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!!!

Kondo! You sat you have too much stuff - and it sounds like the stuff you wear doesn't have a home because of all the stuff you don't wear.

As your stuff is contained you have space to work so first job is an initial sweep into clothes, books, paperwork and others. Clothes onto bed, all others into separate boxes stacked as you fill them.

While you do the initial sort bin anything that is obvious but don't think about stuff - first into categories, think later.

Then tackle clothes - does it fit, do I like it, do I wear it. If the answer is no it needs to move on with a very few exceptions. I try to keep my clothes under constant review and if I find myself skipping the top at the front of the drawer for reasons other than temperature or not matching it probably needs to go.

Kondo folding (vertical squares) is pretty awesome for getting more in (make sure drawer is solid first) and minimising what I call drawer stirring.

If you like to keep stuff just in case think about the value of your time plus the probability of finding the thing you think you have somewhere in less than the time it would take to acquire it.

I would do clothes and books all at once then sort the rest into smaller categories using the space you've made.

Shredding is a pain. Try to keep on top of new shredding, contain the backlog in labelled boxes and try to do 5 minutes (or however long your motor lasts before overheating) twice a day. I had bank and cc statements going back 18 years and about 8 feet of paper to shred in April. Now down to 3 feet and no more boxes lurking.

Hey op how's it going? Thinking I need to get going with another mammoth devlutter!

Marie Kondo. Get the book. Read it. You will WANT to tackle the clutter afterwards. And will have fun doing it. It's life changing.

• laundry basket clear. Go round the house once collecting everything that's in the wrong room, placing it in the washing basket. I put upstairs things in one end, and group stuff roughly by room. Then go round the house a second time distributing things, one room at a time.

• this is arguable, but one idea is to start with your furthest "back" storage - loft, garage, backs of wardrobes. This is the oldest stuff and easiest to acknowledge that you don't need it. This will free up space for your next tranch of stuff (rest of cupboards) to be tidied into. Then cupboards will be freed up for the "surface layer" of clutter - you can create home for things that don't have homes at the moment.

• again controversial, consider skipping the charity/ebay pile if donating items holds you up. Donate to charity in other ways. I put clothes/linens in the recycling bins at supermarkets because that's easy (sorted into bags of Rags, better stuff and shoes), but bric a brac often just goes in the bin. There's enough of it in the world already and no one needs my old Nutella glasses.

• quick wins - chuck duplicates. How often do you use your second best cheese slice? Bathroom cabinets/medicine cabinet are easy, self contained task. Towels and sheets.