love your stuff.

It's very easy to end up with more stuff than you are comfortable with - whatever your background.

My clients are a mix of ages and genders, and they live in all kinds of homes - apartment, house, shared flat, single room - and in all kinds of family set-ups - single, with a partner, with children, without children.

What they all have in common is that they'd reached a point of overwhelm with the amount of stuff in their homes, and they were looking to approach things in a new way - to get their homes tidy, and to acquire the tools to keep them that way going forward.

Please note that a tidying situation relating to a medical issue (such as hoarding disorder) would require specialist assistance, and lies outside the scope of guided tidying.

You might have heard this from well-meaning friends and family. It sounds like the obvious solution, and it may well do the trick if you have a weekend free, and your clutter is straightforward, and there's not too much of it.

However, if your home is weighed down with all different kinds of clutter, the weekend can easily go something like this:

• you feel all fired-up and hopeful about decluttering - yay!
• you enthusiastically empty some cupboards - way to go!
• you find a few obvious bits and pieces to let go - this is so easy!

but then:

• you find some fun stuff - ooh, look, happy photos!
• you dive into the fun stuff - hours pass by...
• you find some not-so-fun stuff - sad memories - oh...
• you flounder in the not-so-fun stuff - more hours pass by..

and finally:

• you realise that the weekend's almost over - oops...
• you look around at all the stuff still to go through - panic..
• you have no idea what to do with it all - panic harder...
• you hastily put it all back where it came from - despair...
• but you did it in a slightly different order and now there's room to squeeze in even more items later on - yay!

Nope. The "big clear-out" may not be the answer (it certainly wasn't for me when I was struggling with my stuff). The cycle of hope and despair can easily repeat over and over - until you find a way to dodge the pitfalls and approach things in a more effective way.

The KonMari^® method completely changed my approach to tidying, decluttering and storing my stuff.

Evolved by Japanese tidying expert Marie Kondo, the method is designed to address the primary obstacles to successful decluttering:

• it cuts down on decision-making (by offering a ready-made structure)
• it minimises overwhelm (by focusing on one action and one type of item at a time)
• it provides a simple yardstick for choosing what to keep and what to let go.

I use it as the launching-point with all my clients, as it helps us get off to a flying start, it's easily adaptable to personal preference, and the results can look amazing.

Also - it's fun! There's something quite liberating about choosing to keep something just because it makes you happy - or feeling free to let it go just because it doesn't :-)

Each session typically lasts between 1.5 hours and 3 hours by video chat. That might sound a long time, but there's lots to fit in during a session - and the time does tend to fly by!

During each session we would typically plan to:

• gather the items to go through
• choose which items to keep and which to let go
• come up with nifty ways to store the items kept
• collect up the items let go, ready for recycling or donation
• sit back at the end and admire your progress :-)

There's no fixed frequency - sessions can be arranged according to your needs and circumstances.

With some clients, we might aim to meet weekly - especially in the early stages, when it can be helpful to have sessions more frequently to maintain progress. For others, sessions might be fortnightly or even monthly, as their other commitments permit.

With gaps longer than a month, it becomes very easy to lose progress in between sesssions - so not something I would recommend.

That really depends on:

• your own tidying situation (size of space, quantity of items)
• what you would like to achieve
• how much help you might need to achieve that.

For some of my clients, it's about making a completely new start with their stuff. So their aim might be to go through their entire home, choosing the items that still belong, and letting go of everything that has served its purpose.

For others, it's about reclaiming their living space, so their main focus might be to tackle the trickier categories and areas.

Whatever your goal, a key factor will be your own speed of decision-making - and that's easier to get a handle on once you are familiar with the principles and have had a go at applying them in practice :-)

By that stage you may also have a better idea of how confident you would feel to take the principles and apply them yourself, or if you would welcome help throughout the process.

To give you a rough idea: to go through the entire contents of a full single wardrobe plus a full chest of drawers might take between 6 and 9 hours (ie two or three 3-hour sessions).

It may even take longer, if you're a bit of a fashionista and clothes are your thing :-)

But the results of that investment of time can be profound. My clients tell me how excited they are to open their wardrobe every morning to discover only items they love or need, spaciously arranged and easy to find.

You might even catch yourself taking a sneaky peek in a drawer during the day - just to bring a smile to your face when you find everything clearly visible and beautifully folded, in a simple arrangement that is straightforward to maintain.

If you need to squeeze tidying in between other commitments, there are a number of ways we can adapt sessions to run shorter.

For example, if you're able to retrieve items ahead of the session, then we can go straight into choosing what to keep or let go. Or if you have space (eg a spare room) to keep things out between sessions, we can spend less time at the end on collecting up items.

If you like the idea of guided tidying, but feel you wouldn't need help all the time, I can also provide support in a more targeted way.

For example, you might only need help at certain points while you are tidying. The trickiest times are usually:

• at the start (when you might find yourself daunted at the task or unsure where to begin), or

• after an hour or so (when you might start to feel overwhelmed, lose concentration or become distracted by other tasks).

Video chat lets us be creative by scheduling shorter calls for those specific times.

Illustrative tidybliss hourly rates are set out below.

The hourly rate depends on the session length (rates are discounted for longer sessions):

• Shorter than 1 hour = £40 per hour
• 1 hour or longer = £36 per hour
• 2 hours or longer = £34 per hour
• 3 hours or longer = £32 per hour.

For tidying together by video chat, the price is based on the total length of the session. So for example it would be £68 for a 2-hour session, or £96 for a 3-hour session.

For targeted support (eg shorter calls at specific times within a tidying session) the price is based on the aggregate time spent on video chat during the session.

So if you're tidying for a couple of hours, say, and we have a 15-minute call at the start plus a 15-minute call half-way through, the price would be based on 30 minutes in all (ie £20).

NB: Pricing & offers may change. T&Cs apply.

To make a meaningful difference to your home, with longer-lasting results, it really helps if you're able to dedicate time to tidying and decluttering productively on a regular basis.

For clients who complete four sessions, tidybliss offers a 50% congratulations credit on the price of their fifth session.

There's no need to pay upfront to qualify - you receive the credit automatically on your fifth session (and similarly on your tenth session, etc). It's my way of saying thank you for all your dedication and hard work :-)

NB: Pricing & offers may change. T&Cs apply. The congratulations credit may be adjusted if sessions are not all of the same length.

Having previously worked with clients in their homes, tidybliss went "virtual" in early 2020 and is likely to remain that way for the forseeable future.

My experience working by video chat is that it's just as effective, and can have added benefits: many clients feel more relaxed without a "visitor" present in their home; they are free to show me as much or as little of their space and belongings as they feel comfortable with; and we can be more flexible with session timings etc.

Sometimes I have to remind clients that I have never actually set foot in their home - which brings the empowering realisation that the transformations achieved are all their own work :-)

Fortunately, guided tidying by video chat feels very different from a static work meeting.

For one thing, it usually involves much more moving around the space - gathering items, choosing what to keep, putting things away. And even while sitting down, your focus is mostly on the items you are working on, rather than on your screen.

It quickly feels very natural to be tidying at home with a friendly face and voice at your side :-)

Ooh, that's a tricky one.

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, obviously. And at the other end of the spectrum, Nick Knowles' Big House Clearout.

I think my absolute favourite would have to be Stacey Solomon's Sort Your Life Out - the results are incredible, the girls and boys make a fantastic team, and their love and support for the participants throughout the process just beams out of the telly.

In essence I'm an online Stacey - with a touch of Dilly thrown in when called for :-)