TIDYING
If you want to feel more calm and serene in your home, it could be time for a spring declutter, says organisation expert Diana Spellman.
DOES THE MESS IN YOUR home cause you anxiety? It did for me and caused what I now call “mess stress”. I couldn’t relax on my time off because I was constantly thinking I should be sorting things out. It affected my ability to enjoy time with my family. Either I tidied – meaning I felt guilty about the time away from my family – or I didn’t do it and then couldn’t relax and enjoy the time with my family. Lose-lose.
Truth be told I like to be tidy; I like things off my surfaces and looking good. Having lived overseas for 12 years and moved house multiple times – at one point I packed and unpacked eight times in five years – I was pretty clutter free. I kept control of the clutter during those years away.
But moving back to the UK eight years ago and settling into life where I could buy something and know I’d have it for as long as I wanted, and more room to put things, the piles started to build.
People had naturally assumed before that I was super tidy because I was a global programme manager in my corporate contract role and pretty organised. Surely I must be organised at home too? Not so. Since returning to the UK, I’ve worked from home in various roles. In some ways, it’s been fantastic as I could do the school run in five minutes, but because my work was full on and required massive attention and focus, my day zipped by and I had not a millisecond bet ween stopping work and picking up my children. There was no time for tidying unless I used part of my work time or what was meant to be relaxation time, and then I’d have resentment about that. And I didn’t want to be using my weekend as I wanted to spend time with my family. Something had to give – or change.
CREATE A HOME FOR EVERYTHING
There are usually two types of things on sur faces: those linked to an activity you did, i.e. cooking, paper work or a craft activity, and those you’ve plonked down mindlessly when you got home. You needn’t stop all activities, but the key is to know exactly where each item lives so you can tidy up super-fast. Our kitchen table used to be covered, but it now takes me two minutes to get back to tidy at the end of each day because each thing has a home so I never have to think about where it goes. Pick a few commonly used items and decide their “end homes”. For example, get a basket to house your handbag; next time you go out, take it from that basket and – the important bit – put it back there after wards, bypassing the kitchen worktop.
