Paul, Wendy and the Gas Man

Paul and Wendy had been cluttered for 26 years by the time they called Clare for help.

‘How long has your home been in a cluttered state’ asked Clare.

‘Ever since we moved into the home after we got married 26 years ago’ was Wendy’s reply.

After talking further with Wendy, Clare established that the clutter was at the 25 – 50% level – all over the surfaces, on the floor to at least knee height. In the lounge there was a small ‘clearer’ path from the door to their armchairs on the other side of the room. In the back room there was a small path from the door to the fridge. The spare bedroom was stacked floor to ceiling, and the bedroom had the bed surrounded by clutter up to the height of the mattress. It was a truly cluttered home.

Wendy had searched the internet for help after a distressing experience. The boiler man had come to service their boiler and refused to enter their home. He could see from the front door that there was clutter all over the hallway and up the stairs, and decided that he would not enter on the grounds of health and safety. Although it made sense – after all he couldn’t get close to the radiators to check them – it was an awful realisation of how bad things had got.

To add to Wendy’s distress, he informed her that they would have to enable him to gain access within a few weeks, otherwise the insurance on the boiler would lapse.

After discussing the problem with Paul, Wendy decide to seek out help. As with many couples who have a clutter challenge, the man decides that they’ll deal with it ‘when they can’ and unfortunately life gets in the way and they never make the time to do it – or if they do, they don’t know what to do or where to start. Paul admitted that he couldn’t deal with the scale of the problem, and didn’t know what to do, hence Wendy took on the job of finding help.

They booked 2 days of help in their home. By the end of the first day which was focused on the lounge, they could see 50% of the carpet that they hadn’t seen for 26 years. A car-load of charity clutter was removed, and another car-load of rubbish or recycling was outside their home ready to be taken away.

By the end of the second day the lounge and hallway were clear of clutter and both Paul and Wendy had got the hang of the process such that they could continue on their own. With the weekly telephone coaching calls with Clare they were able to keep the momentum going, get advice as and when it was relevant, and deal with challenges as they arose.

As Wendy said to Clare in one of the weekly telephone coaching calls:

There are so many successes that have come from our clutter clearing. I know I can go into the rooms and not worry about tripping over things. I can open cupboards now because there’s not clutter in front of them. I can put things in the logical place so I save time and effort. I’m no longer hunting for things or buying more because I can’t find the one I know I have.

I’m feeling in control, and much much calmer about the whole issue of clutter.

And best of all – the gas man returned and was able to get access to the radiators! Who’d have thought such a simple thing would give us so much joy. I know we wouldn’t have achieved such lasting change without your help and the clear process.

Thank you.