family organising – Adelaide Estate Clearances

What I’m all about

August 30, 2014 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

I have been mulling over a passing comment someone said to me recently. It made me feel as though I (as a Professional Organiser) was generally regarded as judgmental and a promoter of perfection.

I want it clear that Clear Space is NOT about making everyone a perfectionist.

I don’t promote an unhealthy obsession with cleaning or minimalism. I don’t think that a clean house is a sign of a better parent. Nor do I think that a messy house is a sign of a dysfunctional family or poor parenting.

I don’t think that anyone “should” be anything – organised, not organised, messy, clean etc. They should be doing what makes them, and their families, happy.

I am here for people who are in a mess/muddle/overwhelm/block and they want to change. I will then help them change.

I NEVER judge someone by how much stuff they have, don’t have, or how clean it is. I certainly couldn’t live like some of my clients do, but they don’t want to live like that, either, so we roll up our sleeves and try to meet their needs.

I have friends who live in chaos, and friends who live in show homes (and clients in both categories, too!). I love them all the same! I’m somewhere in the middle myself, and I’m happy there.

I’m here to get you into a place that you’re happy in, too

Filed Under: Disorganised, Family organising, Home, Organised, Psychology Tagged With: family organising, organised, organising, organized

Un-organising

April 3, 2014 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

I read a recent article about certain spaces you shouldn’t bother trying to keep organised in your home. They included the junk drawer, kids’ toyrooms, laundry cupboards, your utensil drawer and photos.

It had an impact in my industry, with lots of Professional Organisers saying “WHAT??? WHY?? NOO!!!!” to the ideas expressed in the article.

But I agreed with the article (most of it, anyway, I DO think the laundry should be fairly well organised because having an efficient clothes-washing system and routine has a flow-on effect to the rest of the house). I agree because I think we place too much pressure on ourselves to have our spaces organised to the “nth degree”. To have all our drawers neatly divided and our books colour-coordinated. To have all the kids’ Lego sorted by colour. To have a house that looks like the ones on Pinterest.

I think life’s too short for that.

To show you how it’s possible to let go on some of these high standards, I’m going to show you my stationery drawers. They are sorted into broad groups (writing, drawing {my art}, attaching, labeling, personal and technical) and labeled all neatly on the outside. Now, that’s pretty organised; I always know what’s in those drawers (or what should be in them if I’ve been good and put stuff away!).

When you open the drawers, however, it looks like a bit of a shemozzle; it’s all just chucked in. And I think that’s fine. It still takes me no time at all to put my hands on what I want, and isn’t that what organised really means? I can see there are a few things that shouldn’t live in a couple of those drawers, but they aren’t bothering me right now so I don’t really care. I can find what I want when I want it.

Organised chaos. That’s my thang.

The same goes for my son’s Lego, which is in one big long, shallow tub. Not sorted. Not at all. He doesn’t care one iota. And neither do I.

And my utensil drawer – everyone just throws the stuff in anyway, so why bother trying to keep it tidy? I keep it decluttered so that it only holds what’s necessary, but… tidy? Not worth the effort!

So chill out. You don’t have to have everything lined up with the labels all pointing outwards to have an organised home. You just need to be able to find things when you want them, and have only what you can fit easily in their space.

So, if you want to throw stuff willy-nilly in your top bathroom vanity drawer, go for it. If you want to just throw your undies in with your socks all messy and unfolded, feel free. If you want to have your hairbands in the same box as your clips and bobby-bins, go your hardest. If you can’t be bothered putting your books in order of genre or author, that’s completely okay. You are free to have a jumble if you so wish.

You’re welcome.

Filed Under: Disorganised, Family organising, Featured, Kids, Maintenance, Organised Tagged With: clutter, family organising, habits, home, kids, laundry, organised, organising, organized, washing

Avoiding isn’t the answer

April 10, 2013 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

You’re cluttered. You feel out of control and overwhelmed. You want to escape the house. You aspire to a beautiful, organised home but despair that you’ll never get it. You’re anxious.

When you’re anxious, going shopping can make you feel better – every girl knows that . But we also all know that it’s only a short-term hit, like a drug.

Sometimes you even buy organising products to try and get around that feeling in your gut that tells you to stop bringing more stuff into the house.

But more stuff, even if it is a useful container or set of shelves, will NOT fix your problem.

The only thing that will fix your problem is taking action on what you have got around you. The only way out is to stop avoiding your stuff and face it. To defeat it, you must take action.

When you next get the urge to run away from your home and seek solace in shopping, realise that the ONLY WAY to get the home you want is to stay in it and face your demons. Sort that pile, toss that stuff, create the life you want rather than buy it.

You CAN do it, I know you can xx

Filed Under: Culling, Disorganised, Procrastination, Psychology, Shopping Tagged With: boundaries, clutter, decision making, decisions, excuses, family organising, habits, home, shopping

Storing kids’ artwork 101

March 21, 2013 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

Our kids’ artwork can be very special to us (copyright Ethan Mezzino!)

This is such a common question I get that I can’t believe I haven’t written a blog post on it!

A Facebook fan asks “Do you have any ideas for storing kids artwork? I have already accumulated a pile of “treasures” and my daughter is only 3. I obviously can’t keep everything, but how do I decide? And I’ll have the double the problem when my youngest starts getting creative. Please help!”

There are several ways to deal with kids’ artwork, so I’ll give you a run-down of a method that works for me and I recommend to the majority of my clients. It might work for you, too.

Firstly, have a place to put all the artwork when it comes in. You can put it on the wall, or in an artist’s folio sleeve, or both (the wall for a month, then the folio or a combination). The folios are designed for one or two pieces of artwork but I’ve shoved 6 month’s worth in there fairly easily! Slide it behind a piece of furniture for safe-keeping. Ours goes behind our buffet.

A2 Artists’ folio – this one from Officeworks

Create a routine in which you regularly (when they are little do it every season, when they are older you can do it twice a year or so), go through the folio and photograph or scan every picture. Have the children pick out a few originals to keep, then recycle the rest (or use it as wrapping paper, or give to family – whatever you like).

The originals that my kids keep go in an A3 display book with plastic sleeves that they can look in any time they like, and is stored in their bedrooms (slid behind a bookcase). The really special ones get framed.

If they are attached to their artwork this can take some coaxing, and you may get tears, but they do get used to it and if you can create a little slide show of all their artwork on the computer, you’ll win them over – they love it. You could even get a photobook printed of all their creations every couple of years.

It’s important for children to learn that there is a finite amount of space that we live in, and we can’t keep everything. The alternative of having the photographs means you save space and you still keep the memories.

Filed Under: Culling, Family organising, Featured, Kids Tagged With: artwork, boundaries, children, clutter, family organising, habits, home, kids, organised, organising, organized, paperwork, routines

Don’t ask your kids to clean their room …

February 25, 2013 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

Instead of asking your kids

“Can you please go and clean your room?”,

try rewording it and saying

“Can you please go and spend 5 minutes putting things in their proper homes?”.

The request is much more specific and it’s measurable for them. The limit on time also helps them to not get overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.

It doesn’t matter if the room isn’t finished in 5 minutes, but after another 5 minutes a few hours later, and then the next day, and so on …

you get the picture

A place for everything…

Filed Under: Family organising Tagged With: children, clutter, family organising, home, kids, organised, organising, organized, overwhelmed, storage, toys

Weekend Weightlifter – camera check

December 21, 2012 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

It’s the last weekend before Christmas, so it’s a good time to grab all of your recording devices (phones, cameras, video cameras, iPads etc – whatever you’re going to use) and make sure they have storage space on them and have a full charge. If they take batteries that might need changing, ensure you have spares for emergencies.

You have all weekend, so you may want to take all the photos and videos off, file them and back them up, too. That way you have a fresh start with completely empty cards.

Merry Christmas, and enjoy capturing those special moments!

Filed Under: Christmas, Family organising, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: camera, christmas, electronics, family organising, ipad, iphone, ipod, planning, video

Weekend Weightlifter – the cutlery drawer

November 23, 2012 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

My cutlery drawer after a little spruce-up

This week we’re tacking the cutlery drawer. It’s a short job, but with great satisfaction because you use it so frequently. I did it today myself and it took me only 8 minutes! (mind you, mine was more dirty than cluttered so most of the time taken was cleaning the cutlery tray!). It should still take you less than 15 minutes.

Here you go:

Pull everything out and place it all in like groups on your counter-top or table (knives together, spoons together etc)
Take out the cutlery tray, if you have one (if you don’t, get one as it prevents a lot of searching!) and give it a good clean.
Wipe out the inside of your drawer
Assess your piles on the counter. What do you use all the time? How many do you REALLY need? What do you never use? What can you live without? (ie, if you didn’t have one, you could still make do).
Put the frequently-used items back in the drawer in their groups
Find homes elsewhere for the stuff that doesn’t belong
Donate or trash never-used, duplicates or broken items
Smile every time you open the drawer!

Filed Under: Culling, Home, Maintenance, Organised, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: boundaries, clutter, cooking, family organising, home, kitchen, organised, organising, organized, storage

Clutter-free gift ideas

November 20, 2012 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

We all have too much stuff and not enough quality time these days. Rather than make it worse this Christmas, why don’t you have a go at reversing it a little? What better way than to get some gifts that won’t clutter up the lives of your loved ones. After all, who needs more stuff? Here’s some ideas to get you thinking:

Movie tickets
A dinner voucher (or you can combine them and get a movie/dinner package)
A baby-sitting voucher (again, combined with dinner and a movie would be awesome for busy parents)
A voucher for some organising or decluttering (from Clear Space, of course!)
A voucher for an assistant-for-a-day/week
Tickets to a theatre show or sporting event that is meaningful for them
A home-made “I’m your slave for a day” voucher (or if you prefer..”I’m your personal assistant for a day”)
A donation to a charity (see Oxfam Unwrapped or World Vision Smiles to buy a goat, a school kit, or blankets on behalf of someone – there are hundreds of gifts to choose from)
Flowers delivered every month for a year (or even once is just as nice..and far less expensive!)
An annual membership for their favourite sporting club
A car detailing package
A spring-clean service for their home
A gardening service (don’t do this if they love their gardening!)
Singing lessons
Music lessons (guitar, drums, piano etc)
A massage
Dancing classes
Art classes
Gym membership
Voucher for a treatment of their choice at a beauty salon
iTunes (or similar) gift card
A homemade frozen or fresh dinner home-delivered (great for new or extra-busy mums)
A zoo membership (South Australians click here for Zoos SA membership details)
A ticket for an adventure such as a ride in a racing car, vintage fighter jet, jet boat, hot-air balloon, sky-diving (but be sure they’re up for it!) or something milder like a hike, canoeing or a day-trip boat cruise
An opportunity for them to meet their hero. For my husband’s 40th I hired Stuart Dew from Port Adelaide FC to make an appearance at his party. He will never forget it!
Take them out for the day and let them do whatever they want to do, eat whatever they want to eat and go whereever they want to go (great for kids)
Hide a picnic lunch somewhere for the two of you and give them the GPS coordinates so they have to find it (make it a scenic route!)
Photography classes
A session with a stylist
A coupon that entitles them a few hours of your time helping them organising their digital photos
A week of full-time housekeeping (yes, please!)
A week of a personal chef (again…yes, please!)
Take them out volunteering for a day with you (you have no idea just how much you’ll gain in return)
An e-book reader (so they can reduce their book clutter)

All of these things either save time or space or give a unique experience and memory. Far better than adding to our cluttered lives, don’t you think?

Filed Under: Christmas, Family organising Tagged With: christmas, clutter, clutter-free, clutter-free gift ideas, family organising, gift ideas, gifts, organised, organising, organized, planning, presents, shopping, Xmas

Weekend Weightlifter – cull some paperwork

November 9, 2012 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

This weekend we’re going to attack some old paperwork. You don’t need to spend all weekend on it – you can spend as little as 15 minutes and make a difference!

Find some old filing in the home and take a handful of it out of the files. Assess each piece of paperwork one at a time and ask yourself if you need to keep it or not.

Reasons to keep papers include:

It was used as supporting documentation on one of your last five (seven in the US) tax returns (invoices, receipts, superannuation)
It has historical significance (your grandfather’s migration documents)
You need to keep it for legal reasons (your car registration papers or your Will)
You need to keep it for warranty reasons (the receipt for your vacuum cleaner)
It’s useful when something goes wrong (your dishwasher user manual)
It’s a hand-print of your daughter when she was a baby
It proves something (residency, that you paid for something, that you did a certain qualification, medical records etc)
You’re going to use it soon (a gift voucher)
It makes you very happy. VERY.

Reasons to ditch papers include:

It’s a document you can obtain online whenever you need it
It’s a user manual for an item you don’t have anymore
It’s a bill that was paid 2 years ago and you didn’t claim it as a tax deduction
It’s one of 3,000 drawing of stars your daughter drew (a handful of the same drawing from the same age is sufficient)
It’s one of 50 payslips from 1987 (again, keep one for nostalgia, sure – but you don’t need them all)
You took it out of a magazine several years ago because you thought you might make that stool/soft toy/cake/party decoration one day (you can get SO MUCH online these days)
It’s memorabilia that makes you sad/angry/guilty

You can spend as little or as long as you want, as long as you ditch as much as you can in that time!

Filed Under: Culling, Home, Office, Organised, Paperwork, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: boundaries, clutter, decision making, decisions, family organising, filing, finances, home, office, organised, organising, organized, paperwork

The “To Donate” spot

November 2, 2012 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

It’s a great clutter-controller to have one spot to put things you want to donate.

Find a box that is a fair size (too small and you have to head to the charity place too frequently!) and create a home for it that’s fairly accessible, but not in your high-usage areas. I’d suggest the bottom of a laundry shelf, bottom of the linen closet or in the garage.

Label it “To Be Donated” and teach the family to put anything in there that they no longer need, use or love in there so it can be loved by someone in need.Whenever it gets full, take a quick trip to the nearest charity and drop it off, replacing the box in its spot again to continue the cycle (don’t leave it in the car for 3 months!).

Filed Under: Culling, Disorganised, Family organising, Featured, Home, Weekend Weightlifter Tagged With: boundaries, clutter, culling, donating, family organising, home, organised, organized, routines