Anyone decluttered a horder's home? Need help planning and organizing. - Page 2

[mylilmonkeys]

Originally Posted by journeymom 

Forgot to mention, she spent about an hour in her room this weekend cleaning out under her bed.  She brought out a big bag of clothes to donate and a smaller bag she's hoping to sell at Crossroads Trading Company (she recently discovered the thrill of thrift store shopping).  I'm really pleased, this was her own initiative.

Awesome progress!!

[rhianna813]

There is/was a show on TLC where an expert would go into a cluttered house and help clean up a few rooms, and then redecorate it for the family. I think the show was called CleanSweep.

The declutter would go like this:

Empty out the room, into the yard and divide everything into 3 piles: Keep, Donate/Sell, Trash. For the Keep stuff, he would only allow enough stuff back into the room that fit on a certain sized tarp, including the furniture. But just seeing the amount of stuff these folks had accumulated into their yard was shocking enough for most!

Then he would work with the family to go through their personal items. If it was 30 pairs of shoes, he wouldn’t say pick out the ones you want to keep. They would’ve kept 25 and tossed 5. Instead he’ll say you get to keep 8 pairs… which ones do you like best? He did the same with clothing, pictures, momentos, craft items, collections….

Giving yourself a limit works better than keeping “what you want”.

Also when choosing what goes back in. Decide what is wanted on each shelf and in each drawer, then toss what is leftover. Do not start with a bunch of items trying to figure out how to fit them back in. I do this a lot when I’ve accumulated too many knick knacks on a shelf.

The team would then have a yard sale and sell all the extra stuff. The family would keep the money. This was also some incentive to get rid of things. We do this with our DS when we have a summer yard sale. It helps him to let go of more toys if he gets to keep some of the money to buy future items.

And then of course have a redecorated room gives the family a fresh start. Is there a way you could paint her room or re arrange the furniture for a new look?

To help this not happen again (and not that I should talk, my DS’s room is a cluttered mess) is to decide where everything goes and label stuff. If kids do not know where something lives, they won’t even know how to clean it up when asked “clean up their room”.

Maybe you can reward her in a month of clean room with a friend to come over for a sleepover?

[journeymom]

I remember that show.  I've watched it a few times, liked it. 
 

Originally Posted by rhianna813 

There is/was a show on TLC where an expert would go into a cluttered house and help clean up a few rooms, and then redecorate it for the family. I think the show was called CleanSweep.

The declutter would go like this:

Empty out the room, into the yard and divide everything into 3 piles: Keep, Donate/Sell, Trash. For the Keep stuff, he would only allow enough stuff back into the room that fit on a certain sized tarp, including the furniture. But just seeing the amount of stuff these folks had accumulated into their yard was shocking enough for most!

That's a great point. We've done the first part before: empty the room and sort.  But we haven't then looked at the enormous pile of what's left to wonder if there is too much.  We just try to find places to put it all back.  And if it doesn't all fit it's because we haven't stored it correctly. Not that there's simply too much. 

Then he would work with the family to go through their personal items. If it was 30 pairs of shoes, he wouldn’t say pick out the ones you want to keep. They would’ve kept 25 and tossed 5. Instead he’ll say you get to keep 8 pairs… which ones do you like best? He did the same with clothing, pictures, momentos, craft items, collections….

Giving yourself a limit works better than keeping “what you want”.

Also when choosing what goes back in. Decide what is wanted on each shelf and in each drawer, then toss what is leftover. Do not start with a bunch of items trying to figure out how to fit them back in. I do this a lot when I’ve accumulated too many knick knacks on a shelf.

Exactly. 

The team would then have a yard sale and sell all the extra stuff. The family would keep the money. This was also some incentive to get rid of things. We do this with our DS when we have a summer yard sale. It helps him to let go of more toys if he gets to keep some of the money to buy future items.

And then of course have a redecorated room gives the family a fresh start. Is there a way you could paint her room or re arrange the furniture for a new look?

We did exactly that maybe 3 years ago. Painted and re-arranged the furniture to make much more room.  It was lovely, but it doesn't account for the fact that she just has too much stuff, so every surface was eventually covered with stuff (combined with the fact that she does not put anything away).  I'd be very happy to repaint. In fact I think she doesn't actually like the 3 y.o. paint job, but she hasn't wanted to say anything. 

To help this not happen again (and not that I should talk, my DS’s room is a cluttered mess) is to decide where everything goes and label stuff. If kids do not know where something lives, they won’t even know how to clean it up when asked “clean up their room”.

Maybe you can reward her in a month of clean room with a friend to come over for a sleepover?

Yup, she'd love to feel free to let her friends come right into her room, no hesitation, no avoiding it altogether.  I'm all for it.