on the bed instead of being hung up or taken to dry cleaners etc.

Get loads of those large plastic storage boxes, they are 3 for £10 in Home Bargains or

@Hintofreality

do you have a link to the type of boxes you mean please?

Any one else got any recommendations for storage boxes or storage products they liked?

Any one else got any recommendations for storage boxes or storage products they liked?

For the initial clean up I would just focus on getting some big boxes to containerise as much as possible to get it off the floor and out of the way for the cleaners.

I wouldn't get too many supplies before you actually see the space and stuff you need to go through - no point getting lots of little boxes when one big box would be better suited instead, for example. I'd start off with the basics - bin bags, sticky labels and a pen, a few sturdy boxes to sort things into (even if they're just cardboard boxes from the local supermarket) etc - and then once you know what storage you will need going forward (plastic boxes, vacuum bags etc) go and buy them.

My go to us always the likes of B&M for cheap storage boxes, especially as they are stackable which means they take up less room;

www.bmstores.co.uk/products/home-and-furniture/storage-and-shelving/storage-boxes

Just coming back to this thread to add some after the event observations if anyone else is ever in this situation.

The most important thing is clearing surfaces for cleaning. This is not just floor space but shelves, kitchen surfaces and so on. If you can do this as much as possible before the cleaners arrive it helps a great deal. They won't move furniture either unless you've pre-planned that and asked for it - so doing anything that would help them clean where you want is also a good idea - like moving side tables and that sort of thing.

The advice about storage to containerise was spot on. I wish I'd had lots of clear plastic bags in various sizes - from smaller freezer bags for things like perfumes and small bottles in the bathroom to larger bin bag ones for clothes. It's much easier if you can see everything in the bags especially if you are deciding what to put back or not.

In terms of available time for the cleaners, prioritise the rooms that are most used and decide before hand exactly what you are wanting them to do in the least used rooms - like just hoovering, or surfaces and hoovering or nothing.

Be prepared to be exhausted afterwards. Or take a friend. This was a job where a second person to help would be a huge assistance. Wish I'd done that.

Thanks everyone who gave me tips.

Not my circus as they say but yes it was a very productive day. The cleaners were a team of three people so they got a lot done.

Do you know where the nearest recycling/dump is and what their opening hours are.

Surrey. There are 7 Community Recycling Centre's.