If your house has ever got seriously out of order … and you have managed to get it back under control …

[Scatteredthoughts522]

Can you please help and advise? This question is for people whose houses have got really bad in certain areas - not hoarder level but I can imagine it getting that way if I don’t intervene now - but who have managed to rein it back in… .

I am facing a situation where I need to get back on top of my large six bedroom house. The ground floor is just about ok. I can invite people in. Apart from the utility and garage which are in a bit of a state.

The upper floors, apart from the bathrooms, are a disaster though and getting worse. And I hate this feeling of not being on top of it!

My physical fitness is limited atm following an accident, a bout of depression, and another health condition, so I can’t physically do a lot in one go. I am not young either!

What is required is a major all hands to the deck clear out of stuff before I can deep clean but realistically atm I don’t have the capacity for either.

So my question is … has anyone honestly managed to get back on top of things by doing two hours focused decluttering and organising a day?

Is it possible? Or am I whistling in the wind? The reason I ask is that I have a cleaner for two hours a week but can’t afford any more help atm. I work for four hours a day so thought of doing one hour before work and one hour after work until it gets done.

Thanks for any thoughts. I am at my wit’s end with it all and desperately need to be back in control.

Some great nuggets of advice here! Thank you so much!

Noted about incorporating the “getting rid of stuff” part if the process in to my daily errands and also making it part of the two hours.

That’s a great idea about Facebook marketplace too!

I do like the Swedish Death Cleaning TV series. It's free on U.

Sorry I don't know if you've already mentioned but if you do not live alone the house is not your problem to tackle alone. And it is ok to reward yourself and others for taking on the task. For example picking a day and naming it as 'decluttering day'. Everyone needs to fill two bags/clear their wardrobes etc. Everyone that does their bit gets a takeaway that evening.

I did this recently. I live in a 3 bed house with one child and the amount of crap had started to get to get too much. The spare bedroom, garage, side utility and under-stairs cupboard had turned into dumping grounds for clutter, and were packed up to chest height. I ordered the biggest skip that would fit on my driveway, enlisted the help of a good friend, and we spent an entire weekend filling up the skip and doing runs to the tip for items that the skip company wouldn't take. You have to be really ruthless. A lot of the stuff I hadn't even used in years because I couldn't find it or get to it, so anything like that, I got rid of. My house is now much more organised and clutter free. It's made a huge difference to my metal health and I feel so much lighter now that the burden of the clutter has gone. It really is worth biting the bullet and getting it done, as you'll feel so much better in yourself.

Could I also suggest that you post regularly here? Not that we are being nosy, but I found that the support of others was so helpful. Just a quick 'you are doing great' made me feel that I was making progress.
I also put items in the front garden with a note on it, got rid of so much stuff.

😃 The younger generation seem a lot less attached to material things that’s for sure!

Sorry you are facing such serious health challenges though Thereissnowinmywellies 💐.

A big motivation for me in doing this is my YA dc. I wasn’t always the most organised of parents, we leaned toward creative but messy with lots of pets but looking back I should have given more priority to a calmer space and focused more on all of those delayed decisions that have resulted in random stacks of clutter, A cluttered space is so stressful and makes cleaning twice as hard.

I want my dc to see me doing it and seeing that it can be done,

I managed it (still ongoing if I'm honest), but it's do-able.

My late DH was a bit of a hoarder. He bought loads of things for his hobbies, too many clothes, shoes etc too, but never wanted to throw anything away. The house was dreadfully cluttered and I was too ashamed to invite people round, or allow the kids to have friends round. When he died in 2024 I set to doing something about it.

I agree with one room at a time. That way, once that room is done, it gives you incentive to do others. I followed the process of having a pile for charity, a pile to give away, a pile for rubbish etc. For his clothes, the good stuff went to the hospice shop so that they could raise much needed funds. The general stuff I loaded into multiple bin bags (there were loads!) and contacted my local council who do a free pick up service and then distribute to charities/in-need places. Boxes of tools (his and late FILs) went to an organisation that clean them up and redistribute to disadvantaged people. 20 months later I have a house I'm no longer ashamed of. I still have two upstairs rooms with quite a lot of stuff to reduce/get rid of, but now I feel it's manageable.

Once they're done, comes the loft......

Thank you, yes I will!!

And I would like to invite anyone here clearing their own house to check in from time to time too!

I did something similar recently when downsizing. Although rooms looked superficially tidy(ish) there was a lot of stuff I had kept hold of because I had space rather than because I needed it. I made quite a lot from local Facebook selling pages but be aware that you do need to price things low to get interest. If things don't go within 24 hours they probably won't so immediately take to charity shop or give away free elsewhere. Don't fall into the trap I did of putting charity shop bags in the boot and not taking for weeks - it's a real pain to drag multiple heavy bags there when you could do little and often! I sometimes couldn't fit food shopping in the car as I had piled it full of charity shop stuff!

Good luck!

That’s really encouraging to know! Thank you very much SparklyGlitterballs, that’s a really huge achievement on your part 👏

It’s great to think that your late husband’s tools and those of your fil were put to such great use!

Thanks also for tip about the hospice shops,

Good luck with the loft! 😆

Thank you very much for this advice!

Really taking on board the importance of having a regular and consistent flow of stuff out of the house!

And yes the space thing is a definite issue!

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* Thank you so much to everyone who has posted on this thread!

Apologies if I haven’t answered personally to every post but I have read every single one and made a few notes.

I’m really bowled over by the support on here and the really excellent advice and tips that everyone has offered, and I feel really inspired now to crack on!

Please feel free to check in and post your own progress if you are decluttering or downsizing atm and maybe we can support each other.

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This is what I am doing and I can attest that it works. Its the old eating the dinosaur thing, one mouthful at a time. My aim is different from yours. I am not worried about letting people in and objectively my house is still cluttered with craft stuff but It makes me happy and I now have room to make things again AND my attic is empty!!
A few things I have learned
In some areas, you may want to do them twice or more because once you start to enjoy having your space back, you will want to go further.
I am a member of a few facebook local giveaway groups and its such a joy. People are grateful for unwanted craft materials, coffee mugs and so on. My best ever story is a freecycle one. I freecycled my late husbands motorcycle boots. The lady who came to collect them told me that I had solved a huge problem. Her husband had left his boots to dry in their conservatory and the cat had peed in them. He was going away that weekend and thought he'd have to use the pee soaked ones!
Its easy to say "I can't get rid of that it was expensive" but keeping it won't get you your money back. Yes you can sell stuff but you do have to decide how much effort you want it to be. If the things aren't massively valuable is it worth the effort?

and my very best wishes

try local facebook giveaway groups, the people come and collect the stuff!!

Nice to see a positive supportive thread

The other thing I would,add is to make time if you can to think about how/ why you came to be in this situation and how to avoid it again
Not in a blaming way but in a positive, moving forward way

I noticed I was holding onto things " just in case" but also I have a ND partner who tends to hoard.
We had a frank discussion and decided on a declutter but also a cleaning plan going forward.
I made 1.3K on Vinted 😅
Now everything is tidy and we have a simple,manageable cleaning plan
Also bought a Robot vacuum which is brilliant but have to tidy to use it-genius!
I buy fresh flowers every week as a reward rather than stuff and we dont buy bits and bobs anymore .

Yes, I did this too with things that I either couldn't sell or wanted rid of fast. One thing I wish I had done when giving away items for free was to chose who I gave things to rather than say yes to the first person who messaged me. That might be an unpopular opinion but I was amazed by the amount of people who said they wanted quite expensive items but never said please or thank you during the initial message, when arranging collection or even in person when they took the item away! I wasn't after people to grovel but manners were completely absent. It always annoyed me when I'd said yes to someone like that and then within the next 5 mins would have messages from other polite people who I would have to say no to. Sorry, completely off topic but so rude!

On anticipatory boredom, get some headphones and listen to some bingeworthy podcasts to keep your brain active. Then you can do the boring stuff on autopilot

Lots of good ideas on here. Not sure if it’s been said but you could go through your rooms and create one ‘bad’ room, where all your unwanted stuff is in piles, so that you don’t have never ending charity/tip runs and you can see results faster. If by the end of it you don’t have the energy/capacity to sort the ‘bad’ room get a clearance company in to take it all away - they can even sell stuff for you.

I changed my mindset to be the other way around. I made myself stop being invested in wanting anything for the stuff, not even thanks or good manners...after all, I don't expect the bin men to say thank you and I just wanted rid. I will say though that it has been very rare not to get thanks. The groups I am in have got a "first to respond gets it" rule but there are strict limits on asks and anyone who fails to collect without good reason or ghosts the donor is suspended or banned. I do think though is that you have to choose the approaches that work for you.

I found watching Dana K White YouTube sessions on the iPad as I was decluttering really helpful. I do need to start again, but it is less challenging a second time. I do have the ongoing boxes for the clothing bank and the charity shop, so the easy wins have already been achieved.

Ooh, thanks for the book idea. I spent 2 days last week at my sons house. It was shockingly messy. Bags &bags of rubbish taken to landfill.
I know he has poor mh but I couldn't see him living like that any longer.
Do you think this would help him maintain his house?

I have AuDHD, and a profoundly disabled child, so cleaning and sorting neither come easily to me, nor are they things I have an abundance of time for.

I do the “one drawer” method. You set a timer for 20 minutes and crack on with just trying to blitz one drawer, or shelf, or surface. After that, if you feel like moving on to something else, you can do another one. If you don’t feel like you can, you still have one drawer that’s cleaner than it was before you started.

Take the hoover with you - so if you clear out a drawer - hoover inside. If you clear out a corner - hoover. Suddenly the dirty edges of the room feel cleaner and this is an incentive.

Oh - I also put a radio show or podcast on in a room. Not on headphones. So I want to stay in that room to listen.

I have managed this, partly spurred on by a friend coming to live with me for a while. I still have a lot of stuff I just stuck in the garage that I need to sort.

Agree with everyone else about doing one room at a time. It's inspiriting when you are able to look at a fully sorted space.

I found Anglo Doorstop Collections really helpful. They will take almost anything. A proportion of profits goes to a charity that you select from their list.