Need to urgently declutter a room fast. Hire storage or not?

[IncessantNameChanger]

I wrote a long post but my phone went flat and I lost it, so bear with me if I drip feed a bit.

Basically was me, dh and four kids in a three bed cottage. Eldest had his own room and went to uni in September but has had a mh crisis and is coming home end of Nov.

Situation before was ds20 had the box room. Ds16 and ds12 shared. Dd had a bed in my room and a bunk bed in the boys. Ds20 moves,out and we all shuffle,about so ds16 has the box room.

Ds20 can't have his old room back because it might be for a year or long term. I suspect he wants to stay at home medically unfit possible as a long term thing. I can't cope with that.

The plan is to move him into the dining room. But I need,to empty it plus I need to decltter other areas and store his uni stuff.

Is hiring a storage unit insane? I'm.quite the hoarder but decluttering anyway..I know I can't empty a room aline in month. It was dd toddler room so full of her toys and clothes plus furniture. We partitioned it off and it's tiny. I have no one to help me unless I pay for help. But ds breakdown has sent my mh spirlling and I'm not sure I'm in a good head space to cope with a Stacy solemn moment right now

Good luck with it OP. Do you have a plan for the weekend?

Neither of mine ever really worked at a desk, they just end up covered in piles. In the end we went with good bookshelves (plenty of storage) and accepting they work on their beds.

Get off Mumsnet and make a start!

Tell your DC to get rid of anything "babyish ". Most kids like to think they're "grown up ".

You are so mean.

This sounds really stressful and I feel for you. You are doing your best for your kids and that really shows through. Can I just pick up on you saying DH is ‘going to help with toys’. Surely this entire task should be joint responsibility. It’s a lot for you to be completely responsible for

Saw this old thread and couldn’t resist adding: hiring a small storage unit can work as a short-term reset, but I found it only helped once I was strict about what actually came back into the house. Another option is doing a quick sweep for obvious non-keepers first, just to make space to think. Did anyone try a temporary unit and find it worth the cost?

Yes, I used it for stuff we definitely wanted to keep but was either seasonal eg: summer clothes/sporting stuff ; bulky stuff that was used rarely [suitcases] or stuff we could live without for a few months [wedding china], outgrown toys from DC1 but not yet grown into for DC2.

I used it specifically to clear as much out of the house as possible while we had building work done. Having less stuff made it much easier to deal with the huge mess and dust the builders created and meant we could relocate into different rooms as they moved through the house.

Expensive solution even then though. I hope the OP has managed to sort her children out and her DS1 is recovering.

Don’t rent a unit. They are so expensive it’s usually cheaper to give away/sell everything and rebuy it when you are ready

How did it go in the end @IncessantNameChanger and Hope ds1 mh is getting better

I had a similar crunch and ended up boxing up anything we didn’t need daily, then shifting the bulkier bits into short-term storage. I even used Warehouse Spaces once to find a bigger unit for a couple of months, and it took the pressure off while I sorted through things properly. A quick triage helps too: keep, donate, bin, and a maybe pile you revisit after a week.

Gosh this a blast from the past! I did hire a unit in the end. It's not cheap and as soon as almost empty I put more boxes in their. I have only had the unit for eight months, it's got 6 boxes in there.

Actually it did help. But not cheap. Completely clearing the room was the best option for us. I have decluttered everywhere in the house and bringing back a box a week to empty and sort now life is more calm.

My eldest went back to new uni and touch wood is doing OK I hope ( he does open up to me and we are very close again but only when I'm in front of him. He is far away and he isn't great at replying when I'm not in front of him). Now he is settled I'm better too.

All three kids have their rooms now. We are looking again to move to a bigger places as we are in better place to consider it now.

I actually think the unit was a good idea. Making space to not feel overwhelmed really worked for me. However the unit was tempting to put things over Christmas so clearing it took longer than I wanted. But really it shows also how little value any of that stuff had as I haven't missed any of it.

What a great update. Everything seems to be on the up. I’m so pleased for your eldest that he’s gone to another university.

Thanks for updating @IncessantNameChanger , I'm glad to hear things are a bit more settled and your son is happier.

Thank you ❤️ of course getting a storage unit when you have hoarding tendency is not a great idea. But when it actually made an entire room livable and serve a purpose it was the right desision. It's 90% toys in storage which my children have not missed so again, that was reassuring that they have served a purpose and can go. But with thought and not in one big rush. I'm not going to be wondering if getting rid of hundreds of toys in a rush while in bad place with my MH was a mistake.

Decluttering is a muscle and I'm determined to never be in that position again of having so much stuff I couldn't see straight.

dd has halved her clothes this year to fit in her room nicely. She loves her cosy little room to herself.

This has reminded me to get this week's box from storage!

Yes, it’s served a purpose and given you space and time to get things how you want to be.

I hired a declutterer to help me, and honestly, she's a life saver. She's expensive, but cheaper and easier than a storage unit, and I really feel I'm making progress with getting rid of stuff and reorganising, even although there's still a long way to go. You might consider that for a couple of sessions, OP.