A woman once called me in desperation to book a clutter clearing consultation. She had lived for 20 years surrounded by boxes of personal belongings she had never unpacked, and she urgently needed to move from her 4-bedroom house to a place that was half the size. Could I help?
Well, yes. But as we talked it soon became apparent that she had totally unrealistic expectations. Because she was hiring a professional, she thought the whole task could somehow be accomplished in a day, including personally opening and checking the contents of each box to decide what to keep and what to throw away. She seriously believed I would be able to wave some sort of magic wand and singlehandedly make 20 years of clutter painlessly disappear.
With a team of people to help and the client out of the way, I can clutter clear any space very quickly, but not in a way most people would thank me for or be able to live with afterwards. If someone has kept so many boxes for so many years, it is usually because the contents have some perceived value, and to ruthlessly dispose of them in a matter of hours is the stuff that traumas are made of.
It doesn’t have to take as many years to clear clutter as it did to accumulate it but, like weight loss, it usually takes longer than most people would like or expect. And that’s actually a good thing. In the same way that rapid weight loss is usually unsustainable, rapid clutter clearing can cause a rebound effect that causes the person to start accumulating again. Ideally, each person needs to clear their clutter at a pace that is right for them, that will allow them to move through any emotions it may bring up. Leaving it until the last minute can be very painful experience indeed.
It’s not surprising, therefore, that some people end up moving home with their clutter instead of first sorting through and discarding things they no longer need or want. It may make it possible to meet the moving day deadline, but in the long run it involves more time, more effort, and more expense, not to mention the stagnating effects of continuing to live with clutter in the new home.
So if you know you have a move coming up, don’t delay. Start clutter clearing now. And if you need professional help to do it, don’t wait until days before the deadline to make the call. I have special methods I use with clients that help many of them clear more clutter in a day than they’ve been able to clear by themselves in a year. With the right approach, any amount of clutter can be cleared, but there’s no magic bullet solution.
Copyright © Karen Kingston, 2014