Hazel started her Journey in June 2020 and completed it in November 2024. This means she has cleared all her clutter and created the habits she needs to stay Clutter Free Forever.

Success Summary:

3 years to completely clutter clear 9 areas and rooms that had been cluttered for over 25 years: 

• Hallway
• Kitchen
• Living room
• Dining room
• 3 bedrooms
• Attic
• Garage
  • E-mail inbox now below 100 read and unread e-mails 
  • 71% of all the clutter she categorised and sorted came OFF the Clutter Conveyor Belt
• 5 trees planted in her name with the Paperwork Reward Challenge
• Now saves over £1,000 / $1,250 a month due to
  • the weekly shopping challenge
  • cancelled monthly subscriptions

Hazel’s Journey

• Step 1: Steady Turtle / Powerful Elephant hybrid
• Step 2: Powerful Elephant 
• Step 3: Successful Snail / Powerful Elephant hybrid
• Step 4 – 7: Powerful Elephant
• Hazel decided to start her Journey when her mother died. 
• Her mother was a hoarder and because of Hazel’s clutter, all family gatherings had to either be in public places or at her siblings homes. Hazel was never able to host, a fact that she was always reminded of by her siblings.
• Hazel realised she had only negative memories of time spent with her mother and of her children with their grandmother, and didn’t want her children to experience the same thing with her.
• Her biggest motivation was that if she could clear her clutter in less than 5 years, her children would still be young enough and living at home, so they would be able to have friends come and stay.
• While on Step 3 of her Journey Hazel was diagnosed with cancer and began treatment. She took 1 term away from her Journey (although continuing with her daily check-ins) to get into a new routine to balance the treatment, looking after her children and being on her Journey.
• With the money she saves every month as a direct result of controlling the accumulation and inpulse shopping, when she got diagnosed Hazel set up monthly savings accounts for her 3 children and one called the ‘Family Fun Fund’ that they use every month for a fun family day out making memories together.
• Hazel says that when she got her diagnosis she realised how important having a routine was to manage her anxiety, and her Journey provided her with a positive focus away from the panic zone that her diagnosis had sent her into.

Hazel started her 7 Step Journey in June 2020.

As Hazel explains:

My mother was a hoarder. For years my family convinced me that just like my mother I would never be able to clear it or stay clutter free Forever, and I believed them. I had tried so many times, unsuccessfully, to clear my clutter on my own.

When my mother died unexpectedly, my siblings overruled me and put all her belongings that were trash to them into dumpsters, and I’ll never forget seeing them being taken away to go to landfill. 

When I saw those dumpsters being taken away it made me angry and scared. Angry that my siblings reduced my mother’s memory to being labelled a hoarder and scared that if I didn’t deal with my clutter my children would be doing the same with my clutter one day. That’s when I got searching on the internet – again.

There were lots of people offering to help me have a blitz, but none of them felt right for me. So, when I found Clare and she was talking about the need to understand WHY, and how much damage those programmes cause, I suddenly realised  ‘she gets it’. 

Everything Clare says just makes so much sense. I joined some of the Social Gatherings at the start of the pandemic, and then started my Journey. Although everyone was lovely and it was great to meet people who didn’t judge me like my siblings did, I knew that I had a limited amount of time each week because of the children, and that if I joined the group, I would probably spend more time talking about my clutter than working on my Journey. I also know I have a habit of procrastinating.

I decided to apply to be a Private Journey member with Clare. It was a financial stretch to start with, but after the first couple of months it actually helped me to significantly reduce my impulse shopping.

What was lovely was that the children loved helping me with my LIFE Timeline because it was a chance for them to learn about me, their grandmother and grandfather (who they never met). It was quality family time, and it became a regular reward.

I loved the learning on steps 1, 2 and 3. When I cleared my first area (the hallway) in just 4 weeks on the climb of Step 4 I was amazed. I was even more amazed when it stayed clutter free, especially with 3 children over the ages of 10! I started ‘delegating’ the visual check-ins to the children as a regular chore, and we now have a clutter box that the children just put things in if they’re not sure where they belong, and I deal with that box.

The children really enjoyed creating worksheet 7’s for their bedrooms, and we all did our Clutter Clearing Sessions on our bedrooms together every Saturday morning. We then loaded up the car, took the charity items to the thrift store, and had a reward of some kind either on the way home, or a special dinner that night.

I know it was me who was on my Journey, but it’s been a real family project. I feel I’ve taught my children an important life skill by making them responsible for making realistic decisions about what things they need and use. My children now love their bedrooms because they designed and created them. They are able to have sleep-overs with friends, and I now know that when they eventually leave home, they’ll want to return to spend time with me and make more memories. I like to think my mother would be proud that I’ve done what she always wished she could do. 

You can clear your clutter fast, or you can clear your clutter forever, but you can’t clear your clutter forever, fast. To find out how Clare can help you clear your clutter Forever, without the need for an expensive home visit, click here now: https://www.clutterclearing.net/clares-help-centre/