So my parents came to stay the other weekend. I live in a shoebox. This was always going to be fun, so in a special effort to make it less fraught, I had a whirlwind declutter before they arrived (yes, in some cases just moving things to where they’d be unlikely to upset/ be discovered by my mother). This clear-out wasn’t about throwing stuff away, but about temporarily making more space. I needed to clear the surfaces, a dawer or two, and make space for their suitcases and the camp bed.
As a rule of thumb, the more visible clutter is, the more frustrating it is. So it pays to clear off the most visible spots first: the kitchen counter, the table, the desk. My lovely wide windowsills that serve as shelving. Thank fully, I have amassed (unintentionally) something of a collection of bags-for-life into which everything got shoved and moved to the store-cupboard. In my shoebox of a flat, I also use the area under chairs as storage, and that needed to be cleared as well, because it looks so untidy
In the kitchen, I am halfway toward my ideal recipe collection in that I keep everything in a plastic wallet . Ultimately, I want everything on catalogue cards and laminated (look, I’m not the tidiest cook, OK?)
All books, magazines, DVDs etc got put in pretty-looking cheap woven boxes and hidden on top of the wardrobe – I can still get at them but they’re unobtrusive. And frankly, not much else is going to fit up there – it’s a tall wardrobe.
The net result was just enough space for 3 people plus luggage without having to hold our breaths, and it took me less than 20 minutes after they left to get everything back to usual – including all the bags from the store-cupboard. Okay – not back to usual. Back to a very neat and tidy usual.
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