Help needed to declutter, need your hacks for space and time!

[FredTheArmadillo]

First post on Mumsnet so please be gentle!!

My own bedroom, spare room and car are wildly messy and I need some help sorting it all out. Bit of background, I care for a family member who has life limiting illness, full time student and work around 30 hours a week. I'm also unwell myself and due to have my thyroid removed in a couple of weeks. I am constantly knackered, if I'm not at work or uni then I'm sorting out carer stuff or I'm lying in bed because I am physically so exhausted.

The whole house is clean and tidy (partly me but also assisted by our lovely cleaner who comes in once a week and Hoover's, does bathrooms, dusting etc) but she doesn't go into my room or the spare room because they are both bonkers.

I occasionally have the energy to sort my room out of all the clutter and sheets and things are changed regularly (it's untidy, not dirty) but I mostly cart everything into the spare room, which now resembles something from "the hoarder next door". I know it's awful, I can never find anything I need, but it's become such a mammoth task to sort out I don't know where to begin. Piles of clothes, books, mountains of things which need shredded and god alone knows what else is in there and I just feel a bit overwhelmed.

I'd love for it to all be lovely and organised, I'm going to be off work for 3 weeks and planned to do the "bin bag a day" thing for the first week so it feels less overwhelming but do any of you have other suggestions of things I can do to help me sort it out and then keep on top of things going forward, even if I am too knackered to care where I dump stuff?

Probably just need a good kick up the a* more than anything else!!!

Storage boxes. You can get cheaply from places like ikea and b&m.
Storage box for cosmetic stuff
Drawers sorted into underwear, jammies, tops and trousers. Dresses hung up in wardrobe. Get one of those hanging shelves that go inside the wardrobe and a shoe rack or an under bed shoe storage box (argos)
A laundry basket for dirty clothes

Have a clear out and be ruthless. Anything you haven't used or worn within a year goes out.

Buy a paper rack or book storage for books.
Make the bed everyday and open the curtains and blinds.

If you do a huge clear out and clean the wardrobes, under bed and skirtings in the room, clean bedroom windows and mirrors you will have a lovely fresh decluttered bedroom and neat wardrobe. You should be able to get up in the morning and make your bed, any dirty clothes go straight in laundry bin and your good to go.
Polish and Hoover twice a week.

Marie kondo book - godsend!

Throw stuff away. Why not take out what is most important (so you don't throw it away accidentally) and then bin the rest. "Red" has said it all, really.

I'm doing the flylady at the moment. Really getting into and enjoying it. Loads of help on flylady website and lots of helpful stuff on youtube

Thanks for all of that advice, some great tips there! I think I just need to take it slow, do a bit at a time and be methodical. And ruthless!!!

Just start small and do something every day.

Day 1 - make your bed
Day 2 - make your bed and sort out the top of your bedside table (dust it and either chuck or put the stuff away)
Day 3 make your bed, tidy the top of the bedside table then pick up the clothes off the floor and find a home for them or charity shop/recycle them
Day 4 - make your bed, tidy the top of the bedside table, pick the clothes off the floor then tackle a drawer

It's called habit stacking. You just need to be consistent.

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Just to clarify, I make my bed every day and don't just drop dirty clothes on the floor. I do have a habit of stacking clean washing because there is no room in the drawers (need to clear them out to make room to put stuff away). It's just all my possessions are disorganised, so things like piles of books and uni work (which I need to keep but have no space for) rather than living surrounded by clothes I've dropped on the floor and an unmade bed if that makes sense? Bit mortified if thats the impression I have given of the way that I live. The rest of the house is immaculate, it's just that once everyone and everything else is sorted, there's not much time or energy for me to tackle this. As a full time carer I'm much more concerned that the person I care for has a clean, tidy and comfortable environment and I just do what I can with my stuff (mostly pile up in the spare room and shut the door).

There's not a lot of room or storage space for my stuff because of some of the medical equipment we need in the house, which is half the problem, and the other is that with everything else going on and me also being unwell, I rarely have time or energy to tackle the issue, so was looking for ideas for hacks that you use for storage and time saving ideas like the bin bag a day thing to help me declutter. Thanks everyone for taking the time to make suggestions, sorry if I wasn't clear in my original post.

Spiderbabymum just had a look at that link and signed up, seems a great idea. Thank you!

Zippy once everything is sorted, getting back into the habit of putting everything in its new place will help, instead of putting it into the spare room and dumping it so thank you for that too

I'm not saying you drop your clothes on the floor.

I'm saying you need start somewhere. You tackle that the first day. You do it again the next day then tackle something else.

Set yourself a timer and do 2 minutes or 5 minutes or 10 minutes. Whatever you can muster really.

You did say that the spare room resembled the hoarder from next door.

Set up a charity shop box/ bag and a recycle bag next to bedroom door, or front door and every time you see something that you know you don't really want, need or use place it in the bag and then periodically donate/ dump (I keep a bag hanging on a coat hook in the porch).

Brutally honestly go through you're clothes and donate or ebay any clothes that no longer fit or that you just don't wear (it's nearly the end of the summer, so start with summer clothes that haven't been worn this summer). Try not to think too much about money spent, as they are worthless to you if you are not using them and the accumulation is getting you down. If your ebaying consider selling bundles in order to shift more with less effort.

I like the 20:20 rule from one of the many minimalist blogs out there. If you have objects that aren't used but you are keeping "just in case", ask yourself if you could replace it within 20 mins (in normal shop opening hours) and for less than £20, if the answer is yes to both, get rid of it, chances are you don't really need it anyway.

Could you set a timer and do ten minutes then rest for twenty set for ten again? You will find ten minutes is doable and will motivate you to work quickly knowing that it is in short bursts. Do one drawer or find a box and put everything from the top of a chest of drawers or pile and take it somewhere where you can can sort through and throw or put away within the time. Little and often will work without being tiring and overwhelming. Even one session of ten minutes a day is working in the right direction! Good luck. We all have mess and it is a wonderful feeling when you clear it.

Sorry but don't buy any storage until you have got rid of the shite. It's kondo advice I got rid of shite the volume of my spare room floor to ceiling

Don't ponder over stuff. It's keep , bin or charity.
Look at each item for a couple of seconds and decide if you really need it. No 'just in case' reasoning.
After a few hours take the stuff to the tip and charity shop so it's not hanging round.

Remember you don't need ...

Old course work.
Books you're not going to read again
Clothes that don't fit or haven't worn for a year.
Gifts given to you that you don't use or like.
Old electronics
Old or unused cosmetics
Lots of the same thing e.g. 3 white tshirts. 6 pairs of jeans.

zippy I did say that but it's things I own in the spare room and have no place to store, it's disorganised but it's not piles of dirty washing. It's hard work caring for someone else when you are ill yourself, I always prioritise the person who I care for and figure I'll sort my own situation later as I am not the priority here. I've also lost a lot of my own storage space due to some of the medical equipment we now require to have here so that the person I care for can be at home until the end with everything that's needed, rather than having to go into a nursing home or, eventually, a hospice. Thats how everything came to be dumped
in the spare room in the first place. I really just wanted some ideas as to how I can tackle the issue using time saving and storage hacks that others might know to minimise the stress.

Thanks for all of your suggestions everyone, feeling a bit overwhelmed but I'll have a proper look tomorrow x

You're worrying too much about what you perceive we think about you. At the end of the day, you're a stranger on the internet.

I do a job which involves visiting people's houses and I see all sorts. There are plenty of hoarders out there and plenty of people have piles of 'stuff' some of it dirty washing.

Just do something today, anything for however long you can muster. If you only manage a shoe box it's a start then tomorrow do the same.

You need Marie Kondo.

It sounds like you need storage more than anything else, can you put any additional wardrobes in the spare room? Store any clothes in the loft?

Do you have any charity shops near you that would collect donations?

In terms of managing your time, could you write a "three item to do list". Only things you need to do for YOU rather than your caring duties for your relative IYSWIM. Prioritise the list and aim to tick off 3 things each week, when you get a new thing to add to your to do list slot it in in order of priority. You will soon start to plough through the list, and eventually you should end up with only around 3 things on the list at any one time...I'm not there yet!!!

I use google keep for my list, so that it is accessible on my laptop and phone.

As others have said, set a timer for cleaning/ tidying sessions, no MN, facebook or text messaging interruptions allowed, only important incoming phone calls/ knocks at the door/ essential requests from sick relative should take priority over what you are doing for that allotted time. I tend to do 1 hour sessions, it still amazes me how much I can get done in a totally focussed hour. Start off with shorter lengths of time, and build up, but be sure not to cheat in the time you have allocated yourself.

Could you consider some respite care for your relative at the hospice? Have you/ your relative visited the hospice as outpatients yet? They are really lovely places, and it sounds like your health might benefit from a short break.

Agree with Silverdream sort stuff into boxes: keep, sell, charity, tip. Once youve got rid of junk you don't want or need you'll have space to decide on smarter storage for the stuff you do want and need. If you're running short on floor space you can bracket shelving and bookcases to the walls for storage. I'm considering selling my books and DVDs and going digital to save space. If you find youve quite a bit to give away Freecycle and Gumtree are great: just list and people will come round to collect. Some charities also do home collection as Passthecake30 suggested.

Sorry but don't buy any storage until you have got rid of the shite
This.
I've made this mistake ao many times of buying cute storage boxes/unit before I clear out. They are just another place to hide junk.

I say that now as someone who is trying to declutter again now having done the storage box thing. It makes everything difficult.

Read Marie kondo - it's short and will totally change your attitude to stuff. When you're ill and busy the key is to have as little stuff as possible to look after.

MaisyPops I'm looking for cute storage boxes if you want to get rid of yours

Play the 'evacuation' game. You have 1 hour to pack for a permanent evacuation to a parallel life. What you pack is your'keep' pile and everything else you know you can live without.