Fiona Wilson on how to manage clutter
March 24, 2009
By John Francis Power
You know the story; we’ve all been guilty of it. Sure, you may not have worn that hideous floral shirt at the back of your wardrobe in years, but you wouldn’t dream of throwing it out. “It is of sentimental value!” you protest, ‘The design is coming back into fashion!”. Whether it be because of the memories an item may recall, a fear of upsetting friends and family who gave us gifts or just sheer laziness, most of us horde an incredible amount of stuff we don’t really need.
Such a tendency to hold on to absolutely everything we ever buy or are given breeds clutter. As presenter of RTE’s Desperate Houses, Fiona Wilson, explains: “The most basic reason people clutter is because they have too many things. Buying new items and not throwing out anything means that you are constantly adding and adding to the problem. It can get to the point that you may not even know what you have and buy new items that you already have.”
And clutter can more than simply a nuisance - it can have a profoundly negative effect on people’s mental well-being. “Having a cluttered home affects people very deeply on many levels,” Fiona says. “The home can become unbearable for some people because the clutter has become overwhelming. It is always in the back of your mind that there is this big dark hole that needs to be dealt with but because it seems so overwhelming it is never done.”
According to Fiona, clutter can also play havoc with your social life. “People become trapped in their houses due to this. They are embarrassed to have friends over and after a period of time some people lose friends because their friends do not understand why they are never invited over.”
So once you have decided that you have a problem with clutter and want to address it, just where do you start? “The very first thing you must do is decide why you are doing it,” says Fiona. “Write a list and stick it to your wall to remind you of the reasons when you are in the middle of it and thinking you will never finish.” De-cluttering your home needn’t be an overly painful experience either. Involving the whole family is a great way to spread the work load and make the time go by a little quicker.
“It is really important that everyone is involved in the process, it gives ownership of the problem to all involved,” she says. “It can also make it a fun activity if you make it that way. Play music; get a pizza, lunch etcetera. Give a prize to the person who has gotten rid of the most old, unwanted ‘stuff’. Promise yourself one new outfit if you get rid of a bag of old clothes.”
Another suggestion Fiona has is to sort your clutter into four boxes, ‘to keep’, ‘to store’, ‘to donate’ and ‘to throw out’. This will make the process a lot more straight forward and stream-lined. “Remember, get it out of the house the same day you de-clutter,” stresses Fiona. “This is really important. If you don’t you will put it in your shed or your garage or your attic and will be back to square one.”
And what about those items lying around the house which are of sentimental value? Fiona recalls a client she had in a similar situation: “A client of mine would not get rid of her mother’s piano even though she never played it and it was out of tune. It took up a huge amount of space and was basically a massive picture shelf that collected dust. By framing a sheet of her mother’s music around a photograph of her mother she was emotionally able to let the piano go. She had the memory preserved of her mother and the piano and has not missed the piano once!”
“My personal motto for de-cluttering is ‘one in one out’,” adds Fiona. “If you bring something into the home throw something out. If you buy a new toaster don’t keep your old one ‘just in case’ the new one breaks down. Get it out of the house!”
When all that clutter clogging up your home and weighing you down is gone, you surely won’t regret taking that piece of advice on board.
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