4 Tools To Get Rid of The Clutter
A recent article on Glam Adelaide by Hannah Pendlebury suggested that clutter in the home is the reason that many couples fight. Unfortunately, this rang a little bit too true for me!
Oh-so Naive
My fiancé Nick and I have been living together for nearly six years. When we first moved in together, I had just finished two years of hopping around Australia in little six month bursts. My entire life fit into one (slightly oversized/heavily-charged-at-the-airport) suitcase & Nick left most of what he owned at home with his parents. We moved into a small, two bedroom, open-plan apartment at Henley Beach and marvelled at how minimalist we were!
The Clutter Begins
Piece by piece we started accumulating ‘things’. It’s unclear when the ‘things’ started appearing. However, three years later when we purchased our first home (twice the size of our apartment) it was clear we were both as bad as each other for collecting and holding onto unnecessary bits and pieces. We didn’t feel any more fulfilment from having these extra ‘things’ – in fact we were a little annoyed that the moving process took four times as long as our first one!
Time to GET RID OF IT
It’s now a little under one year until Nick and I get married. This feels like the perfect time to focus on de-cluttering our space for the start of married life together (and a new wave of collecting bits and pieces I’m sure). The Glam Adelaide article claims that over half of the couples surveyed suffer from “Space Stress” and I KNOW that we are one of them. I have done some research (a big shout out to the space saving, clutter clearing world of Pinterest) and together Nick and I are going to implement some changes! Here are some of the articles that particularly resonated with me.
- 116 things that we just don’t need
PopSugar author, Emily Co lists 116 things that can be and should be thrown out each day. Reading this list, I think it is safe to say that we are guilty of keeping at least one of each or these items…seems like a good place to start! - Plan it out
This blog highlights a ‘Top 10’ of tips to successful decluttering. I really like this list – in particular her advice to take the time to actually plan out the process! Too often I get knee deep into clearing out a cupboard or space, only to realise that I have no idea what to do with everything and it all just goes straight back into the space. - The inspiration
with all of the articles out there showing us how to declutter, this blog about WHY we should declutter the home will come in handy when we are ready to give it all up and just live in our cluttered home. The thought of less housework, saving money and feeling a sense of peace is more than enough inspiration to keep us going!! - Ask for some help!
The overwhelming nature of a project like this can make it impossible to even begin. So enlist some help! Anyone that has no emotional tie to the clutter will be the best help you can get when it comes to seeing sense and only keeping what you really, truly do need.
Let us know if you have any other tips and tricks to share and I will let you know how these tips and tricks work for us! If you want some help and advice on getting your office, house, life decluttered and back on track, send us a message and let us help!!