My decluttering journey
My employed career was in a variety of admin roles for a variety of businesses. This work suited my orderly mind, but emotionally I felt lost and not valued. It took years before I realised that I had been a square peg in a round hole.
Since 2010 I’ve been on a journey to learn more about my own challenges with a lifetime of anxiety issues. In fact it was work related stress that prompted me to become self employed in the first instance in 2002. Initially I provided on-site admin support to small business clients. It was OK, but it didn’t exactly fill me with joy.
Then one day in 2007 I was working at a client’s office when I heard someone being interviewed on the radio prior to doing a quiz. The DJ asked the contestant what she did for work and the response was that she was a ‘clutter consultant.’
This was my light bulb moment. I immediately knew I was meant for this work. All I had to do was figure out how to deliver it. Now I can honestly say that I find my work to be hugely fulfilling. I love working with clients and helping them release anything that no longer serves their wellbeing.
Right from day one clients would tell me they were overwhelmed by their clutter. I was never surprised.
In 2015 I was diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion, two months later my elderly mum died suddenly. I was hit by my own tsunami of overwhelm. I’d never experienced such incredible tiredness and had a permanently foggy mind. It was dreadful. I remember one moment of clarity in the midst of all this. “Overwhelm creates clutter”, I realised. Clutter may then go on to create more overwhelm and perpetuate a vicious circle, but the beginning is most definitely overwhelm.
These experiences prompted me to reconsider how I offfer my services to clients. Now I work with clients in a holistic sense. This means I am not only considering your clutter of ‘things’ but also what weighs you down mentally and emotionally.
It’s my belief that it is not possible to have effective, longterm decluttering without touching on the emotions that relate to the overwhelm. When emotions are not expressed as they are felt they can get stored in the body, and, believe it or not, they can also be stored in your possessions. This is why you may benefit from decluttering something that at first glance seems to be either attractive or useful. If it is a repository for grief, sadness, or anger then it is not serving your wellbeing.
I help clients create space in their homes and space in their heads.