Joannie and a Funeral Trolley

Joannie – a self confessed car boot fanatic who decided to clear her clutter a week before moving house!

Not unusual you may be surprised to hear, and nothing that Clare can’t deal with! Due to her deadline, a home visit was the only way Joanie was going to clear all the clutter before moving.

The extra challenge that Clare faced was Joannie’s friends and family who came along to see what all this Clutter Clearing business was about.

The first challenge was deciding where to do the physical clearing of the clutter. Joannie had decided in the telephone consultation to concentrate on the attic as it was packed to the rafters and all needed sorting through for moving. We provided Joannie with a ‘lifter shifter’ as well as a Clutter Consultant which meant that the lifter shifter was responsible for physically carrying the clutter down to the kitchen were Joannie then simply had to concentrate on categorising and sorting the clutter while helping her stay focused on her categories, realistic, motivated, clear about what she was trying to achieve and physically move the items she had sorted through to the ‘holding bay’.

Joannies biggest challenge was car boots. She loved them – not to sell at but to buy. Never one to miss a bargain she enjoyed the thrill of it, but had accepted that her new home would not only be too small for all the things she’d accumulated over the years, but would also restrict her ability to enjoy and appreciate the things she had. Joannie had finally accepted and acknowledged that getting a bargain is a great feeling, but sometimes we need to pass on the things we get at a car boot sale if we can’t use them and appreciate them as quickly as someone else can.

Luckily Joannie knew just the home for many of her belongings – her local school who were always looking for resources and materials. Joannie was honest with herself – she knew she’d never be able to sell at a car boot sale because she’d always buy more than she sold.

What was interesting, however was that as Joannie started to clear, sort and organise her belongings she began to realise the scale of her problem. She realised that she’d hidden away things in the attic that she didn’t even realise she had or needed – 3 Christmas trees, more decorative plates than she had wall space, a trolley used to transport coffins up the aisle of a church during a funeral…..

For Joannie, going through the clutter clearing process was an eye opener for her and she soon found the feel good feeling that comes from a proper clear out – and the ironic thing is that she’d been given the help in the home as a moving home gift from her family and friends and she hadn’t even wanted it to begin with! It just goes to show we can help even the people who are resistant to start with ….!