Anyone used a person to help them with house clutter??

[TheFunDog]

Thinking of getting souvenir to help me decanter my house... had anyone used a service like this??

I'm thinking that's meant to be decluttering!

I offer this service with my business, So obviously I am going to say it's great 😂

But we genuinely have helped so many people it's incredible. It's a lot easier bringing someone in with no emotional attachment, Someone to help you work through what you've got and establish do we need 23 hairbrushes... Do we really need 50000 toys, Most of which aren't touched because they can't be accessible etc. We also do organisation and that's really popular as well!

I have and have found it helpful. But it does depend on the individual rather. Some have been better than others. But if nothing else it keeps me focused and I do always make good progress.

I recommend using someone who will do a charity shop run for you at the end so the stuff actually leaves your house.

Yes

I would love to gift this service for my mum as she really needs to declutter her house ready to downsize. Could I get an idea of costs @muddlethroughmam? Also when you go through stuff with someone do you suggest what can be done with things they don’t need but loathe to part with?

i was planning on hring a skip for the time the declutterer comes so anything that is unwanted goes in the skip straight out or in boxes for freecycle/ chairty etc.

How do you help with paperwork?

I would love this kind of service in theory, but in practice my fear is that I’d be saddled with someone abrasively brisk and peppy in my house all day long, persistently asking me annoying and/or unanswerable questions about my belongings and chatting insufferably while strewing clutter all over my house without organising or getting rid of any of it.

This is largely based on my 2 unsuccessful experiences of hiring virtual assistants for my work, which taught me that people who think they are good at organising things are often some of the least organised people around. They may like the idea of organising, or like to think (and endlessly chat) about different approaches to organising things, but are too flaky and distracted to get around to actually doing any of the organising.

A very good declutterer, like a good virtual assistant, could no doubt make a huge and positive difference, but it’s so hard to vet people before committing.

@VoltaireMittyDreamso true!

thing is you can’t trust reviews these days either!

Costs vary so significantly across the country, You'd be best reaching out to a few people and doing a wee comparison. It can be very costly though!

So yes, We do. It can be an absolutely huge event for a lot of people, years of memories! So it can be a juggling act of navigating what's best for the client.
We usually have a charity set up, Where we can help the client to re-home items we will, And then we usually organize a skip for anything else. It's not a quick process it can sometimes take weeks or months as it can be really overwhelming for people.

Paperwork can be a difficult one, especially with elderly people as most will keep almost every bit of paperwork they've ever had! That one can be beneficial to have a family member present, We have in the past scanned all of the paperwork when a client has been particularly anxious and uploaded it to a pen drive for them/family to access.

Merry Christmas!

Completely agree!

I'm not sure about VA as it's a service I've never used myself, But in this instance we love social media for showcasing work if clients are happy for us to.

As previously mentioned it is a huge event for a lot of people, There's so many emotions attached to de-cluttering so it's really important for the person undertaking the service to come and meet you, Get an idea of your personality, How you feel. From there they can really gauge what approach you would like them to take.
Organisation is a really difficult one because everyone is so different and everyone has a different idea of what organization means to them, the chat is really beneficial here and we'll always go through lots of different ideas based on your current storage/space and preferences.

My cleaner is going to help me after Christmas. It's clothes I want shot of

I had an AMA about this. Let me get the link.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/AMA/4812348-we-just-hired-a-declutterer-ama

I've actually booked somebody to help in the new year....I moved house and literally moved the loft contents from my old house into one of my new bedrooms. No problem i thought, I'll just go through it and get rid of most of it, but 3 years on and nothing has happened, even after a few attempts so I'm taking drastic action lol... wish me luck!