Get your home organised with the ‘Decluttering Diva’

Tackle the clutter around your home with tips from professional organiser Kristina Duke, the ‘Decluttering Diva’.

Transcript

00:00When you declutter something physical, it changes their whole mental state.

00:04How powerful is that?

00:05Meet the Decluttering Diva, a professional organiser and mum of three,

00:10who believes the key to staying sane is to start small, one draw at a time.

00:16Clutter to me is stuff that doesn't have a home.

00:19So if it's sort of lying around the house and doesn't seem to land somewhere, that is clutter.

00:24We've all said we'll get to it later when clutter builds up and life takes over.

00:29But where and how often should we actually be decluttering?

00:34Christina says the best place to start is identifying the home's drop zones.

00:40Often in a house, it's like near the front door or the dining table or the kitchen counter,

00:45and you'll start seeing places where people seem to dump things.

00:49And then it's coming up with solutions for that.

00:51To maintain those spaces, it's important to include decluttering within your weekly routine.

00:56My house, when the kids were younger, we called it Reset Sunday.

01:00Take everything out of the car from the weekends, activities, empty the backpacks, refill the backpacks,

01:05put the shoes back, you know, like just sort of getting us set up so we're ready for that Monday.

01:09Those small resets stop clutter from becoming overwhelming.

01:13Can you turn this thing off?

01:16Why would I turn it off?

01:19It's my favourite show.

01:20I do these little challenges with my clients, like how many things they can do while the kettle's boiling,

01:25like going through the spice rack and taking out the expired ones.

01:29It's not one of those jobs you put on your to-do list, but it does need to get done.

01:33For bigger projects like the garage or storage rooms, Christina says timing and scale matter.

01:40Even if you think, oh yeah, I've got six weeks, you also have kids and life that distract.

01:45Even within the big project, break it down into smaller projects,

01:49because you don't want to kind of open that Pandora's box and not be able to squish it back.

01:53And if you need an extra hand or two, making it fun helps bring everyone on board.

02:00All right, children, let's clean up this room.

02:02Oh man, do we have to?

02:04It's something about making things as a game.

02:06It makes our brain not feel like it's worked.

02:09And if you can engage your kids, then you've won the battle there.

02:13So things are coming in and other things need to be leaving.

02:16It's just a fact.