Clutter Personalities

According to Geralin Thomas, a clutter expert who appeared on the Nate Berkus Show there are 5 Clutter Personalities. These are people that are;

1. easily distracted - starts on one pile, then goes onto the next without fully resolving anything
2. procrastinators - would rather do other things than sort and organise their space
3. bargain shoppers - can't pass up a bargain, even if they don't need the item
4. sentimental - feels guilty letting anything go
5. perfectionists - hesitant to do anything unless it's done absolutely perfectly. They tend to paralyse themselves.

As an organiser, I think it's important that people recognise which type of clutter personality they may be, as this will give valuable insight as to why they have clutter. Once you realise why you have it, you can focus on solutions to get on top of it and also stop bringing the clutter into your space in the future.

Regardless of the personality type, the best way to get started even if you only have a day is to go for 'good enough'. Realise that you probably didn't get into this situation overnight and it's not going to be undone in a few hours. Pick one area, maybe its collecting all paperwork from around your home or office and put it in one place to sort through. Then continue on with this, e.g. all clothing, toys, recycling etc. Put it in the appropriate room, then sort from there.

Getting organised is usually a marathon, not a sprint!

Restyling on a budget

Creative Surrounds was recently featured in an article in the property section of the Northern District Times and Hornsby Advocate. The premise of the editorial was about styling your home for sale on a budget and I wanted to summarise a few of the points here;

1) Decluttering is key! A realestate.com.au survey showed that 56% of house hunters are turned off by clutter.
2) Think about your potential buyer. If you have a small apartment, it's possibly going to be young professional couples looking so set up a table/chairs on the balcony where they can envisage having a morning coffee. If you have a 3/4 bedroom house, it's probably going to be families looking to purchase so ensure you have lots of open space and don't fill up storage areas.
3) Flooring. If your carpet is tired looking, investigate if you have floorboards underneath. It's a minimal investment which you will benefit from at sale time.
4) Don't forget curb appeal! This is people's first impression. Mow the lawn, trim back the trees and shrubs. Plant some colourful flowers.

For the full article, go to the News page at the Creative Surrounds website at http://www.creativesurrounds.com.au/

Enemies of an Organised Space

The more I'm invited into people's spaces to resolve their clutter issues, the more patterns I see. There seem to be 3 main enemies to getting organised;

1) Flat surfaces - Cupboards, shelves, sideboards, dining tables etc. When people use an item or come home with something new, it's too easy to get into the habit of putting it on the nearest flat surface and dealing with it 'later'. Before you bring home new items, you need to think about where it's going to go. If it doesn't have a home, maybe it shouldn't come into the house?

2) Too much storage - This probably sounds odd, but ultimately the more storage you have, the more you'll accumulate. Instead of buying more storage containers, pair down what you currently own to make space.

3) And now that I've said 'too much storage' the other issue is 'not enough storage'. I'm shocked at how many homes don't have linen closets. This usually results in people stashing linen in completely obscure rooms. I would suggest either purchasing a nice chest of drawers for a hall area or somewhere central and storing all the linen there. Otherwise, you can utilise high shelves in the wardrobe of each room and store the linen for that room in that room.