National Clear Your Clutter Day

The 1st National Clear Your Clutter Day was on Saturday 19th March 2016.

It was set up by Jasmine Birtles, the consumer champion and founder of MoneyMagpie.com.

The day was designed to encourage and help people all over the UK to declutter their homes and lives.

This year National Clear Your Clutter Day takes place on Saturday 11th March 2017.

So now is the time to declutter your homes and dig out all those unused items to sell, swap, upcycle, recycle or donate.

It is the perfect opportunity to raise some extra cash or to feel good about clearing out your home and giving items you no longer want to someone else.

Jasmine’s top tips for decluttering include:

• 1. Consider decluttering in a positive way – think of it as gaining space and freedom rather than getting rid of things
• 2. Take a room at a time – clear one room before you start with the next and go for the easiest room first. This will help to spur you on to declutter in other rooms
• 3. Enlist help – it is always more fun sorting things out with a friend or a member of the family. It will also encourage you to be more ruthless and avoid hanging onto things.
• 4. Use the 4 box rule – have 4 boxes marked ‘throw away’, ‘charity shop’, ‘sell’, ‘recycle’. Everything you decide not to keep should go into one of those boxes.

The ‘throw away’ one is easy just put it in your bin or take to the tip.

The ‘charity shop’ one take to your favourite charity shop, remembering to give them your name and postcode so that they can gift aid it.

The stuff to recycle could be decorated or re-packaging to use as Christmas or birthday presents. Or if it is clothing re vamped, to make it wearable again.

The items to sell, should be photographed and the details uploaded on to an internet sales site such as eBay, Preloved or a local community Facebook group

• 5. One item at a time- if the thought of decluttering overwhelms you, just get into the habit of sorting one item a day. Put the item in the bin, drop it in at the charity shop or put it on line to sell. It’s amazing how much you will clear month by month and this habit will give you freedom from clutter and financial rewards over time.

If, despite all your best efforts to declutter there are some things you really can’t let go, why not consider using a storage unit.

Spaces and Places is the perfect place to store items you do not want to throw away and furniture you wish to sell at a future date.

Get in touch with Spaces and Places, a secure, convenient and trustworthy storage company.