In the coming days, many of us will find ourselves rummaging through boxes in a bid to track down our Christmas decorations – if you haven’t done so already…
But our efforts to dust off the tinsel, baubles and stockings can often be hampered by the clutter that we have stashed around our homes throughout the year, making it a nightmare to impose any kind of order. So perhaps, before you sit back and relax for the festive period, you should consider some reorganisation.
‘Decluttering is my therapy,’ says Vicky Silverthorn, a professional organiser who has worked with celebrities including Lily Allen. ‘There’s an enormous connection between having an orderly home and letting go of stress.’
There is science to back it up, too: a study published in the journal Current Psychology in 2019 found that clutter increased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, while a separate study by Harvard University found that those with tidy workspaces were more productive.
But Silverthorn says ‘people still need a little nudge’. With that in mind, here is a two-week guide to decluttering your house, in easy, bite-sized chunks, which fit around work and childcare commitments.
How to declutter your home
Day 1
Morning: start with your sock drawer
Yes, you want everything to be spick and span, but, Silverthorn says, don’t be too ambitious at the beginning. ‘You’ll only lose heart halfway through,’ she explains. ‘Instead, I always recommend starting with your sock drawer because it’s a small, achievable goal. Begin by removing everything, then categorise, discard what isn’t needed and put the things you use most at the front and the less-used at the back. This is really how you’ll go on to approach everything else in your house, in micro form.’
