Let me show you around my loft and introduce you to the inspiring clients who generously gave me permission
to share with you the process of converting their Rooms of Doom into Ace Spaces.
Let's start with my loft
and if you think you're about to see a perfect example of a Professional Organiser's loft, think again!
Let's start here.
Here we have a brand new toilet seat and cover.
Can't quite remember how I ended up with that. It's to do with when I did the bathroom up, which is years ago.
But it's never been used. That is - ah, so there's quite a lot of empty boxes from things I've bought and some of them I keep.
So if it's a big ticket item and there's any chance that it might need to go back to the shop.
So, you know, if it's within warranty and it needs to be returned, I'll keep the box for that reason,
since I have got the space.
OK, this is oh, that's kind of travelling, camping kind of stuff.
Oh, gosh, that's craft stuff from crafts that
I haven't done in bazillions of years. What we got here?
That's the top of my shredder, which I don't use anymore because I burn confidenctial waste but I don't think I'll be getting rid of it.
We've got various bits and pieces. That's kind of dressing up stuff.
That's bits of shelving.
So there's kind of bits, other bits up here that are kind of parts of the house that, you know, in
case I ever need to replace anything: bits of shelving; there's spindles down there for the stair rails.
Oh, those are spare bits for my bed.
So that's probably sensible to keep. Boxes, boxes.
You see, I don't even know what that is.
That's some kind of extension.
flex. When I declutter the loft, I will examine what that is. Yeah, bits of the house, bits of the house really. Can you see
over there? Can you see the luggage?
Can I see my hand?
Yeah, so that's my suitcases. That's my, kind of roughly, my luggage corner: suitcases and rucksacks and things like
that. ?There's a box of camping stuff here.
This is computer boxes.
There's a memento box down there, like a memory box. There's some empty boxes over there which is just because
they could be useful.
This is my camping map, my sleeping bag, which you're supposed to store inflated like this so it's quite handy that
I can store it up here, completely inflated. That's a box of rags.
So next time I - so what I do with rags: I put them in a bag to go to the charity shop and let it build up
and then when I declutter that area of the loft, I take it to the charity shop so that's going to be going when I do the
declutter.
Over here you can see masses of cardboard.
Now, the reason for keeping that is because I have a wormery and I put cardboard in the wormery.
It helps - it's composting, you know - and it helps it all to break down nicely and
not get too wet.
So it's quite useful. There's quite a lot of it, but it's not doing any harm up there so I'll probably keep it.
OK, what I'm going to do now is move the camera - move the phone.
These are Christmas decorations, Christmas tree things. This is decorating material. Can you see that?
Yep.
That's all my spare paints and everything,
very well sealed, labeled so I know which room they relate to etc. Under
there is some boxes that I'm storing for a friend because I've got the space and she hasn't.
And this is a similar kind of recycling thing.
I recycle plastics but I need to have, I think it's, at least three of these bags full before they'll do a pick up
and I've only got two so far. So every time I get enough, t hen I can get them recycled.
In the meantime, they live in the loft.
Here is all my CDs and records because I finally got around to getting rid of my stereo some years
ago and replacing it with a Bluetooth speaker.
So now I haven't even got anything to play these things on, but I couldn't bring myself to part with them
so I bunged them in the loft and they are really going to have to go.
And can I just say, it was not a good place to put records because of the temperature changes in the loft.
I think they're alright. I checked on them recently, but I really need to sell them.
So that's going to be part of the task.
And this is a water butt, which I got off Freegle because my water butt doesn't have a proper lid.
It's got a kind of made up lid
so that it's covered, but it's not a proper lid.
So I got it off Freegle thinking, "Well, might be a good idea" and now I can't remember -
that was years ago and, for some reason, I've never had it installed. Probably because it would be quite
an expensive job to get a plumber to do.
I can't actually remember.
I think I did speak about it with the plumber, but I can't remember the ins and outs of that.
So what needs to happen there is I need to speak to the plumber again and decide whether or not I'm going
to use that? And if
I'm not going to use it,
I really need to get it back, get rid of it, put it back on Freegle, which is a nightmare because we had to take the ladder off
to get it out of the
hatch.
Don't acquire things unless you're definitely going to use them. So I think that is pretty much the contents of
my loft.
I'm here with Rachel.
Hi, Rachel.
Hi, Rachel. Hi. Hi.
Two Rachels.
And we are going to declutter Rachel's shed today.
Thank you so much for doing this.
Great. I'm really looking forward to it. Tell me about your shed.
Well, it came with the house, and I've been at the house now for 20 years.
And I think there's probably stuff in there that actually, I don't even know
is there from when, you know, when I first moved in. I've certainly added to that over the years.
And I just think it's a shame because I've got this lovely space outside and I'm not using it.
And it would be really, really good to be able to put furniture in which I don't put in, and things get tired, which probably could
be looked after a lot better if they were in the shed.
So yes, I'm looking forward to creating a whole new area to put things in. So you used to keep stuff
in it
but it's got out of hand and now you can't really put things in anymore. Yes, absolutely. I don't even know what's in there and I don't even look in there anymore.
It's actually got to the point where I just: the door stays shut.
Ah perfect. Yes,
that's perfect for a decluttering session.
It's not actually a massive shed. We'll go and have a look at it in a second. We're going to be well togged up.
We're gonna have our gloves on and good sensible shoes
and shall we go out and have a look at the shed? Ooh, OK, ooh, let's go. Let's do it!
This is Linda.
Linda, why don't you tell us why we're clearing your loft?
Okay.
Well we're leaving to live our campervan and travel around Europe and we need to rent the house out
but we need to get rid of the stuff in order to rent the house out.
And it's very full of stuff.
A lack of decision-making has meant that we've just thrown it up here. (Cos you were going to keep this
loft empty, weren't you?) And we were going to keep it empty.
In fact, when we first lived this loft, we'd sit up here with friends and I thought it was just a great room. It
was lovely, and now it's a complete mess.
Looks like a hoarder's paradise.
(And it's not just the loft, is it? You've got to
get the whole house clear and you've got a week to do it in. So in a week,
the first storage container needs to be filled with the stuff to go into storage,
and then the painters are coming to decorate the house so that it can be rented out).
Yeah.
So I'm here to help Linda work on the loft and also other areas of the house.
This is Alex and Alex has kindly agreed to let me show you his garage as part of the course.
Thank you so much, Alex.
No, it's my pleasure and I'm sure it's going to be great fun.
I hope so.
We're not actually going to declutter Alex's garage as part of the course but
I wanted to show it to you because it's a good example of the kind of situations that arise with garages
and some of the challenges that people face when decluterring them.
Alex, tell me, how do you tend to use your garage?
Well, primarily it's a workshop but it's also a storage space and everything in the house comes here and it's
sort of like a limbo space.
Things just come here and never leave.
So it's a place to keep stuff.
Yeah.
So stuff that might be a bit grubby and you don't want to keep in the house?
Yeah.
Everything you put in your attic is now in my garage.
Oh right, OK?
So is there stuff in your attic as well? No, the attic's actually empty. OK so the attic's clear! That's good. Yeah.
But it's meant to be a workshop.
Yes.
So there's no space to actually work in the shop.
OK. So it's kind of got a dual purpose.
It's like storage for grubby things. Well maybe three purposes. It's like storage for grubby things, it's a bit of a limbo - stuff comes in here if its
not really sure how long you're going to keep it for etc
Yeah but primarily it's meant to be a workshop.
And that purpose is getting undermined by the other things.
Definitely.
OK. All right.
That's really interesting.
Let's have a go round the garage and look individually at each item. Where do you want to start? Let's start in the foreground. Yeah, let's start with the stuff that taking up quite a lot of the foreground
of the picture. I don't know if you can see.
What is this, Alex?
Well, this is insulated board. It's put in walls to keep thermally insulated walls. It's going to go, but
it's not gone yet.
Is storing it for a friend.
So you found this abandoned?
Yeah.
And you knew your friend would be able to use it.
Yes.
You've housed it. Yes.
Does your friend know?
Well he knows it's coming to him
but I don't have a big enough vehicle to give it to him yet. So is there - like, do you know how it's going to happen and when it's going to happen?
I'm looking to get it done by the end of the summer
but there's a good chance it's not going to happen for another couple of months.
Right.
But it'll happen in a couple of months (hopefully, yeah) so it's not taken up residence. (No, no). It's just here a bit longer than you hoped it would be.
Well, yeah.
This is the storage.
Basically, yeah.
Yes.
Exactly what you said.
But I mean, it's not just this. There are a couple of other things that - it'll be a lot tidier when I get the van to move it.
All this stuff'll move. OK. Great.
OK, let's move on.
What else have we got in here? Going round.
A nice ladder, my ladder, my access equipment's here. Also this stuff here, behind me, all this is, again, a gift. It's underlay.
It's polythene sheets that have all been reclaimed.
It's going in the van. All these stuff. So actually, what these are - what I
always say on my videos, what I'm always teaching people, is that all clutter is one of two things.
It's either an unfinished task or it's a deferred decision.
Yes.
Something that you've put off making a decision about.
So these are incomplete tasks. They need to be delivered to your friend but that hasn't happened yet. Perfect. Exactly. That's it,
yeah. Whereas
the ladder:
(that stays, yeah) that lives here and it's a good place to store it and that's working. OK, go on. Over the back,
you've got a nice shelving array with all these pots of paint.
It was here when I moved in. What, the shelves? And the paint. Oh, and the paint! So all the paint correlates to the paint that's
in the house.
I've not decorated. Luckily the paint pots correlate to the rooms. And are they all well sealed?
Do you know they're in good condition? I have no idea. I haven't looked. They could be destroyed
but they still live here because I haven't got round to - So actually there's an incomplete task there, or even a deferred decision. It
would be worth, in order to make some space, checking those paints, make sure that they're actually worth
keeping
and that they haven't all gone hard inside.
It might be that some of them go, well, for proper disposal
Yeah.
and you'd make a bit of space.
That would be good.
Yeah.
OK great. What else have we got? Well, we've got
a really tasty toilet seat (oh I've got one of them!). Yeah, I know. This one's been used but I didn't want to get rid of it cos it's such good quality.
Always good to have a spare toilet seat!
Well yes, but how long do I keep a toilet seat?
And then, moving round, I've got gardening stuff
here,
pots and tools and things.
This is the workbench. It's stored equipment. Most of this ties in with my skills, my job.
So it's stuff I can reuse.
But again, there's no space to store it because the storage space is taken up with paint. So that's a really perfect example. So this is your workbench, here? (Yeah). But
you can't use your workbench at the moment because it's got stuff on it and there's nowhere else to put the stuff.
So actually what we were saying about the paints, should you go through the paint -
I mean, hopefully of course, they're all in good a condition, but if you go through and they're not, and you're able to make some space on those
shelves, you could move some of the stuff off here
and your workbench would be available.
Oh yeah, yeah. Great. Yeah.
This is a filing cabinet.
Obviously for storing stuff
in. Again, it's full of junk. What sort of junk? Paper junk? Or other junk? Well I don't know. Let's see. That would seem to be electrical junk.
And this is bits and bobs.
That's a drawer full of bits and bobs. I know where they are.
And this ones books and diaries and work-related documents that I need to keep for seven years. OK.
And at the bottom, that's bird feed.
And you can't get into that because what's this? Ah that's wood that's going to go to my- I don't know if you can see that. Ah, you
can't see it but in front of the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet is a crate of bits of timber.
Yeah.
And so what's the story with that? Again, that's a gift for somebody that's not left yet.
OK. So there's some wood that's going to go to a bonfire somewhere but it's not gone.
And how long do you think - how long's it been there?
It's been there for two or three weeks.
Oh not very long.
But it could have gone
straight there but I deferred it and put it in the storage.
So how long do you think that's likely to end up staying there realistically?
Good one! Probably,
Well, I'm going to try and - no longer than a week I'm trying to say.
OK. Well that's not so bad. And in the corner
I've just got my gardening tools.
All nicely, I know exactly where everything is. It's all nice and tidy.
So that's an example of my gardening stuff.
So how did you feel about it overall?
How do you feel when you think about your garage?
Well, I feel good because I've only got one point of storage, because my attic is clear. But I also
feel bad because it's so rammed with stuff, I can't actually use it for a workshop.
Yeah.
And how long - how long have you lived here? A bit over a year. OK, you've been here for
just over a year.
And when I moved in it was empty. Yeah! Ah well,
apart from the paints that you inherited. Apart from the paints I inherited. It's a good workshop
but it's got, now
it's got to the point that you can't use it as a workshop.
Do you feel that it's going to stay stuck there or are you confident that, in the reasonably near future,
the foreseeable future, you're gonna move these boards on, you're gonna move this timber on and you'll get it
so you can use it like a workshop again?
I'm feeling confident that, in the next six months, hopefully, this gifting stuff will be gone,
I'll have more space to swing a cat, if I had a cat, and I'll have a nice workshop space. I'm saying six months because
that's my target.
Yeah. Well that's brilliant!
And if I don't do that, it will take years to clear the space.
I mean, another thing that I'm noticing is that I think you're very aware of what the situation is.
So it's going to happen sometimes with a storage space that, sometimes, you end up a bit like, "Oh,
it's all got a bit out of hand", but it's not like you can't get back on top of it. It
(oh yeah) seems to me that yeah, OK,
it's got rather a lot of stufff it in at the moment, but it's a temporary (oh yes) situation.
Yes.
and you'll have it back to a workshop
(Yes) in the foreseeable future.
.
Thank you so much for showing us your garage, Alex.
No problem. Actually, with a little bit of tidying up, it would actually be a functional space again.
It really would.
I think that's the thing to take away from here.
You know, it's not crazy cluttered in there. Like you say, a little bit of decluttering, you'll have that worksurface
back and a really comfortable workshop. Brilliant.
Thank you so much. No problem.
Thank you.
This is Liz and we are going to declutter Liz' shed.
Thank you so much for doing this with us, Liz. That's alright. Thanks for coming.
So tell me about your shed. How long since you looked in it?
Well, I look in it twice a day. Oh do you? You use it.
Yeah
because I use it a lot for the animals, my rescue animals.
So, yeah, but it hasn't -
I used to do a declutter like every six months, but I haven't done one since last year and it's got a bit
out of control.
OK, so do you think most of the stuff in there just needs reorganizing or are we're going to get rid of
quite a lot of it? What do you reckon?
I think there is a lot of reorganizing.
There is some stuff I want to get rid of and I am very excited about seeing - being able to get to the
back of my shed, which has been a long time since I could. So before today,
how have you felt about the thought of decluttering the shed? Has it been overwhelming or
have you been okay it, just haven't got round to it? I just haven't got round to it
but it has become more overwhelming as more and more stuff has (makes sense) gone in there.
Oh OK. Yeah, it's a bit heaped up. It's not very funcational, is it? No. I want to be able to get the tools that are at the back of the shed, that I wanted to
use but couldn't face taking out all the stuff to get to them.
Yeah, I mean, that would take - that's going to take a fair bit of work to get to the back, isn't it? Yeah.
So things in there are not very accessible at the moment. And do you want to clean it out after we've got everything out of it? Yeah, definitely,
I need to sweep it all down
and yeah. It shouldn't take too long once everything's out. But the cleaning materials are in there, right? Yeah. Brushes and things are all in there.
Aren't those guys
fabulous?
As we go through the course, you'll see how they put into practice the hints and tips I'm going to
share with you and you'll be amazed at what they achieved.