Style Treaty

I know that by the end of this post I’m going to sound like a cross between the House Doctor and Kim and Aggie, but I promise there is a point in here somewhere!

At the moment, my boyfriend and I are trying to sell the house we live in, as we are going to be moving shortly. This means getting the house ready for sale, and while the fun part will be staging the house to indicate the uses of the different rooms (see the last 15 minutes of any episode of Property Ladder), first we have to de-clutter. This has turned out to be easier than I thought.

Neither of us is the most organised person in the world, so in general the house looks like it has just been rampaged by sugar-fuelled toddlers. It turns out that it only takes about a day to take even the messiest house from looking like this:

to looking like this:

(well, sort of…)

As all the good declutterers say, the first thing is to be ruthless. Last Monday, with an empty wheelie bin at 8.15am, I had it filled by 3pm. Four full black sacks of bits and pieces that never get used, and couldn’t be recycled or donated will do that for you. I threw out shoes that have been worn to a shred, clothes that don’t fit or are very worn, half-tubes of makeup that haven’t been used in a year, handbags that will never be stylish again, and much more besides. I also filled an opti-bag will envelopes and random pieces of paper, and had to take a trip to the bottle bank. For donation, I have a few bags of books.

All this done, and decisions made on what was to be kept, either where it can be used at all times, or stashed in the attic until we move, it was time to come up with some new storage solutions. I find rectangular plastic tubs and plastic boxes with lids to be indispensable. I have many plain boxes like this that stack neatly on shelves in the wardrobes and stop stuff falling on my head. I also use boxes with hinged lids on wheels. I have one very shallow one which holds my handbags and fits neatly under my bed that came from Atlantic Homecare. This kind is also fantastic for towels, sheets and similar items.

The last thing I bought to hold all the stuff that isn’t disposable was a load of shoebox-like boxes from Heatons. These come flatpacked, but snap together in about half a minute. Ranging in price from €2 to €4, nobody should be without them. In my new, tidy house, they hold everything from medications to shoes, makeup to costume jewelry.

The only kind of box I would suggest avoiding is anything woven, such as wicker. I have had these in my time, and found them to be prone to gathering dust, leading to a horrible sticky sensation when you touch them.

All I can say is, having dreaded it for so long, I’m delighted I did it, and I’m wondering why I didn’t do it before. And now I’m not afraid to let in the Estate Agent, potential viewers, or either of our mothers!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 8:38 am and is filed under Interiors and Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.