This sometimes surprises people.
Yes, I’m a Life Coach and yes, I have helped people declutter wardrobes, spare rooms, cupboards, paperwork and various corners of their homes that have reached the point where shutting the door and pretending they don’t exist feels like the most sensible option.
And yes… I can do it on Zoom.
Decluttering is actually a very good example of the sort of practical problem that can benefit from having somebody else involved.
Not necessarily somebody physically standing in your bedroom holding up jumpers and asking whether they bring you joy. Sometimes what you need is somebody to help you work out where on earth to start and how to turn “I really need to sort that out” into something you might actually get done.
And that is where I come in.
So how does decluttering coaching actually work?
Firstly, I don’t arrive on Zoom and tell you to throw half your belongings away but if you tell me you have far too many pairs of shoes and want some help deciding which ones need to go, then yes, we can absolutely do that.
We can work through what you use, what you genuinely want to keep and what you’re ready to part with.
And we can work out what happens to the things that are leaving – charity shop, selling, recycling, passing them on or, occasionally, admitting that something really does just need to go in the bin.
There is NO judgement involved.
Even when we get to the drawer containing seventeen charging cables for devices you probably no longer possess.
Then, if you tell me, “I really need to sort out the spare room”, I’m probably going to want to know what you actually want to use the spare room for.
What’s in there now?
What needs to stay?
Where will the things you don’t want actually go?
And, importantly, how much time do you realistically have to spend on it?
Because “sort the house out” is not a plan and neither is “declutter the wardrobe”.
They’re enormous, vague jobs with no obvious starting point which is often why they remain on the list for months.
So perhaps we’re not sorting the wardrobe. Perhaps we’re sorting the clothes hanging on one rail.
Perhaps we’re not dealing with the entire kitchen. Perhaps we’re starting with one cupboard.
Much more manageable and considerably less likely to end with you standing in the middle of your bedroom surrounded by everything you own and wondering why you started.
Yes, zoom really does work……
I’ve had clients pick up their laptop or phone and take me on a tour.
Sometimes I get shown a wardrobe.
Sometimes it’s a cupboard.
Sometimes we arrive at a spare room accompanied by the words, “Right. Don’t judge me.”
I don’t.
What do we do?
We have a look at what’s actually going on and often, that’s when it becomes clear that the problem isn’t simply “too much stuff” but perhaps the storage doesn’t work?
Perhaps clothes no longer fit the life you have now? Perhaps paperwork has accumulated because nobody has ever decided what actually needs keeping? Perhaps things belonging to grown-up children are still occupying half a room?
Perhaps a cupboard is annoying you simply because the things you use most often are inexplicably stored behind the things you haven’t touched since 2017. Or perhaps the spare room has gradually become the place where everything without an obvious home gets deposited.
Once we know what the actual problem is, it’s much easier to decide what to do about it.
And of course, there’s one other advantage to having me involved – if you’ve told me you’re going to sort that cupboard before we next speak, I will remember.
Not the whole kitchen.
One cupboard.
Sometimes better is enough.
There’s something disproportionately satisfying about finally sorting out something that’s been mildly annoying you for months.
It might not be considered life-changing or transformative. Just better.
The cupboard opens without three things falling out.
You can actually find the paperwork.
Getting dressed is easier because you can see what’s in the wardrobe.
The spare room has a floor again.
And you can finally cross “SORT THAT CUPBOARD” off the list.
Sometimes that’s a perfectly good result for a Tuesday.
And if you’re still not sure about the seventeen unidentified charging cables, put them in a box.
We’ll deal with those another day.
