Pamela’s Success Story
At the beginning of June, Pamela completed her Clutter Clearing Journey. This means she’s cleared all her clutter and created the habits she needs to stay clutter free forever.
Success Summary:
- 11 rooms and areas completely clutter cleared after 23 years:
- Porch
- Hallway and Landing
- Laundry room
- Lounge room
- Dining room
- 3 bedrooms
- Attic
- Double garage
- Storage Unit (size of a single garage)
- E-mail inbox now below 100 read and unread e-mails
- 86% of all the clutter she categorised and sorted came OFF the Clutter Conveyor Belt
- Over 70 black sacks of donations of toys, clothes etc to her local goodwill store
- 6 trees planted in her name with the Paperwork Reward Challenge because she shredded over 30 black sacks of paperwork clutter
- Family Sunday dinners at her home now take place on the first Sunday every month. Pamela provides the venue, family bring the food!
- With the weekly Shopping Challenge Pamela started saving over £75 / $90 a week by the end of Step 1 which covered the cost of her Private Journey Membership
- As a direct result of doing her weekly Paperwork Clutter Clearing Sessions, by the end of Step 2 Pamela had cancelled 3 monthly payments and 2 annual payments on her bank account that she didn’t know were being taken and which saved a further £120 / $145 a month:
- 3 insurances she didn’t need
- annual magazine subscription for 2 magazines she hadn’t read in years
- By the end of her Journey Pamela had emptied her self-storage unit and is now saving a further £150 / $180 a month
- With the money she is saving, Pamela now has a weekly cleaner to maintain a clean home. This also gives her the accountability to do her visual check-ins before the cleaner arrives each week
- Continues to make photo albums of her sentimental things with the help of her 3 teenage grandchildren
- Entertained friends and family at her home for her 75th birthday (a garden party) – something she could never have done before because she was too embarrassed and she couldn’t have an indoors ‘wet weather’ plan
- Bought her first ever coffee table for the centre of her lounge / living room because she knows it won’t become a ‘Clutter Magnet’!
Pamela started her Private Journey at the beginning of the Pandemic.
As Pamela explains:
At the start of the pandemic I was like a rabbit in the headlights. My anxiety increased because I was forced to stay in my cluttered home more. I realised my clutter had made me go out a lot just so I could ignore it and tell myself I was too busy.
I was one of those people who convinced myself I didn’t have time to deal with my clutter, but the truth was I was in a vicious circle of going out to avoid my clutter which then became the excuse to not deal with my clutter.
I was someone who had to shield at the start of the pandemic due to health issues so that didn’t help my situation because whereas I’d always gone out to see friends and family, get my medication etc, now people were coming to my home. Even though they only came to my doorstep, it was still very stressful for me because they could see the clutter in my porch and hallway.
That’s why I was never going to have anyone come to my home to ‘help’ me with my clutter and why the Journey has been perfect to me.
My family were really good to me – they don’t live nearby so to begin with we had a family zoom call every day. My grandchildren thought up games we could play which was fun.
After about 3 weeks I realised that as much as I love the family, they needed to get into a new routine and so did I. I needed to find a project that would help me make the most of the time. I’m not getting any younger, so I could either procrastinate – AGAIN – and use the pandemic as an excuse NOT to deal with it, or I could come out of this pandemic in a better place than I went into it.
I’d been around Clutter Clearing for many years – I signed up to Clare’s top tips about 10 years ago – but I’d always made excuses about why it was never the right time or a good time to start my Journey. So when Clare’s e-mails came through I felt like it was a sign that Clearing my Clutter could be something positive that I look back on the pandemic and remember. I couldn’t be any worse off than I was!
And you know what?
I’m so glad I did.
The learning in Step 1 definitely keeps the brain working and gives you a routine to follow which I found hard to begin with because I didn’t like routines, but it gave me a reason to get up and get going each day.
I must admit I’m surprised by just how much clutter I had. You get so used to just seeing your clutter. You know you’ve got a lot, but until you start working through it – especially the paperwork – you don’t appreciate just how much you’ve actually got.
I didn’t realise just how big some of my rooms and areas in my house were until the piles had gone!
To go from sitting on the one seat of the sofa that’s clear to being able to put a coffee table with candles in the middle of the room and know it won’t become a Clutter magnet gives me such a sense of achievement and pride, and I know I couldn’t have done this on my own.
I finally feel comfortable in my own home and comfortable about who I am and what I want. I’ve learnt so much about who I am on this Journey, it’s not just about the clutter.
Now the pandemic is gone and so is my clutter!
Find out more about the Clutter Clearing 7 Step Journey here: https://www.clutterclearing.net/7-step-journey/
