My house has reached tipping point - literally.

[KeemaNaanAndCurryOn]

After nearly a year of illness + small children and my house is an absolute tip. I go back to work in a couple of weeks and I know that returning to a messy house every night will completely depress me.

The house desperately needs to be decluttered and tidied and the plan is that once its tidy, I'll get in a weekly cleaner to keep on top of it.

As my DH and I are dreadful hoarders, I'm thinking of getting a decluttering company in. So does anyone know or have experience of a company in the north / northwest UK and how did it work.

If not - does anyone have a good idea about how we can sort it out ourselves?

Take one room at a time. Buy binliners and get some cardboard boxes.

A box for paperwork. A box for things to keep. A box for things to sell/give to charity. And anything that doesnt fit into those categories gets binned in binliners.

Break each room down aswell. Eg, if you have cupboards do one at a time.

Its important to be honest with yourself about whether you really need something. Im a hoarder and have to be hard on myself.

Good luck :)

If you've got a couple of weeks, you can get a lot done

Be ruthless. If it's broken, unused or unwanted, it has to go.

Keema, I have reached the same tipping point! After weeks of school holidays, I now know I have just 2 weeks before I go back to get sorted.
Tis very scary isn't it?
And then to find a cleaner too...

Get thee onto the slattern thread. :)

tbh, I only ruthlessly declutter if I decide to try to Ebay things. For some reason that gets me motivated.

Thanks all for your advice. We've tried to declutter once before, but all that happened was that the stuff to give away got piled into the hall and then ended up being back to where it was before just to get it out of the hall.

I did give away a load of boys clothes to someone with three young boys, but the cheeky cow went on and sold them instead of using them which made me cross as I would have given them to charity instead if I knew thats what she was going to do.

We need to do it. We have to do it. I am still wondering if I should get in professionals who can take the personal out of all of this and just get rid of it for us.

Don't pile in the hall. Pile it in the car and at the end of each day drive it to the tip/ charity shop.

do any charity shops in your area collect? If so, set a collection date, and then you have a deadline for when it gets out of the hall. Otherwise make yourself go to the charity shop every day/ Mon, Wed, Fri with everything you've set aside. Sounds like it's not just hanging on to stuff you have difficulty with, it's the finishing off the task as well?

Also try not to think about what happening to the Stuff after it's left you - it's no longer yours, so it Doesn't Matter. Once you've broken the back of the decluttering, you can afford to be choosier about ebay vs charity shop, or x charity vs y charity. At the moment, you just need to Get It Out Of The House.

Agree, pile in car, as you've already made the decision about those things, could you go get them tonight, load up the car at least with some of them and take to the charity shop first thing tomorrow morning? That way you've already started.

Perhaps say you will do one room by the end of the bank holiday weekend (if you can get to start on a second, great). Put stuff in car and go again on Tuesday morning to charity shop, and take the rubbish to the tip over the weekend.

If you can't get round to charity shopping your things, I hate say it, but you would be better off loading up the car and taking it to the tip. One way or another, it has to leave your house.

agree also it doesn't matter what someone does with it once you've given it away, you dno't want it, your aim is to remove from the house.

Professionals won't know either hwat you want to keep and throw, they will still askyou about everything.

One cupboard tonight. You can do it.

Car is slightly difficult since I'm not able to drive at the mo, but certainly getting it out of the house will help.

Keema, I've PM'd you with a suggestion.

Does your DH drive? Could you load up the car for him to take then carry on with the rest? Call a couple of charities, see if they will collect from you on Friday/Tuesday - give yourself a deadline.

Find out where your nearest recycling place is, that has a charity bin for clothes and shoes, and for books, CDs and DVDs. There's usually one in the big supermarket car parks. Every time you shop you can dump a boot full, and it goes to a good cause. I find the bins easier than going into the shop somehow, and they're open 24 hrs a day.

Just start small and keep at it, it's a wonderful feeling, honest!

I agree that you need to lose the emotional attachment to stuff that you need to get out of your house. The important thing now is to get rid of it, not what happens to it after it stops belonging to you.

If you can't drive that does make it harder but not impossible. If you have charity shops near you, load up the pushchair with as much stuff as you can and wheel it there. I did six loads in a day like this once and got rid of tons of stuff! Or you can have it all ready (in sealed boxes and bags, so your DH won't go through them and pull stuff out) waiting at the front door for your DH to drive to the charity shop or tip each day when he gets back from work, if his working hours allow.

Does your local council do a bulky items collections service? Mine will take away 5 large items at a time for free, 4 times a year. Others charge - you could ring them and find out. That way you could get rid of broken furniture, large toys, etc.

You could offer bags of clothes, toys etc on freecycle. Or put stuff outside your house in boxes with a sign saying 'Please help yourself' (assuming you live in an ok enough area to do this and it won't end up dragged all over the street).

I have found that setting myself up on ebay has helped me start the long painful process of de-hoarding. I can see that I am actually selling things, and I am saving the money, which is enabling me to let stuff leave the house IYSWIM.

But it's slow - and I'm reading this thread gratefully!

Ebay is surely going to be lots of effort for the OP at a bad time though? Small children, a time limit and a new job would make it hard to photograph/list/package and take to the post office. Maybe just for the high value items?

I second leaving it on the road with a 'help yourself' sign. I live on a main road along a bus route and near a primary school, lots of pedestrian traffic.

I put something out there and it's gone within the hour. Some of the stuff I could have eBayed, sold at carboot or whatever, but when I decide to get rid of something I just want it gone!

I used to eBay loads but now I factor in how much time the whole process takes, I don't think it's worth the money unless I'm selling something very expensive.

To be honest, ebay just isn't going to happen unless its collection only for some of the bigger items.

I don't mind charity-ing the whole lot. Its just getting started. I think a skip could be handy too!

Yes indeed, TheProvincialLady, good advice. I just found that ebay got me through the psychological barrier of letting any item leave the house. (Hard to explain unless you've been there.)

I'm now ready to start loading a charity bags.

OP, if you can get to that stage quicker than me, looking at the great advice above, go for it.

Do you have one of those cash for clothes type places nearby, that pay per kilo - I currently have 11 bags of clothes/bedding which I am hoping to get a little bit of cash for which I will buy something nice with. Wont be much - but maybe enough to motivate me to start on the next wardrobe!

My friend always says do it in 15 minute bursts - I could fill a bin bag in 15 minutes quite easily.

Good luck

Try starting with obvious rubbish - recycling, broken things, happy meal toys. One carrier bag full, tie the handles, and it's done in 5 minutes. Do that in each room, having a break after each one, and you have a whole binbag full of Stuff gone.

Then move on to a surface - the one that annoys you the most. Spend no more than 15 minutes clearing it. Then MN for a bit. Then pick another surface (or floor). 15 minutes, bag and bin. Then MN (or interact with the DC if you feel you have to). Then once you've worked up a head of steam, look at the charity shop things. Do a category at a time for 15 minutes (so too small clothes, DC1, bag and out). Take lots of breaks. Go back to your clear surfaces regularly, and KEEP THEM CLEAR.

In a couple of days, there will be a massive difference, I promise you .

A skip is a great idea! People will help themselves to anything worth having too.

Free cycle?

For decluttering, there is some great advice and encouragement on flylady

Also agree that Freecycle is a good idea as people will come and collect the stuff they want.