Jenny started her Private Journey in March 2021 and completed it in May 2024. She cleared 9 areas and rooms that had been cluttered for 32 years.

As Jenny explains:

After a year of being forced to work from home because of the pandemic I decided enough was enough. The pandemic had made my life worse than I could ever imagine. Before the pandemic I went to work and got away from it all for 12 hours a day, 5 days a week. The pandemic triggered anxiety and panic when I had to make space to work from home.

I found work video calls very stressful because of my clutter in the background, so I always had my video turned off. My colleagues always commented that they never saw me, and I know it sounds silly, but as a result I felt very isolated and disconnected from my colleagues and the world.

Thank goodness for my sister who was supportive of me starting my Journey, and who didn’t pressurise me to start getting rid of my clutter immediately.

On Step 1 I was surprised how much I let go of when I did the stock take exercise. I didn’t realise just how many cleaning products and store cupboard things I had around my home. Who keeps tins of food in the bathroom? Apparently, I did!  And WHY did I have 13 bottles of cleaning spray when I hadn’t cleaned my house in years because of my clutter?! I think I probably bought them to try to convince myself that even with the clutter my home was still clean.

I was shocked at how much money I started to save every week just by doing the shopping challenge, using what I already had, and buying only what I needed. I switched to online grocery shopping to help me budget and resist impulse buying which is still hard online. It’s all made me realise just how strong my in-time Temporal Discounting is!

Clare suggested I have a picture of my Clutter Free Goal reward in my purse so I could look at it whenever I felt the urge to buy stuff. I had a picture of the cruise ship I wanted to take my sister on as a surprise when I completed my Journey. That really worked for me.

I really struggled on Step 6 to work out how to organise my home. I realised I had been living in a storage unit, not a home. It was hard to change my thinking because I was so used to living with my piles of clutter everywhere. Seeing clear areas and rooms was really uncomfortable to start with, even though I’d dreamt of it for years. I think I hadn’t really believed it would ever become a reality. When you’ve been so used to living a certain way for so long, you don’t factor in that you’re going to be letting go of a lot of the stuff you see.

Being on your Journey isn’t easy. I had lived with my clutter for decades, and I had almost completely given up hope of ever clearing it. When I started to let go of things, I was surprised how scared I felt, and my gremlins really started to resist hard. On Step 5 I struggled to get into a routine of doing my daily visual check-ins, and I realised how strong my habit of putting things down anywhere was when I did start doing them daily. On step 7 I struggled with a lot of guilt about how much of my life I’ve wasted trying to clear it in the past.

I’m proud that I managed to make and protect my time to succeed on my Journey, even though I work full time. I’m pleased I managed to overcome my resistance to routine on Step 1 with the help of my therapist, and I’m glad I learnt how to say ‘not right now’. My sister has noticed the huge change in me and my confidence, and as for work, I now happily join team meetings with my video on, and they can see my lovely vase of fresh flowers in the background, my weekly reward to myself!

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/