Hello Green and Tidiers. I am here with Claire Davey again, from the UK Declutter
Buster Facebook group (you might have seen videos that we've made
together before) and we are taking advantage of this glorious spring day in
her back garden, on her new garden furniture today! It's rather lovely and we are going to look at sentimental
items, which is a type of clutter that a lot of people really struggle with.
My first question really was: what ARE sentimental items? I think it's a really good question!
Like, you could say that everything we own has got some kind of sentimental
value just because we own it. There's a really well recognized psychological
effect, called the endowment effect, which is that, as soon as we own something, it
becomes more valuable to us. I think I've talked about it on this group
before actually. They tested it with a experiment where they gave people either
a mug or a bar of chocolate and said they were worth the same amount of money
and then they offered them the opposite and, whether you're given the mug or the bar of chocolate, you
decide to keep that, even though it's exactly the same value as the other one because now it's mine so
it becomes more important to you. So, to some extent, everything's a sentimental item, isn't it?
And also it's easy to underestimate how much sentimental stuff you've got.
I recently made that video course on decluttering or organising sentimental items.
When I was making that course, until I started making it I really
thought that I would just have photos, letters, a couple of holiday souvenirs...
I didn't really think I had a lot of
sentimetal items. And then obviously I was working on the course over several
months and I would just see all these items.
I'd be like, "Oh yeah! And that. Oh yeah! And that. Oh yeah! And that".
Like items of clothing, items of jewelry, like - so much stuff - pictures on my wall, like just
pretty much kind of everything actually, you know, apart from the real
basics like my electric drill, you know, most of the stuff I've got was
given to me or it's associated with something kind of person or time or event or
memory and so it has some kind of sentimental value. So I think it's a really good point: what IS sentimental?
It's really tricky, isn't it, to think about how to declutter that kind of stuff.
Yeah. That's why I don't recommend doing sentimental items (I mean it's great to be doing this today but) that's
why I don't say to people work by theme like MK who's name shall not be mentioned but is very, very famous.
Yeah because she always recommends leaving that category to the end, doesn't she?
And I think that's very sensible advice because you need to kind of get in the
swing of it and not deal with something that's really tough to start off with. I think that's
great advice and obviously the method works for a lot of people so I'm
not knocking it. Great, get out there and do it. Whatever works for you, works.
Personally however, I find it easier to deal by area: to work by a drawer, a surface,
under a bed, whatever, rather than try and gather together all one
theme because if you - well for one thing, I think you might miss stuff. You might
not know where all that stuff is. For another, you'll end up - you might do a
great job on the sentimental stuff but the house won't look any different because
you took a bit from here and a bit from there and a bit from there.
It's always good to see your progress. Yeah exactly!
And then also when are you ever going to get around to the rest of the stuff in that
drawer? What if it doesn't obviously fit into one of these categories? How
are you gonna make sure you don't leave that out? So it just isn't
the way I would approach it. But obviously it works for a lot of people and that's fantastic.
I've always done it like you: just go by area and then you get the nice before and after.
Exactly! And you see gradual progress. You keep that area clear once you've cleared it and you can,
like a sort of wave through your house, you can go from clutter to order.
Yeah that is how I was approach it but, as I say, if it works for you, it works. Just do whatever works.
And today we're gonna go through this. Yeah, so this is a bit different cause obviously
it's not an area. I've gathered some things. So you've got some idea what's in it because you went round and
pulled everything out. Obviously, I've got no idea what we're gonna find but
Yeah so it's all different stuff that's, yeah, we'll see in
a minute when I pull it all out but yeah I just sort of went round the house
and thought. "Mmm. What IS a sentiment item?" and tried to find some things that would fit that.
So we'll go through one at a time. I'll say just one other thing before we start - advice to other people that might
be watching. If you do decide specifically to tackle sentimental items - I always say this
but particularly with sentimental items I really, really would
underestimate rather than overestimate how much you can get through because
inevitably being as they're sentimental items, they can bring up all sorts of emotions.
It could be quite uncomfortable at times . It could be quite
emotional. It could be quite emotionally exhausting. It might not be. It might be a
lovely experience but just go really easy on yourself. If you're gonna concentrate
specifically on sentimental items, take it easy: just a small amount at a time.
See how you go. You can always do a bit more if you feel like it but don't over commit
yourself and then feel like you're not able to finish it and feel completely wrung out.
Yeah. So would we tackle this
the same way as any other clutter with like recycle... Yeah, I mean obviously
it depends what we find but, yeah, I always say to divide it into
those categories. If you take all the stuff that you might ever
deal with, it's always going to be: keep it here; keep it somewhere else;
recycle it; or throw it away; there's an action to take in relation to it; or
you're not sure and you're gonna come back at the end. And everything falls
into one of those categories. Right, OK. So shall we start?!
So let's start. I'll let you take the first...