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PRESS RELEASE 1.4.10
As Easter bank holiday weekend beckons 30% of us will spend it de-cluttering our homes.
A shocking new survey carried out by The Clutter Clearing Consultancy gives us an insight into why and what our national problem with clutter really is.
- 44% of us have up to ½ our home cluttered
- 32% of us decided to de-clutter as a New Years Resolution and are still trying to de-cluttering 5 months on
- 30% of us spend a whole day or weekend de-cluttering
- 84% of us are keeping hold of things in case they come in useful
- 60% of us don’t think we’ve got enough storage space
‘The results surprised even us’ says Clare Baker, Founder of The Clutter Clearing Consultancy.
What didn’t surprise Clare and her colleagues was how long people have had their clutter. ‘Many of the people we help have had it for up to 5 years, which was supported by our survey which showed that 57% of us have had our clutter for 1-3 years. The current record is 32 years!’
Clare, who founded and runs the company that teaches people how to clear their clutter, says ‘For many, clearing their clutter was a New Years Resolution that hasn’t quite been achieved yet and that may be because, according to our survey, 28% of us they don’t know where to start.’
Clare says that having worked with people with clutter challenges for 4 years has given her an insight into how clutter has accumulated and how it makes people feel. For many there’s also shame attached to clutter – they feel overwhelmed, out of control, depressed and ashamed by it, often not helped by unsupportive friends and family. The classic problem is one partner feeling the clutter is out of control and the other not seeing what the problem is and carrying on as normal. For many the clutter seems to grow and multiply before their very eyes, and for others it’s a reason not to invite anyone into their homes. Bank holiday weekends see a rise in skip hire, visits to the local tip and filing of recycling centres as people try to get back control of the clutter and make their homes look like the pages of a magazine, yet weekend blitz’s don’t seem to last.
The other challenge is what Clare calls the ‘widget phenomenon’. ‘People keep things because they may come in useful and then find they’ve kept so much that they can’t find anything. This was a skill we learnt from our parents and grand parents who had to become resourceful during the war, but it’s a foolhardy skill in this day and age of recycling, smaller houses and time poor people. Many justify it by saying that when they throw something away they find within weeks that they needed it – we let them know that it’s just because their brain didn’t remember it had it until it was thrown away and has made a connection between what you need and that item.
Clare’s 3 top tips for those planning to de-clutter over the bank holiday weekend are:
1. Get clear and realistic about what you can and have achieved. If you’ve had a weekend blitz before and the clutter has returned the don’t spend all weekend de-cluttering. We recommend people do no more than 2 hours at a time. That way doing a little often will turn it into a new habit.
2. Don’t think about storage until you’ve de-cluttered. Only when you’ve cleared and reduced your clutter will you know how much storage you need – and you may find that you’ve already got enough.
3. You're probably a very busy person who doesn't always think to treat yourself, but the Clutter Clearing Consultancy thinks you should! Reward yourself every time you do half an hour of de-cluttering.
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Notes to editors:
1. Clare Baker set up and runs The Clutter Clearing Consultancy – www.clutterclearing.net
2 Clare Baker is available for interviews, discussions, phone-ins etc on clutter clearing issues.
3. Clare Baker has contributed to articles on the issue of clutter for many well known magazines, newspapers and the BBC radio network.
6. Details of unusual things found amongst the clutter can be found on the website at:
www.clutterclearing.net/unusual-finds.asp
7. Details about more survey results can be found at:
http://www.clutterclearing.net/survey-results.asp
Please call one of the following numbers to book an interview with Clare.
