Question for those who've successfully decluttered/tidied/cleaned..

[starrychime]

After being overwhelmed for ages with mess/clutter etc and you've managed to get it all sorted, house tidy, decluttered etc would you say it's changed your life a lot for the better? Do you feel a lot calmer and happier? Am desparately trying to get motivation and get my place sorted - and imagining a happier, calmer life might just be the incentive I need (nothing else has worked so far )

Would love to hear tales of before and after if anyone cares to share?

Oh, me too...bookmarking.

Yes, in reality I'm only half way done I'm on a roll, could chuck everything out but already I feel that a weight has been lifted and when OH brings more things in I give him The Look until he removes it again. He's a hoarder and neat freak, he's learning that he can't have it both ways. Defo easier to clean with less furniture/ clothes/ ornaments.

And eBay-ing unwanted items gets addictive too! So much easier to tidy with less stuff.

Have gradually introduced routines so that the house is always clean enough, and declutter on a regular basis, deifnately affects my general well being for the better!

We've just had a new kitchen so I had a huge clearout. The kitchen is so much more organised now. It looks clean and tidy. Its made a huge difference.

I'm in the process of decluttering the living room and am being harsh. I don't want to live with crap anymore and I want to be able to able to say 'pop round for a coffee' after the school run like my friends with tidy houses do.

I'm going to do wardrobes too as I have piles of clothes that I'm never going to wear.

I already feel better and I think its so worth it as its easy to keep things tidy.
My friends who have spotless houses don't have any clutter in them at all.

Am reassured to hear it works too - really need to make a start as it drives me nuts and means I never relax at weekends as feel constant guilt!

Yes. I have had the pleasure of cohabiting with not one but two pathological clutterers. I'm not Martha Stewart myself, so things kind of deteriorated. Finally decided I was tired of living in a hovel and did a huuuge decluttering and redecorating exercise. It was like a revelation. I discovered how hugely my mood is affected by my immediate environment, how very stressful it is to be crowded in by stuff.

A decade on, I can't claim to have a neat and tidy house all the time, but I do make sure the sitting room is tidyish as soon as the children go to bed, so that I have an evening without their clutter. I also declutter regularly - I take bags of stuff to the charity shop at least once a month, I reckon.

Go for it, you won't regret it.

Liveinthepresent I know what you mean about the weekends. I always feel I have too much to do on weekends even though I work part time and could get lots done during the week.
I really envy those who make time to go for family bike rides, walks etc on Sundays as my Sundays are usually manic with chores or just wasted thinking 'I should be clearing out the cupboards or reducing the laundry pile'

As well as decluttering, I think I need to meal plan and shop too. Gosh, my life would run so much more smoothly.

I'm in the middle of a vast decluttering now term has started. I've been doing bits and pieces all summer, inspired by our self catering holiday in July.

We rented a house - not particularly big, but it felt spacious and light. I really enjoyed having a smaller choice of clothes to wear in the wardrobe, less clutter and food clogging up the kitchen. Having less furniture meant more space to wander around in, and the empty surfaces were just lovely, all shiny and light.

I loved the way it gave me more energy, more motivation to stay on top of things, to start projects on a great big empty table. I realised that at home the low level clutter means that I get distracted easily and find procrastination rules the day.

Onlyaphase - I could have written your post myself.

We rented a holiaday cottage this year and even though there was only a fraction of the square footage that I have at home it just seemed sooooo much bigger and airyer (if that's a word). I realised it's not how much space you have but rather how you use it. I am trying to declutter and generally be cleaner, but all my years of hoarding and slatternly ways are hard habits to break!

Slattern I'm glad you know what I mean. DH just looked at me blankly when I was rambling on about it.

Have done most of my house over the last few months.Essentially only the loft to go,but that is the biggest one.
Sorry cant say i feel massively different yet,but it is nice as I walk through the rooms to sort of say to myself done done.
I started out with the bathroom,smallest room in the house and all that.

Me too, I've been on one of the Flylady threads for about 3 years and it has really helped. There is some way to go as DH and the DCs are chronic clutterers and I am lazy by nature so it is easy to let it all slip, but I think I am gradually winning the war on clutter. It definitely makes me feel happier and more in control of my life.

The kitchen has been my biggest success, everything has a place, it is so easy to work in there now, plus I have created enough space to have a Kenwood stand mixer, slow cooker and an espresso machine when previously we never had the space for any of it.

I did the decluttering as a follow on from learning how to clean. We moved from a house so cluttered I used to sob and sob when I was in it with tiny DD. Then we moved into a big modern house as a rental stop gap while we waited to buy our semi.

Now moving into our own home again we are following the mantra of everything has a place and everything in it's place. We don't put things down we put them away. There is still a great deal to be sorted out, mostly the old files which need wrapping in plastic and putting in the loft and our clothes need resorting as well. Add to that needing to sort out DD's clothes and the boxes of baby stuff and we do still have some way to go.

But. Christmas is our deadline for downstairs and Easter our deadline for upstairs. It is so so much nicer to come home to a house where I am not falling over shoes, finding dirty plates, losing bills etc or dusting piles of unwanted items which don't get to the dump or free cycle.

This is great, thanks guys. My downfall are those stackable crates. I have stacks of them, full of 'stuff' that doesn't have a place to go because there is too much of it, and too much rubbish in the drawers and cupboards. A big declutter is the way forward, but I am a hoarder and dh is a 'tidyer-into-random-places' (mostly plastic bags). Between us we could be a great team as he loves tidying (when it has a place) but is chronically disorganised and I am quite organised when I get myself in gear - it's just getting myself into the right gear. I do find the mess depressing in a low level way. It wears me down and overwhelms me, but it doesn't make life so unliveable that I am forced to engage with it. I feel so much better when I do. Ok, off to chuck out some clothes!