5 Ways to un-hoard your House

There are some of us who opt for sparse and simple surroundings: less is more kind of people, the minimalists of the world. Walking into their homes feels like taking a deep breath. It is calming and the eye is drawn to the few well-placed furnishings on display.

Then there are the rest of us: the people who don’t throw anything away; the folk who can’t bear to part with our accumulated treasures. Walking into our homes evokes a chaotic, cosy, colourful, what do I look at first, kind of feeling. And in the case of more serious hoarders: how can I walk across this room without knocking into something?

When clutter begins to take over your home you need to do something. And what that something is depends on your personality and your circumstances. If you are an “I cannot part with it’ type of person or if you are considering moving to a bigger place, than using a storage facility is the answer for you. There are some really good options out there, like a Fort Knox storage unit, which allows you to hire the amount of space you need, for the amount of time you need, be it long or short term. You still have your stuff, its safe because of their excellent security and you have room to move in your home. It really is an excellent solution. Or you can give away or sell your extra belongings.

The most important thing you can to do is to make the decision to un-hoard. And stick to it!

Tips for pain-free un-hoarding

Un-hoarding doesn’t have to be horrible. Here are some really helpful guidelines to make the job of de-cluttering simple and relatively stress-free.

Step 1: Decide what you can do without – Take your time and think about what you use, what makes life easier for you and your family and what things you find particularly beautiful to have around. Consider getting rid of anything that doesn’t fit into these criteria. This is particularly easy if you are using a storage facility to keep your stuff and not having to say the big goodbye to it, because if you miss it you can bring it back.

Step 2: Practice having space – Try living in your space minus the extras. Simply take some of the excess stuff out of a room and put it in another room for a day or two and feel the difference. This can be a very liberating experience as you begin to get real joy out of having extra space; you may also find the room feels re-energized and more flowing.

Step 3: If you like it, make it permanent – You can take out and put back in until you feel really comfortable with the final layout of your room. Once you have the right look and feel for you, make it permanent. Sell, give away or store the items you will no longer be using.

Step 4:  Move to the next room – Once you start this process you make well find it becomes addictive. Once you have applied the principles of un-hoarding to one room, move on to the next, and the next. If you do this one room at a time, the process is less stressful and threatening. Change, one room at a time, is do-able by most hoarders.

Step 5: Enjoy your new space – Once you have finished, you will feel as if you have a whole new home. Now is the time to enjoy the feeling of having space; room to move; calm instead of chaos.

One word of warning: don’t go out and buy more clutter to fill up the empty spaces! Unless of course it’s with something you simply must have, can’t possibly do without!