How would you clear this room?

[Filthyslattern]

Test

I'd look for some easy wins to get you going. Is there anything that is only fit for the bin? Could you pick up all the clothes that need a wash and chuck them in the washing basket? My DD's room gets out of control every so often and these are the things I find help.

Longer term, do you have enough storage space? Why has stuff ended up on the floor rather than being put away?

Are you on a budget? If not then buy 14 pairs of socks each and bin ALL the old socks. Socks aren't expensive, chances are most of your socks are several years old anyway. One less thing to worry about.

Are the clothes clean or dirty. Given they are on the floor anyway bag them all up and take them to a launderette. You will never have enough space in your machine to wash them all in one day. If you can get a service wash done then do (again budget depending).

Socks I think I have around 20 pairs.

OP, be ruthless. Don’t put things in the loft or leave them in the car. Bag and bin immediately.

Agree with the advice above re moving what you do wear to another room temporarily.

Do you drive? If so I would take all the stuff for the dump or charity shop & put it straight into your car. Then try next say/same week to take it there. It will definitely get easier the more you do!

I do agree once a bag is full put it in the car or by the front door so it goes to the supermarket and into the recycle bins.

Don't worry about charity shop the recycle bins will do it.

I would bag it up and take it out the house to the dump immediately.

Can you try to change your view on it and think of it as an exciting challenge rather than a chore?

Can you dedicate 1 week to it. Or 2 weekends?

I wouldn't put pressure on yourself to take it to the charity shop, or organize the stuff you are getting rid of. I feel that can be overwhelming.

@Filthyslattern

Can i ask a question? How many pairs of socks is it reasonable for two adults to own? How many do you all own?

I own a ridiculous number of socks for all occasions. Socks for everyday, socks for the gym, socks for running, socks for the gym, thick socks for walking, socks for skiing, socks for AFTER skiing (I haven't been skiing in 5 years, but you never know). Plus there's an entire drawer of 50 and 70 denier tights - so I feel your pain. In answer to your other question it is so easy to be overwhelmed by STUFF. Do you have Amazon Prime? If so, I recommend watching an American series called Hoarders. It is SO disgusting it will reassure you that you are no way as bad as those people and also inspire you to tackle your own mess. You obviously value your clothes and books, but if they are negatively affecting your life and causing you stress then they are not worth keeping. The easiest place to start would be to get rid of all the books you've already read. You're not likely to read them again and if you do want to, it's very easy to find another copy of a book. Either take them all to a charity shop, or sell them as a job-lot on Facebook Marketplace. You'll be amazed at how once they've gone, you'll never even miss them. I promise. If you only wear 10% of the clothes, are many items unworn? If so, it might be psychologically easier for you to sell them on Vinted, or ebay or Facebook Marketplace than to give them away to charity. Just tackle one pile at a time

Don't be downhearted, @Filthyslattern

You have already taken the biggest step, to acknowledge that you want to do something about this.

Do you have a car? If so, fill as many bin bags with the lowest value things, those not likely to be of interest to a charity shop, as will fit in your car. Take these to the clothes bin in your local dump.

Fill other bags with things worth donating to charity. Deliver those to a shop which can accept them, lots are full after lots of people have used lockdown for big clear outs.

Keep doing that till you only have the 10% of clothes you wear regularly. Allocate a permanent place for each item and put it there. In future, things will be in one of three places being worn, in the laundry bin or in their allocated place.

Sit back and breathe, then change that user name. No good comes of being hard on your self. I'm sure you would be kind to a friend facing this work, do the same for yourself. You have got this.

@SoItWas

Are are your cupboards/wardrobes/drawers full of stuff, or are they empty and just waiting for everything to be put away? Does everything have "a home" it just needs to go back too, or do you need to find space for everything?

I need to find space for everything. Every cupboard is full of crap.

I think it's a bit like losing weight. You put it over a period of time and you can't expect to lose it quickly. It's going to take time and you need to celebrate each small milestone. My bedroom is minamalist and clean and tidy - only I know the fact that the wardrobe and chest of drawers are ready at any minute to spit out their contents! Good luck!

Fret not! I used to be like this (still can be messy, and am adhd I think).

The first thing is have less stuff

Put your clothes into 3 piles on the bed. You are aiming to get rid of 60-70 minimum. Makes piles of Stuff you wear, stuff you have worn in the last year, stuff you haven’t worn for a year. Put the last lot in a bag for Oxfam, put the first lot in the wardrobe. Go through the second lot again - anything you don’t like or doesn’t suit your lifestyle? Add it to the out pile. Then put the rest back in the wardrobe. You can revisit in 6 months.

Next rule is simplify how you store stuff.

Wardrobe - do you need more hangers? You need to be easily able to move stuff about. It shouldn’t be packed. (Chuck out further if it is, or put out of season stuff under the bed/order IKEA boxes.)

Draws - get dividers if they’re muddled up. Chuck out further if overstuffed. You are aiming to be able to just hurl items (jumpers, sports gear etc) into designated sections so they are easy to find and easy to put away.

Knickers and socks. I find it easier to have these in open baskets on top of the draws. One of the greatest decisions I made was to throw out my socks and replace with 2 designs. Never needed to pair a sock since.

Everyday Bras I have on a book inside the wardrobe so again easy to access.

Put Hooks on the back of your door, if you’re the sort of person who doesn’t like putting once worn clothes back in the wardrobe.

Get a couple of baskets to Chuck shoes in.

Books -

Aim is that all books go in bookshelf which is 85/90 pc full. Put them all on your bed. 3 piles - keep, maybe and chuck. Keep paring down till you can get them all on your shelf.

Put a bag/box by your door, and introduce a one in one out rule. Every time you get something new, something goes to oxfam.

If this is too hard, get a declutterer or a friend to help you.

20ish pairs of socks and underwear for each person is I think about right. I have 8 bras. About 8 pairs of shoes/boots/trainers per season also.

Once you have sorted stuff to go to charity shop, you can contact iCollectClothes. You book a collection online, put clothes, books, bric a brac etc. in bags and they take it away. They donate to charity and it is very easy.

The only solution is to have far less stuff.

It won’t happen overnight.....you need to sort your cupboards first before you tackle all the shite on the floor....you need to be ruthless....tip, charity shop....you need to get rid rid rid.....you will feels loads better when you’ve done it

GRADUAL METHOD:

1. Remove layer of obvious rubbish from your room and really worn clothing and chuck it. Pair up any shoes you find along one wall. Take out anything that doesn't belong in a bedroom (mugs, glasses, exercise equipment).

1. Take anything out of your room that needs washing and put it near washing machine.

1. Completely empty and clean out your chest of drawers and wardrobe and anything you use to store clothes in, one drawer/shelf at a time. Dust and clean them and line the drawrrs/shelves with drawer liners. Buy nice wooden hangers from Amazon.

1. Then as you wear and wash the 10% of favourite clothing you wear most frequently , put it back in to the clean storage.

1. Then slowly work through the rest of the room clockwise from one corner to the next. Take three boxes with you: chuck, put away elsewhere and donate. Work in fast 15 min blasts until boxes are full. Then deal with the three boxes without delay until they are empty again. Do this every day until you are done.

1. Clean thoroughly

FAST METHOD:
If the bedroom is really, really messy you may have to move out and sleep elsewhere for a couple of nights to tackle it.

1.Clear your bed and put old sheet on top.

1. Remove all rubbish & things that should be elsewhere

1. Sort and clean out drawers and hanging space as above

1. Pile all clothing on to bed and then from there sort it in to launder, throw away, give away, put away, sell. Enlist help with this bit!

1. Chuck/put away elsewhere/ donate everything else on floor in room

1. Clear and clean all other surfaces

1. Clean floors

1. Re-make bed

Good luck

14 pairs of socks is enough per person surely.
Clothes for cash?
Just keep the ones you wear and take the others to cash for clothes / recycling bank.

@VariableVera

GRADUAL METHOD:

1. Remove layer of obvious rubbish from your room and really worn clothing and chuck it. Pair up any shoes you find along one wall. Take out anything that doesn't belong in a bedroom (mugs, glasses, exercise equipment).

1. Take anything out of your room that needs washing and put it near washing machine.

1. Completely empty and clean out your chest of drawers and wardrobe and anything you use to store clothes in, one drawer/shelf at a time. Dust and clean them and line the drawrrs/shelves with drawer liners. Buy nice wooden hangers from Amazon.

1. Then as you wear and wash the 10% of favourite clothing you wear most frequently , put it back in to the clean storage.

1. Then slowly work through the rest of the room clockwise from one corner to the next. Take three boxes with you: chuck, put away elsewhere and donate. Work in fast 15 min blasts until boxes are full. Then deal with the three boxes without delay until they are empty again. Do this every day until you are done.

1. Clean thoroughly

FAST METHOD:
If the bedroom is really, really messy you may have to move out and sleep elsewhere for a couple of nights to tackle it.

1.Clear your bed and put old sheet on top.

1. Remove all rubbish & things that should be elsewhere

1. Sort and clean out drawers and hanging space as above

1. Pile all clothing on to bed and then from there sort it in to launder, throw away, give away, put away, sell. Enlist help with this bit!

1. Chuck/put away elsewhere/ donate everything else on floor in room

1. Clear and clean all other surfaces

1. Clean floors

1. Re-make bed

Good luck

This is sound advice OP Personally I would go for the fast method....I would make it a weekend project....no time to get fed up with it and lapse back into bad habits....and a real sense of pride for a quick result

OP do you have a car?

"A slob comes clean" is really motivational, I listened to " decluttering at the speed of life" on audio.
Basically you can have as many socks as you have drawer space to put them in.
You also need space for the other clothes you wear.
Once the space is full everything else needs to go, no ifs or buts because there isn't space.

Bag the rubbish first.
Then bag the clothes you aren't wearing, take to your nearest charity clothes drop off bin.
Put as many books on your bookshelf as you have space for, favorite ones first.
Then take the rest to the charity shop.

Scoop up an armful at a time. Sort out clean or dirty first. Put the dirty stuff in the laundry basket.

Sort the clean into

1. keep (you will definitely wear again)
2. charity
3. recycle (worn, permanently stained or holey).

Sort and fold the CLEAN recycling stuff into a bin bag or one of those charity bags you get through the door.

Ditto with charity stuff.

Do this for an hour. Then forget about it til tomorrow.

Do another hour tomorrow or when you next have the time.

Put a load of washing on including some of your normal laundry and some that you will be donating or recycling.

When that laundry is dry, split it into the same 3 piles.

Put the stuff you want to keep away (squueze it in if you have to).

Add the clean recycling stuff to the recycle bag and the clean charity stuff to the charity bag.

Repeat in small doses over the coming weeks.

Don't throw fabrics in your bin, don't worry if you can't get it all done in a day/week/month.

Remember always that doing something is better than doing nothing!

I've just managed to do this and so far it's lasted. I looked at what was causing the mess, it was bedding spilling out everywhere (I have loads), clothes I don't wear stopping clothes I do wear being put away property, scarves hanging out of the wardrobe, toiletries and just stuff overflowing from drawers. Also, too much washing, things like blankets which needed washing for ages taking up the hamper space meaning dirty washing on the floor. Rest of the house fine, my room was like three teenagers shared it. It wasn't a quick process, I started last September and finished last week. I worked out how much bedding I had space for and it sorted it out, kept some, got rid of some. This took two days. At the same time I started to clear the backlog of washing which included bedding. I think there was about twenty loads. Then I sorted my dresser drawers which only contained toiletries and stuff. Kept some in the drawer, threw some out, bagged some up ready to put in other, as yet unsorted areas. Sorted out the top of my dresser, kept out one of everything and only the make-up I used every day. The rest went into the dresser and that was fine because there was space. Next came my scarves which were everywhere. Put them in a storage box in my wardrobe. Then, clothes. Pulled every out and sorted into keep, don't keep, store. Store, things like shorts and thermals went into storage boxes in my wardrobe. Then I did the rest of my drawers, seven in total. About ten bin bags of stuff like out of date painkillers went out. I've now got things in files, special keepsakes in a pouch and still loads of extra things, but it fits. Almost finished I sorted everything else that was not put away, again, bin or storage box. I got an extra bin next to my washing basket so I'll throw tissues out of pockets rather than leaving them in a pile next to the basket. Finally, I've tidied my bookshelf. I have enough space to put things away so there is no need to dump stuff. Essentially, work what causes the mess and try and fix it. As for socks, about 80 pairs. I threw out a whole bin bag last week.

@AtLeastPretendToCare

The only solution is to have far less stuff.

I think the op gets this. Not a helpful comment at this stage.

Start small and remmeber that doing something is better than nothing, even if the end result is still a mess.

The trick is to make it easy to start. So set a timer for five minutes. Clear a few things away. If after these five minutes you feel like continuing, do so. If not, stop. Whichever you decide to do, be proud of yourself that you have done something.

It's a habit you need to built up and buolding new habits from the ground up takes a long time, so take it easy on yourself mentally.

I need to find space for everything. Every cupboard is full of crap.

May be it would help to have in your mind I have 3 drawers,
A needs to have underwear pjs and socks.
B needs to have t-shirts / tops
C needs to have sports gear and jumpers.

So start with stuff in drawer A, gather it all together empty the drawer and sort / fill the drawer at the same time, then move to B then C.

That's the easy way to sort drawers. Then do the wardrobe and other storage space.