The 12 Decluttering Ways of Christmas

Lots of us have a grand old clear-out in the New Year, but it makes a lot more sense to declutter BEFORE Christmas to make space for all your gifts, goodies and guests over the festive season.

Here are my tips that will help your home feel calmer and more spacious, and you feel more in control in the run-up to the festive season.

Make space BEFORE you go Christmas shopping
This sounds obvious but have you ever come home from a marathon gift-buying session for the family then wondered where you’ll find space to hide all their presents till the big day? Better to clear the decks before you deck the halls and spend all your lolly. The bonus of a big pre-Christmas clearout  is that those secret corners may hide unwanted or forgotten items that could either make more presents or be sold to give you more Christmas spending money.

Reduce the toy mountain

If you’ve got kids, they’ll get loads of toys and games for Christmas. Chances are you are struggling to store the ones they’ve already got so enlist their help in making room for what Santa will bring.  Either hold a car boot or garage sale and let the kids have the proceeds to buy their own Christmas presents, or give them to charity – children can be very generous if you explain that some other youngsters  aren’t as lucky as them, or that their unwanted toys can help animal charities.

Clarify your wardrobe
If your wardrobe and drawers are already full to bursting, where will you put new party gladrags or clothing gifts? Have a proper sort-out  and give a Christmas bonus to the charity shop of your choice by donating all your unwanted clothing and shoes. The best way is to get EVERYTHING out of your wardrobe and go through every item – if you haven’t worn it in the past year, let it go. Do the same with your drawers and shoe and coat cupboards.

Sort out the kitchen cupboards
Christmas means lots of extra food to store, so why not save on the food budget for a week or so by making store-cupboard meals to use up all those tins and jars that have been sitting around waiting to be used. You’ll save money so you have more to spend on delicious festive fare and it’s an opportunity to clean and reorganise the cupboards ready for Christmas.

Flush out the fridge and freezer
Have a proper clear-out of the fridge and freezer – throw out all those leftovers you are never REALLY going to use, and use up the food that’s in there so there will be plenty of space for storing all the Christmas necessities as well as room for some pre-cooked meals to ease the festive cooking burden over the holiday period.

Have a bathroom blitz
As with the kitchen, so with the bathroom. Some body and bath products are almost bound to be in everyone’s Christmas stocking, so make way for them by clearing the bathroom of all the half-empty or unused products that are cluttering the shelves and cupboards.  Sort the best of the used products  into  men’s and women’s and  offer them as free job lots on recycling sites such as Freecycle and Freegle if there’s a group near you - less well-off families will be very grateful for them.   
Unused bathroom products can also be donated to your local domestic violence service for use in their refuges, see womensaid.org.uk
Animal charities will often take towels, tea towels, and bedding.  Check first before donating.

On your (book) marks!
Are your shelves groaning with books you’ve read and will never read again? Or even never read? You know what to do .. donate them to a charity shop or Christmas bazaar or recycle the unread ones as gifts.  The same goes for CDs and DVDs. There are also community conservation initiatives in many areas to save books and household items from landfill. Healthy Planet  has Books For Free Centres across the UK which distribute books that would otherwise be pulped to individuals, libraries, charities and schools. Healthy Planet also organises regular Stuff For Free events, a community re-use initiative to redistribute good quality furniture, clothing, toys, household items and sports equipment to new homes.

Inspect a gadget – or 2, or moreSort out those gadgets and gizmos that were ‘must-haves’ when you got them.  If they’ve been gathering dust, or superseded by a better, newer model, are you REALLY going to use them again? If the answer’s no, they’ve gotta go.  This applies just as much to unused kitchen ‘essentials’ (when did you last use that fondue set or cappuccino frother?) as ‘boy’s toys’.  Flog 'em on eBay or give them to a charity shop and you could make someone else’s  Christmas.

Cut the paper trail
Christmas means wrapping paper. Lots of it. But before you rush out and buy rolls and rolls of it, are you sure you haven’t got leftovers from last year sitting around somewhere waiting to be used up? One tip is to buy gold, silver or coloured foil wrapping paper that doesn’t have obvious Christmas decorations or greetings on it – then it can be used for wrapping gifts for birthdays and more throughout the year.

Make space for your guests
Is your spare room a depository for all the stuff that won’t fit anywhere else in your house? Then it’s sure time to declutter if you’ve got guests coming for Christmas. If you don’t have the time or the task feels too overwhelming why not treat yourself a practical pre-Christmas present?  The Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers has friendly experts  based all over the UK who can help turn a spare room clutter mountain into a welcoming bedroom in just a few hours.  

Make space for your new gifts
Decluttering brings a sense of peace and goodwill that can be a pretty good Christmas present in its own right, but let’s hope Santa will bring you something nice too.  Homes can feel pretty crowded at Christmas so it makes sense for everyone in the family to make a space ready to store their Christmas gifts so they are not cluttering up the living room once opened.

Recycle
Once Christmas is over,  clear the house of all the festive clutter as soon as possible – wrapping paper, cards, tree and bottles can all be recycled.  And as for those unwanted presents?  There’s someone out there who would LOVE them – so let them go and make someone else happy, whether you sell them or donate to charity.

If you want need decluttering before or after Christmas, Clarify Interiors can help - the clue's in our name! See www.clarifyinteriors.co.uk or telephone 01865 594955 or 07917 716004 or email clare@clarifyinteriors.co.uk

Christmas Styling Made Simple

A festive interiors event organised by two creative West Oxfordshire businesswomen will give an early Christmas present to a local breast cancer charity.

Clare Parrack of Clarify Interiors in Eynsham and designer florist Nikki Budd, who runs North Leigh-based Budds, are staging a seasonal home styling demonstration and workshop called Christmas Style Made Simple in the lovely setting of wedding and conference venue  Worton Park in Cassington on Sunday November 13.

Proceeds from the event will go to Against Breast Cancer, a charity dedicated to funding ground-breaking research to improve detection and increase survival after breast cancer diagnosis. For more about ABC's work see www.againstbreastcancer.org.uk

Christmas Style Made Simple will demonstrate a range of festive design ideas, from room décor and decoration to Christmas floral arrangements.

And there's hands-on stuff too - participants will also be shown step-by-step how to make a stunning personalised festive table centrepiece and a room decoration designed to suit their own decor, both of which they can take home with them.

We'll be revealing some designer secrets and showing you don’t have to be an interiors expert – or spend a lot of money in these cash-strapped times  – to create a stylish festive feel to your home.   

We hope participants will enjoy making their own seasonal creations to take home, knowing they are helping a good cause at the same time.

And we’re delighted that we will be able to donate even more to Against Breast Cancer from this event because Worton Park is generously giving us use of the venue for free.
Tickets are £49 and  include afternoon tea (or coffee) and cakes and all materials for the hands-on decoration making. 

Great value, Nikki  and I think, for a fun afternoon out that will also be raising much-needed funds for a great cause. We'd love to see you there!

Places are limited and must be booked in advance – call Clarify Interiors on 01865 594955 or 07917 716004 or email clare@clarifyinteriors.co.uk  

Downsizing ... without the downside

Moving house is stressful at any time of life, but more so as time goes by and you have a lifetime’s possessions to sort out.

Whether you simply want to move to somewhere smaller and more easily manageable, or into specialise retirement accommodation, the sheer scale of what needs to be done may feel overwhelming as you get older – particularly if you don’t have family nearby to help with the practicalities of organising the big move.

I was in the middle of setting up my new property business when I got a worried phone call from my 72-year-old mother. She needed to find a new home fast when her partner had to go into a nursing home and his bungalow had to be sold to fund his care.

Helping Mum find somewhere suitable to live as well as co-ordinating the many other tasks associated with moving, from packing to re-directing mail, was even more complicated because I live nearly 150 miles away.
The experience led me to broaden the scope of my property staging and styling company Clarify Interiors to include specialist services to assist older movers and their families.

My experience with Mum made me realise that with an expanding elderly population, many on their own or living a long way from their children, there’s a growing need for services here in the UK – as there already are in the US – to help lighten the emotional load as well as the practical burden for older people who need to move house.
Clarify Interiors ‘Downsizing Without the Downside’ service is a complete project management package. Clients are offered hands-on assistance with the whole move from beginning to end if they need it.

If family or friends are available to help with the process, they can pick and mix from elements of the service. These include working out what possessions to take and what to do with the rest (sometimes a thorny family issue), preparing the client’s old home for sale, help with packing, supervising the removals team on moving day and getting their new home ready to welcome them, right down to hanging pictures and making the bed.

It’s a practical, personal service and my aim is to help you to stay in control and feel positive about the move, rather than overwhelmed and anxious.

We offer a much broader level of service than just packing and unpacking – it’s planning and organising so the emotional burden of moving is minimised, and your new living space will feel as much like home as the place you are leaving.

If family or friends are on hand, we will work with you and them to provide whatever help you may need along the way to make the transition as smooth and straightforward as possible. Or we can plan and manage the whole process from beginning to end if you require – always with your input and guidance, because we never forget it is YOUR home.

If you’d like to know more, please get in touch with me at Clarify Interiors, email clare@clarifyinteriors.co.uk or telephone 07917 716004

What makes Cotswold interiors special

What exactly is Cotswold style? I was asked this question recently and it got me thinking.  Visualise a Cotswold interior, and is it a traditional country house, a chocolate-box pretty cottage, an elegant Regency town-house, a modern apartment in a converted mill or dockside warehouse, or a light-filled luxury waterfront property at the Cotswold Water Park?

The truth is that 21^st century Cotswold interiors can be any of the above and more besides.  The good news is that  in this part of the world we are blessed with an abundance of places where you can shop to create your own personal interpretation of Cotswold style – whatever your taste and budget.  

I’m always looking for interior inspiration, and I love discovering the unexpected when I’m out and about.  So when I take weekend visitors to Bourton-on-the-Water or Tetbury I can’t resist exploring what’s new  in stock at Green and Pleasant Lifestyle  (www.greenandpleasant.com) – they also have a store in Cheltenham.  And a visit to Burford Garden Centre (www.burford.co.uk) to brighten up my beds and borders isn’t complete without also checking out their interesting selection of home accessories.  

But a particularly rewarding recent voyage of discovery was to Witney. In town for the launch – by the Prime Minister, no less – of the new showroom at up-market furniture specialist Wesley Barrell ( www.wesley-barrell.co.uk) I had time to explore a little further afield, and was glad I did.

Tucked away behind the High Street is Jill Treloggen Interiors (www.jilltreloggen.co.uk) where Jill offers a wide range of furniture and accessories, and also prides herself on sourcing designer looks at lower prices than you can find at well-known names – for example a king-size French style bedstead very similar to Laura Ashley’s Provencale bedframe , with a £1,800 price-tag, for just £999. Or a large  sofa for £1,525 compared to a similar Duresta model costing £4,100 at John Lewis

Picture courtest of Witney Warehouse

And that wasn’t all. Less than half a mile away I found yet another Aladdin’s cave at Witney Warehouse in West End (http://www.witneywarehouse.com/)– a fascinating and ever-changing collection of vintage and contemporary, ‘pre-loved’ and new furniture and accessories.

That’s the magic of interiors shopping in the Cotswolds – it’s always an enjoyable outing and you never know what you’ll find round the next corner!