Our History

The Clutter Clearing Consultancy began life as an idea in 2000, and became a fully fledged buisiness reality in 2003 after Clare worked as a Consultant Project Manager at WRAP (Waste Resource Action Programme). WRAP works in and with the recycling and waste industry.

Clare's time at WRAP made her aware of the waste and recycling issue at corproate levels but, as someone who had had clutter that was out of control in her home and come to realise that many people struggled with clutter in scilence, Clare started to think about ways to help the average person in the average home in the average street clear their clutter, get back in control of their lives and help introduce people at a very practical level to the reduce, reuse and recycle message about household waste.

Before setting up The Clutter Clearing Consultancy, Clare (left) spent many years working in the charity, public and private sectors as a project manager. In all the roles she had she was complimented for being highly organized and couldn’t understand why other people weren’t. It came naturally to her – back then she didn't realise that what was natural to her didn't come naturally to thousands of other people.

Clare became renowned for her organizational skills and ability to see a variety of solutions to problems. Indeed, when she worked for British Red Cross she established a reputation for her ‘filing days’ when she organized the department and division she worked in to have a whole day each quarter dedicated to de-cluttering or sending to off-site storage as much paperwork clutter as possible, whilst also ensuring that these days were productive and constructive.

'We made it into a proper day. I talked through how to make best use of the time, the director was on board for making sure no one switched their computers on during the day (unless there was an international emergency taking place), we had all our telephones forwarded to one person who could prioritise and take messages, and the maintenance department helped with the lifting and shifting of masses of paper for shredding and recycling.

In 2000 Clare came to a point in her career where she realized she didn’t feel fulfilled or challenged in her job, and hadn’t ever really felt fulfilled, challenged or close enough to ‘helping people’ at a practical level which is what she really wanted to do. She may have been involved in managing a £250 million project and taking responsibility for recommending the authorisation of £5 million a week, but even that didn't give her a sense of satisfaction!

Clare also realized that she wanted to have the independence and variety of working for herself and working with people both on a one-to-one basis as well as within organisations. Consequently she reassessed her life to identify what she was good at and how she might be able to turn this into a business. After a life changing course called NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) recommended to her by her life coach, Clare realised that she could combine her 2 passions – helping individual people at a practical level and using the organisational skills she had.

The Clutter Clearing Consultancy seed was sown.

Looking at what help and advice was out there, Clare became aware that there were organisations offering help in this niche market, but the help they offered involved either telling people what they should and shouldn’t keep, doing the de-cluttering for them, or telling them how their homes should be organised.

This sat uncomfortably with Clare and her belief that if she was going to help people, she wanted to help them help themselves and enable them to take back control of their homes and lives, rather than disempowering them and making them dependent on her. So she decided to work out why it was that some people can clear and control their clutter and some can’t so that she could discover what skill some people were missing and simply teach them that missing skill. That way people would not only get back control of their clutter, but also save money and time in the long run.

In 2003, after a year of modelling over 50 people who were good and not so good at being organised and clearing clutter, Clare had identified the part of the Clutter Cycle that cluttered people had missing. She then had to find people to test this process on so she placed one advert in a local magazine for £50, under the heading ‘Life Laundry’, and the phone calls started to come in. Clare realised there was a real demand and that she needed to reach more people through the internet.

Deciding to go with her gut feeling that there was a hidden need out there and that people needed and wanted help, some of it anonymously, Clare took the plunge and cashed in her life savings to invest in her first website and a corporate identify.

'It was one of those times in your life when you feel the fear and do it anyway. I just knew I’d done the right thing because my gut told me so, even though my head and logic wasn’t quite saying the same thing. I got that feeling of excitement combined with utter terror of the unknown, yet the enquiries, consultations and sheer level of interest and demand once I had the website surprised even me!

In 2005 Clare was approached by a TV company looking to make another de-cluttering programme. Their intention was to follow Clare as she worked with clients, using the process she had developed. Although flattered by the approach, Clare realised that the quality of the service she gave would be compromised if a TV programme generated a sudden increase in demand.

However, turning down the TV offer made Clare realise that to help more and more people required her to have more people able to provide the de-cluttering service in the way that she did it. So 2006 marked the year that Clare developed the Consultant Training. Wanting to make sure that the right person becomes a clutter consultant, Clare has used all her experience and knowledge gained from working with people with clutter to devise a course that teaches prospective Clutter Consultants the theory as well as the practice of helping people with clutter. It has a rigorous practical training element to it - not just anyone can become a Clutter Consultant!

2006 also marked the year that Clare moved from her initial base in Watford, Hertfordshire to Banbury in Oxfordshire which, she says:

‘with hindsight it was a great move because being centrally located in the UK I am able to service the demand in the North and Midlands while the Clutter Consultants concentrate on the South. I’m a great believer in everything happening for a reason, even if that reason isn’t obvious or clear at the time, but moving and taking on consultants was the best thing I ever did. We’re now able to reach and help more people at an affordable price, which means more people are learning how to clear their clutter and notice the benefits that brings.’

2006 also marked the year that Clare developed the eBooks - an electonic version of the practical workbooks that are used with every home consultation, workshop and Telephone Support. These have enabled more people around the world to get help with their clutter using the process that The Clutter Clearing Consultancy use, whilst also enabling people to get the help without friends, family or loved ones knowing.

In 2007 Clare started to focus more on the Corporate side of the business, helping companies streamline their offices, become more efficient and create more space which has positioned her perfectly for the credit crunch that began in 2008 as companies now understand the financial benefits to clearing the clutter, making more space and saving office costs.

By 2008 Clare had all the resources available to her and her consultants to help people in their homes as the credit crunch started to take hold, and as a result of the range of services available.

In 2010 Clare launched www.clutterclearingworld.com - the sister website that is able to provide products and services to people outside the UK.

Clare is a Master NLP Practitioner, life coach and has undertaken various training, including Management training at the Cranfield School of Management. She has hands-on practical experience of property development, having bought run down or neglected houses and added maximum value at minimum cost.