5 Tips To Get The Clutter Out Of Your Home FAST! #092

Ready to tackle that cluttered house?
Listen to my latest podcast episode where I'll help you clean up the clutter and make your home feel cozy again.

Problem: Do you ever feel like your house is just too full of stuff? Toys everywhere, clothes all over the place, and little things filling up every corner? It's hard to keep up with all the mess!

Solution: Let me, Caroline Thor, show you some simple tricks to declutter your home fast. We'll sort through what's important and what's not, making your home feel peaceful and organized in no time.

Benefits:
1. Say goodbye to feeling overwhelmed and hello to feeling calm and happy in your clean home.
2. Hear stories about people who have successfully donated their stuff and find inspiration to do the same.
3. Learn easy tips to keep your home tidy without all the stress.
4. Find out about my special workshop where you can learn even more ways to keep your home clutter-free.
5. Discover how to give old things new life and decide if selling your stuff online is right for you.

Ready to make your house feel like home again? Tune in now and get ready to clean up! Plus, don't forget about my fun workshop coming up in March—it's going to be so much fun!

 Ask yourself: Wouldn't it be nice to have a clean and organized home? And wouldn't it feel great to know how to declutter quickly and easily? Listen for the answers!

To join my FREE March online workshop From Chaos To Calm, A Home Organization Workshop For Busy Women CLICK HERE

Thanks for listening! For more organizational motivation, support and free resources:
Join my podcast Facebook group Living Clutter Free Forever Podcast: KonMari® Inspired Organizing | Facebook
Visit my website www.caroline-thor.com
Come and say 'hi' on Instagram @caro.thor
Follow me on Facebook @carolineorganizer
Join my online membership Clutter Free Collective

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:27

Hi there, I'm Caroline Thor, professional organizer, konmari consultant, teacher and mum of three. I started off my life as a mum feeling overwhelmed, disorganized and desperately trying to carve out some time for me amongst the nappies, chaos and clutter. One day, one small book called the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying changed everything and I began to learn strategies for making everyday life easier. Today, I have the systems in place that means life can throw almost anything at me, and I want to share them with you. If you're an overwhelmed mum struggling to keep it together, then this is the podcast for you. Grab a coffee and settle in for a quick chat with someone who gets your reality. Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Living Clutter Free Forever podcast. I'm your host, caroline Thor, and I'm so happy to have you join me today. Now, today's episode has been chosen by the members of my Facebook group, my podcast Facebook group. I put a poll up with different topics and this is the one that the majority of people voted for. So thank you to my Facebook group for their input for today's topic.

Speaker 1: 1:54

But before we get started on that, you may have already heard I am holding a three-day workshop coming up in the middle of March. Now three-day sounds a bit. Oh, I haven't got time to do three days of workshop with you. It's actually going to be two days of 45 minutes and on the third day, an hour For anyone that wants to stay for longer. Each day I will hang on in there and I will be answering any questions that you have to get you unstuck.

Speaker 1: 2:24

The workshop is all about how to declutter and organize your home. It's called From Chaos to Calm, a home organization workshop for busy women. So if that sounds like you, if you would love to lose the chaos and move into a life that is calm, I would love to see you there. So there is a link in the show notes for you to click and that will take you to the sign-up page to reserve your place. Or if you're listening now and want to make a note of it, it's caroline-thorcom forward slash workshop. I am going to have a Facebook group for this workshop so that we can interact with each other. You can ask me further questions. There's going to be a competition. There are going to be amazing prizes. I would love to have you join me for these three days. Let's see if we can make your journey to decluttering and organizing your homes a lot simpler, a lot calmer and a lot easier. So if you would like to join me for that, the link is in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 3:38

Okay, back to today's topic. I would like to think that we could all have homes where clutter wasn't ruling us. But very often I hear from people that the reason they don't start decluttering is because they actually don't know what to do with the clutter once they've decided that they're going to let it go. And this roadblock actually holds them back and stops them from taking that step of doing the decluttering, because they don't wanna have bags and boxes standing around. And the danger is, if you have boxes and bags standing around, that you start getting things out again and thinking, oh, actually, maybe I do want to keep that. So it's always a good idea to have a plan and know what to do with the clutter in order to be able to have it leave your home. So today's episode is going to be primarily about that, but before I get started on that, I would like to talk to you about rethinking clutter.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Clutter is anything that is in our home that no longer serves a purpose or is standing around in a place where it doesn't belong, so you might have things that you would class as clutter, but actually they're things you love, they're things you need. They just haven't gone back to where they should do, so they're cluttering up the space. We do, however, have other objects that no longer service, that we never, ever use, and they're standing around and cluttering up our space, and these two things are very, very different, and when you apply the Konmari method in your home, you are deciding what things serve you, what things spark joy for you, what things bring purpose to your life and to your family's life and that you need to keep, and anything else is then clutter that you can let go, and knowing what to do with that clutter before you even start the process makes it a whole lot easier to get started in the first place. I will give you an example of a lady who I have in my online membership. She actually lives in Brooklyn, new York, and she had messaged me one day and said that she had gone through her clothes, she'd made decisions about what to get rid of and she had a couple of trash bags full of clothes, but now they were standing in her hallway and they were taking up space, and the only thing she could think to do was actually to ring for a taxi and take a taxi to somewhere where she could donate it. Now that extra step of having to do that just complicates everything and makes you think like you can't be bothered and I might as well just hang on to the stuff. And when do you ever have time to call a taxi and actually do that trip? Because it means going out of your way, from what your normal routine is, and the danger is that things just end up getting left there in the hallway and then they really start to annoy you. So I actually asked around in a network of professional organisers that I'm in. I said who's in Brooklyn, new York, and can help me out? I have a lady who's wanting to donate some clothes Does anyone know of a pickup service? And within a few minutes someone had responded and said yeah, she needs to contact this church. They have a pickup service. They're just around the corner from her. They will come and collect it. And she did make that call and within a few days the clothes had been picked up and removed from her apartment. So had she known that before she even started, it would have made the whole process a little calmer and easier. As it happens, we found a solution, so that was great. But had I not been able to find that contact, the danger is that those bags could have been left standing in her hallway for a very long time.

Speaker 1: 7:36

So knowing what you're going to do before you start on any of your categories. So where are you going to be able to donate or sell clothes? What are you going to do with books that you decide you no longer want to keep? What are you going to do with papers that you no longer want to keep, especially those ones that perhaps need to be disposed of in a safe way because they have personal information on them? And then you have your kimono categories. What are you going to do with items from the kitchen or from the basement, or children's toys, or old CDs and DVDs? Where are all these things going to go when you've decided you no longer want to keep them? And then, finally, sentimental items.

Speaker 1: 8:18

Knowing this in advance is a huge benefit to your ability to declutter. So let's go through now the different ways you can get rid of items from your home, that you can let them go with gratitude, and that knowing in advance what you're going to be doing will just make that whole journey a lot easier. So one of the things you can do is you can donate unwanted items to local charities or organisations. You can look on the internet and find out what is local to you, and you can perhaps choose an organization or a charity that is close to your heart. So if you have something in particular that you want to support, you can try and make sure that your donations go there. So what impact does this have?

Speaker 1: 9:10

Normally, when we're donating items to a charity or an organization, they are going to sell them on to make money. There are two parts to that. First of all, the organization itself is going to then, from your donated belongings, get funds, which is fantastic. But the second thing is which I don't think we really think about enough is that when we let something go because it no longer sparks joy for us, it absolutely will for someone else, and I have seen this on many occasions when I have brought donations to the local center where I donate, when I've been to one of my clients and they've given me things to donate. It's always so amazing to see how the people that are in there looking for things get really excited that I've brought new stuff in and they'll be going oh look at this, isn't this great. And by the time I finish sorting out the things I've brought to donate, there's always someone walking out having bought something. So you have created the possibility for joy for someone else and also the fact that someone that perhaps can't afford to buy that item at a new price has managed to get something that they really value second hand. So donating with purpose is important for both the community and also for the environment.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Okay, another thing that you can do in order to get the clutter moving out of your house is something I've personally never done, but I've heard from friends who have done it, and that is having a swapping party, perhaps for clothes or children's toys, where you bring your things along and everyone else brings their things along, and then you have a bit of a swap. There is a danger to this, and the danger is that you will end up taking something because you feel you should, even though you don't necessarily love it. So be really careful, if you do go to a swap party, that you don't take things just for the sake of it. Having said that, swapping amongst friends with children's toys and games is a really good idea, even if you end up getting them back at a later date. It means there's a circulation of things going around, so your kids are being exposed to things they haven't seen before, and your friends kids as well, and then it can sort of move on through other families and then eventually you get your stuff back again and then you can decide what you want to do with it. So swapping is great. Just be really careful that you don't end up taking things you don't really need. Now, when it comes to swapping, one other thing that you could do is ask friends if they need the item that you are wanting to get rid of.

Speaker 1: 12:11

I had a very spooky experience recently where I'd gone round to some friends. They wanted to show me some building work they'd been having done at the top of their house, and in Germany it gets very, very hot under the roof. So if you've got a bedroom under the roof in the summer it gets so hot. But my daughter's bedroom last year was unbearable. She ended up having to sleep in the basement for a couple of weeks. So they were showing me their building work and their renovations they'd done at the top of the house and standing, there was a free-standing air conditioning unit and I said to my friends oh, I need to get one of these for my daughter's room. We've been thinking about this, it's just so hot in the summer. And they said well, actually we're wanting to sell this. We don't need it anymore, it's taking up too much space. We've decided to sell it. If you would like it, you can have it. And they gave it to me. I tried to give them some money for it, but they wouldn't have it. They were just so glad to be rid of this bulky item that they didn't want anymore and to know that it was going to a good home and it was going to get used.

Speaker 1: 13:14

So always ask around. You never know. Someone that you know might need the item that you're wanting to get rid of, and this is especially true when it comes to things like kitchen equipment. So there's this social aspect of swapping and the opportunity to find new homes for items that are no longer serving you. Okay, next tip upcycle and repurpose.

Speaker 1: 13:37

There is a danger to this one too. If you have an item and you're thinking to yourself, hmm, I don't need this anymore, but what else could I use it for, and you upcycle it or you repurpose it. You may end up hanging onto something that really you don't need, but you feel like you should breathe new life into it and new functionality. If that genuinely is the case, then that's fantastic. But if you're just doing it for the sake of keeping the item and trying to find another way of using it because it's no longer serving its purpose as it was, then I really think you would be better off donating it.

Speaker 1: 14:16

I have someone who is in my membership and she was sharing with us that they have in their apartment a baby bed that her mother-in-law had given to them because she wanted them to have it, and they didn't particularly need it or want it, but didn't want to offend her by getting rid of it and they've actually turned it into somewhere to keep plants, so it's got lots of plants in it. It's standing in the room and is used as a glorified plant pot, I guess. So that's a really good way of repurposing something, but otherwise, be really careful about holding on to things for the sake of holding on to. And then my next tip would be to sell for profit. You can these days very easily, with the power of the internet, sell things that you no longer need. There are Facebook groups, there are things like eBay, there are apps that you can use to sell stuff. There are so many different online platforms where you can sell, like Vintage and things like that.

Speaker 1: 15:24

This does, however, come with a word of warning. A very good friend of mine nearly got bitten the other week because she was selling some shoes that she decided she no longer needed. A guy got in touch with her and said he would come and collect them. He was going to pick them up for his wife and it turned out to be a scam and he was trying to use her PayPal to get her to give him money. Luckily, she clicked to what he was doing and managed to avoid the scam. But you do need to be really careful. It's really sad that people are doing this, but I think it pays to be aware that these people are out there and this can happen, so just be extra vigilant. If they start asking you for your details for PayPal or asking you to put money on, then just be really careful of that.

Speaker 1: 16:16

And another thing to bear in mind if you're selling things is there is quite a lot of work involved in it. You have to photograph the item, you have to write a good description. You then have to communicate with the people that are wanting to buy it and potentially then either have them come to your home and collect the item or you have to pack it up and take it to the post. Either way there is work involved. So unless the monetary value of the item is high enough that it is worth you putting all that effort in, then I would consider selling on local Facebook group platforms or donating.

Speaker 1: 16:56

If you really want to avoid the work that goes with it, you really need to be sure you're going to get a reasonable amount of money for something to warrant you putting the effort into it. That said, if you do put the effort in for a high value item or even for, for example, books, I had a client who we used an app for selling second hand books in Germany and by the time I had finished scanning the books through for her, we had made around 140 euros for her in second hand books. So she was joy checking. If she wanted to let it go with gratitude, I was scanning it and if it was taken, then it went in a box to be sold and if not, it went in a box to donate, and we did that for quite a few hours, going through them all and ended up making her quite a bit of money. So it is worth selling if you have got a relatively easy way of doing it, but just bear in mind the fact that you have got a bit of work involved For things like clothes.

Speaker 1: 18:02

If you've got very high-end clothes, you may have a local second-hand shop that sells them for you and will take some commission, and then at least you can drop things off in bulk and then they will let you know if they've managed to sell anything. Okay, and my final tip to get clutter out of the house is, where possible, if you can't sell the item, if you can't donate it, and if none of your friends want to take it off there, off your hands, then you really need to look at recycling responsibly, because there are things that you really can't donate. So, for example, if you've got a T-shirt and it's got a massive stain on it, you can't donate that. Someone isn't gonna want to buy it if it's got a massive stain on it. So something like that is going to have to be disposed of. But then you can look at how you dispose it? Do you have a local collection point for textiles where they will be recycled? If you've got glass items, can it go into the glass recycling? Paper stuff can go into paper recycling CDs, dvds, that sort of thing, batteries you need to make sure that they're disposed of appropriately. In Germany we have special places that we can take those things. The only thing that should come into your general rubbish is really things that are completely broken and don't belong to a category that can be recycled. I personally think it is so, so important that we do not fill up the landfill with things just because we don't want them in our home anymore.

Speaker 1: 19:44

You have got options. You can donate, you could try swapping with people, you can try selling things. You could upcycle and repurpose, or you can recycle responsibly. These are all ways to quickly get your clutter out of the home once you have made the decision that you no longer want to keep them. So I hope this has been helpful to you. I hope it's helped you realize that you don't need to have bags of things that you no longer want to keep Cluttering up your hallways and your cellars and your spare bedroom. Wherever it is that the stuff gets put in the hope that it's magically going to find its way out of your home. Be clever, do the homework beforehand, make sure you know where these things are going to go, and it will make your decluttering much quicker and make your life so much easier.

Speaker 1: 20:46

Now, if you would love to have more tips on all things to do with decluttering and organizing, I would love to invite you to my three day workshop.

Speaker 1: 20:57

You can join following the link in the show notes or go to caroline-thorcom forward slash workshop the middle of March 2024. I cannot wait to meet you and see you there. I'm doing it in Zoom so that I can see your lovely faces. The reason I'm doing the workshop over three days is because I want to make sure it's accessible to as many people as possible and as much fun as possible. There is going to be prizes, there's going to be raffles. I would love to have you there, so sign up and hopefully I will get to meet you very soon. Until next time, if you've enjoyed this episode, please send the link to a friend you know would appreciate it, subscribe and leave a review. I look forward to bringing you more organizing tips next time, but if you can't wait until then, you can go to my website or find me on Instagram, at carothor, or on Facebook, at carolineorganiser. Thanks for listening and I look forward to guiding you on your journey to find your clutter-free ever after.