How decluttering services in Sydney could brighten up your home – and your life

The Sydney declutter challenge

Have you ever totted up the total number of items in a single room at your home? How about the contents of a wardrobe?

A good place to start is the kitchen drawer. You may be surprised to find that once you’ve added up the various gadgets you have amassed over the years, a single drawer can contain hundreds of items.

All over Sydney, people are waking up to the idea that they are cluttering their homes with stuff they don’t need. The Sydney Morning Herald recently said the pantry was a good place to start decluttering – but you can begin anywhere.

And with property sizes in the city getting smaller by the year to accommodate the ever-expanding population, there has never been a better time to start.

Common clutter issues in urban living

Everything comes down to space. Or lack thereof it. When you buy or rent a property, it is usually empty when you move in. You install the things you’ve gathered, and then with every passing year, you keep adding new stuff.

You don’t even realise you’re doing it. A couple of things from a yard sale here, a splurge at the local shopping centre there. If Australia is anything like the United States, the average house could have as many as 300,000 individual items inside it.

The fact is, urban life just isn’t built for so much stuff.

The emotional side of clutter

House clutter in Sydney isn’t always easy to deal with. That’s because we often develop an emotional attachment to the things we have bought or been gifted.

Who has the heart to throw out the AC/DC album that Grandad bought you in 1989? Or your first Christmas gift from your daughter?

One of the biggest offenders when it comes to the emotional side of clutter is baby clothes. Many people in their 50s and 60s have a box or two containing dozens of clothes their children wore when they were toddlers. Throwing them away seems unforgivable.

Another issue is your perceived value of items you might want to sell. That $5,000 home cinema system you bought 10 years ago is still worth $2,000 – in your head. When you list it on Facebook and find there is little interest even at $500, it just seems better to keep it.

Benefits of decluttering

Decluttering comes with many benefits. If you can sell unused items – at any cost – it’s all cash in the bank.

Decluttering your Sydney home also means your children or grandchildren won’t need to do it when you’ve moved on to the great beyond. Sure, that’s morbid – but it’s worth thinking about!

When you work out how to deal with clutter, you’ll have more space and less mess. It will enable you to really enjoy your living space – and may help you simplify daily routines because you no longer have to rifle through things to find what you need.

As a result, a decluttered home can improve mental well-being.

Quite simply, what’s not to like?

How to start decluttering your home

Remember that decluttering doesn’t necessarily mean throwing away. When people want more space in their homes but want to hang onto their goods, they often rent self storage. Self storage in Sydney is popular – and there are a number of options locally.

However you want to declutter, one way to begin is the room-by-room approach. Start with your simplest or most challenging room – and see how you get on.

A common sorting technique is keep, donate, discard. Arranging your items into three piles will help speed up the decluttering process.

If you are decluttering because you are moving home, then obviously, the clock is ticking, and you will need to act fast to ensure your big sort-out is completed before your move.

But if you are simply decluttering as an exercise in tidying up your life, set a realistic time frame so that the process won’t be a frantic, stressful rush.

Popular decluttering methods

Over the past few years, decluttering has emerged as something of a science. One of the most popular methods is the KonMari technique.

Developed by the celebrated Japanese declutterer Marie Kondo, this method is based around the idea that you should only keep items that spark joy.

Another method is the 80/20 approach, in which you aim to get rid of the 80% of the items you use the least. The fact is, we probably do only use a fifth of the things we own regularly; the rest is mostly surplus.

If the idea of decluttering fills you with dread, a simpler approach is to adopt the one-in-one-out rule.

This stipulates that for everything you bring home, you now have to throw something away. It’s much easier than attacking your entire inventory in one go.

DIY decluttering vs. professional help

A common fear when hiring a decluttering expert is that they will start throwing away all your precious items. It doesn’t work that way. Think of your expert as more of an ally (a life coach, even), forcing you to think hard about what you want to keep.

The final decision on what you hang on to and what you get rid of should always be yours.

Working with a professional declutterer can be a great way to force yourself into action. However, if you are self-motivated, a decluttering journey can certainly be taken alone.

If it goes badly and you find that you are a poor “editor” of your stuff, you can always seek help from an expert to keep things on track.

Choosing a decluttering service in Sydney

Experience counts for a lot when working as a decluttering specialist. Professionals with good credentials and a strong track record stand out when searching for a decluttering service in Sydney.

The websites of Sort by Sarah and My Curated Life feature prominently on Google search. They cover the Sydney area and offer everything from wardrobe organisation to comprehensive decluttering services.

Decluttering professionals sometimes charge by the hour or offer package pricing. Some will also offer project-based quotes after visiting your property.

As with any service business, a good way to test the water would be to hire your expert for a few hours for an initial getting-to-know-you experience.

If possible, check out their testimonials and online reviews – or ask for references when making an initial enquiry.

Key questions before making your decision include:

• What are your rates?
• What method of decluttering do you use?
• Will you be doing the work yourself, or will somebody else be coming into my home?
• What happens to the items we choose to discard?
• Do you offer strategies and tips for better organisation in the long term?

Sustainable decluttering practices

The worst thing you can do when decluttering is throw your items away.

Of course, some things are beyond repair or reuse and must be rejected. However, if you can find a charitable organisation willing to take the good stuff to reuse or resell, your decluttering experience will be both sustainable and imbued with a feel-good factor.

Not all charity shops are open to large donations of random stuff, however.

Another way to ensure that items get a second life is to hold a yard sale or give away items to friends. It is easy to create a free website on Wix, for example, listing everything you want to get rid of.

If you have large quantities of items destined for the scrap heap, it makes sense to sort items into the correct recycling piles when you are doing your initial cull. It will save the pain of having to go through everything again a second time.

Maintaining a clutter-free home

Decluttering can either be painful or liberating. It is impossible to know until you have tried it. However, one way to get things off to a strong start is to visualise your home after the decluttering exercise before you begin. This gives you a positive image to aim for.

Once your home is free of the items that were taking up valuable space, it makes sense to adjust your lifestyle so that the whole decluttering process doesn’t start all over again a decade down the line.

The one-in-one-out method mentioned earlier can serve you well here, as will a newfound understanding of the need to only buy items that are useful. The new you may be much more inclined to keep your spending in check than the old version who used to buy things without thinking about it.

Also, from a philosophical standpoint, isn’t it better to save your dollars for something worthwhile – such as exploring the world?

Mindful shopping and consumption tend to come naturally after a serious decluttering session. The whole experience can be great for your mental health. The environment, too.

If, however, you find that the buzz you get from shopping is too great to ignore, then who are we to judge? Simply adopt a more structured approach to storage and organisation so you are not back at square one in a year or two.

Conclusion: take the first step towards a tidy home

Every homeowner or renter in Sydney basically has three choices. Carry on as they are; streamline their stash of belongings and put some items in self storage in Sydney; or clear out things no longer needed so they can be sold, discarded, or given away.

The benefits of a clutter-free home are obvious: less mess, more space, and potentially a better sense of harmony in the home.

Perhaps the best way to begin is to start small.

Empty out the kitchen drawer – and see if you get a taste for it.

Next stop: the whole kitchen. Your whole house will be decluttered before you know it.

Get the clutter-free home you deserve – start comparing professional decluttering services in Sydney today.