How Changing Living Space Can Change Your Life

Here are a few of the stories from the lives of our clients. (Names have been changed to protect their privacy.) There is something common to each case history — when you remove the clutter, you make room for more living. Changing your living space by deep cleaning and de-cluttering allows you to live more comfortably and productively.

Having an organization system makes it easier manage the clutter. Without it, the clutter accumulates again. The key to clutter management is making to most of your space by organizing your belongings and living area to best fit your life.

The Laundry Room

The Challenge: Our client’s husband has eight cats that he dearly loves. Because he has health problems and rarely leaves the house, she does not want to “downsize” his companions. The laundry room does double duty as the cat room where they are fed and the litter boxes are kept.

Our client, Janet, is a busy, small business owner and her home is neat and orderly except for the laundry/cat room. She wanted to hire a weekly cleaning service but was too embarrassed by the mess in that room. She just didn’t feel good about asking someone else to clean up after all of those cats because she herself had such difficulty with the chore. The Sparkle Treatment was urgently needed to clean the walls where the cats had applied their own interior design touches.

Although the laundry room was a good size, Janet was moving all the dirty clothes into the family room on laundry day to sort and then back again to wash because the room was overwhelmed with too many storage containers. All the floor space was taken over by shelves and cabinets making it difficult to keep the floors and walls clean, and to squeeze through with baskets of clean clothes. In addition to more room, Janet wanted to have a place to hang her air-dry clothing that was safe from the cats. A rolling clothes rack was placed in the middle of the family room to dry fine washables and moved back when the clothes were dry — a solution Janet found unsightly and inconvenient.

The Solution: A common organizing mistake is to keep adding storage containers to manage clutter. Janet kept buying more storage cabinets and shelves thinking she was managing her storage problem when she really had a clutter problem. We went through all of the clutter that had accumulated and donated the old curtains and sheets, moved paint cans that had collected to the storage shed in the back of the home and threw out all the linens that were in poor condition. This eliminated the need for so many storage containers.

We installed a wire shelf with a hanging bar to keep the air-dried clothing safely out of reach of cat claws. With all of the unnecessary cabinets removed, we expanded the laundry sorting area so dirty clothes from the laundry shoot could be quickly placed in baskets whenever Janet fed the cats. This eliminated the ordeal that was laundry day sorting. With all the “stuff” cleared, the cats were happy with the additional floor space that gave them extra elbow at breakfast. No more cat fights over who gets the first dish!

Unfortunately, the wallpaper had to be stripped and replaced with quality high gloss enamel that was easier to clean. Our clutter intervention specialist arranged for a painting contractor to apply it in one day. The Sparkle Treatment not only made the laundry room smell better, but the entire house was freshened. With this mess cleaned up, Janet felt good about hiring a regular cleaning service to maintain it. Janet is clutter free and has more time to attend to her business.

Download our free information guide 10 Tips to Clutter Free Yourself.

Call 404-803-4547 today for a free clutter intervention phone consultation. We can help you plan and budget for your Clutter Free project.

The Office and Computer Cables

The Challenge: Our client, Wayne, works from his home and had several computer towers networked to a server with seven external drives. His office was hot because of all the computers and the towers take up a lot of floor space. Wayne’s biggest problem was the cables running everywhere and although he had tried all kinds of solutions, he had never been able to find a way to keep the cables off the floor. They collected dust and were impossible to keep clean. Wayne was upgrading his computer network and wanted to go wireless to get rid of the cables, but he had no shelf place to put the smaller Mac-Mini computers he purchased.

The Solution: Wayne had a spacious closet in his office that was so stuffed with clutter he was afraid to open it because the boxes came tumbling out. It made the perfect server room and all seven drives easily fit with a wireless router and the new server unit. The smaller Mac-Mini computer fits neatly on the desk behind his monitor.

To make this happen we first we sorted through years of accumulated clutter in the closet, on the shelves and on Wayne’s desk. We threw out about half of it and shipped back old files to clients on completed projects. We sorted through all of the old software manuals and magazines on his shelves and trashed about half of them that were out of date.

Clients often make the mistake of thinking that items must be stored in the room where they are most likely to be used. This creates a problem where some storage areas in your home are over used and some are under used. Wayne was using that system and overwhelmed the storage space in his office to the point where he couldn’t get to anything. We moved all of his old files and records he needed to keep, but hadn’t touched in a year to another storage area in his home that was under used. We put in an organizing system that allows him to get to his records and samples with greater ease than he could in his office.

Wayne ended up with a server room, no cables, no clutter and twice the storage area. He went from no shelf space at all to more that he needed. His office is much cooler because of the wireless network and much easier to clean with everything off the floor and in the server room/closet.

Call 404-803-4547 today for a free clutter intervention phone consultation. We can help you plan and budget for your Clutter Free project.

Deep Clean and De-Clutter Grandma’s House

The Challenge: Our client was a 96 year-old grandmother. Called in for an intervention by the client’s mother, Grandma, as she is called by her family, was refusing to allow anyone to come in to clean her house or remove clutter because she was afraid they would take away the treasured keepsakes of her life. The more the mother pressed, the more Gramma resisted. The grime, mold and clutter was piling up and there were several rooms in the home that were unlivable. Grandma was the original clean-a-holic. Now she was in need of some intervention when she tripped and ended up in the hospital and a rehab facility. She loved her home and wanted to stay in it until her death.

The Solution: While Grandma was in the hospital, Kathy started working with other family members to removed 36 large trash bags of clutter as they deep cleaned the house. They boxed and stored all of the mementos that Grandma treasured, but kept several special ones and displayed them in the living room. Clients often make the mistake of forcing the elderly to part with personal treasures, but just knowing that they are safely boxed and stored in a basement or closet gives them peace of mind.

Although Grandma got around very well for someone of advanced years, her range of motion was limited. Kathy organized the pantry and cabinets so she could reach things in the kitchen and no longer had to stand on a step stool or bend over to get to the back of the cabinets.

The bath was refitted with handrails and non-slip surfacing in the shower. A shower stool was added. All of the area rugs that can be trip hazards to the elderly were removed. Wide pathways were cleared to the areas of the home used daily making it easier to get from one living space to the next with her cane.

Kathy then deep cleaned and de-cluttered the family room and recreation room removing all of the boxes, bags and magazines that had accumulated. When Grandma’s 96th birthday came around, she was able to celebrate at her home with 48 children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. The family moved freely and comfortably through the entire house and Grandma was delighted to have all of her things where she could reach them. With some daily assistance, Grandma will be in her home for a while longer.

Call 404-803-4547 today for a free clutter intervention phone consultation. We can help you plan and budget for your Clutter Free project.

The Storage Unit

The Challenge: Our client, Donna, had the idea of transferring all of her clutter from her home to a nearby storage unit. When she rented two units, one 8×10 and one 20 x 20, and still could not get any more stuff in them, she knew she needed help. With so many things stacked into a small space, Donna was unable to get to any of things she occasionally used, like Christmas ornaments. The bill for renting the space was over $2000 a year! Donna decided to face her clutter problem but was overwhelmed by the task of what to do with two units full of stuff.

The Solution: Storage unit rentals are not a permanent solution for clutter and often invite more. Clients think the problem is solved because they don’t see the stuff, but it keeps piling up. With this client, we sorted through everything and Donna examined each pile deciding what needed to be kept, what could be donated and what could be trashed. Some items she brought back into her home to be used. Some items were sold on Craigslist. We were able to take a rental expense and turn it into a tax deduction and some extra cash. Plus, Donna can easily get to her Christmas decorations that are now stored in her home.

Call 404-803-4547 today for a free clutter intervention phone consultation. We can help you plan and budget for your Clutter Free project.