Sorting my life out & are we obsessed with stuff?
Stacey Solomon, other people's things and getting my organising fix
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Let’s start this week’s newsletter by saying: I’m obsessed with Stacey Solomon’s Sort Your Life Out on BBC1. Have you watched it? There’s something very therapeutic about seeing someone else tackle their mountains of stuff, isn’t there? The ultimate voyeuristic guilty pleasure.
If you haven’t seen it, the premise is simple. Each week, we meet a family who are drowning in things and can’t get moved for the sheer volume of their belongings – everything from clothes and shoes to tools, toys, fitness equipment and food (and loads more…in every room). In short, they need help to tidy it all up. In a recent episode, one family had an unknown two grand lying around in change, within greetings cards and uncashed cheques – TWO GRAND. I know.
I won’t lie. By about 10 minutes into every single episode, I’m sitting on my sofa (probably ignoring the baby mess – not that kind – in the other room) and I say: ‘but HOW can you live like that?’. I know, I know, I shouldn’t judge. But really though, how?
It’s part of the lure of the show and, as the story unravels, you discover how each family has got to the stage where they literally cannot move for the stuff they have, or whether in fact they’re in so deep that ignorance is bliss. Cue Stacey and her team and a giant warehouse to take said stuff for it to be ruthlessly sorted – either kept, recycled, donated or binned (hopefully not the latter).
It begs another question: aren’t we all a bit obsessed with stuff?
I work in a consumer-driven industry (as much of them are) and, admittedly, there have been times where even I have battled with the idea that maybe we’ve all got enough – or indeed, too much – stuff. We may not all be drowning in it like the brave participants in Stacey’s show, but I do wonder whether each of us has our very own version of the Monica cupboard (you get the reference, right?!).
I’ve realised that I too have more than enough. The unpacked boxes from my house move more than a year ago and full loft are testament to that. However, my Monica cupboard is the spare bedroom. It’s so easy to put things in there to be dealt with later, only for later to become weeks if not months. It’s when people come to stay that I have a mini sort out and inevitably put some of the stuff into the already jammed cupboard in there, or move it into another room to be returned when friends or family leave. Even typing this, I’m thinking: ‘why don’t I just tackle it at the time?’. Why is it easier to ‘store’ something than to decide what to do with it? For instance, I know there’s a weaving loom in that cupboard (lockdown 1.0 project, of course) that hasn’t seen daylight in years (well, since 2020), so that should be first to go – any takers?
Sort Your Life Out does give me the urge to organise and I find myself sipping my evening cuppa while watching and making a mental list of what I can do next. Despite what I’ve written so far, anyone who knows me will know that I love to be organised. There’s something very soothing about it, even if you have to work up to a sorting session. The result is always satisfaction.
So for the last few weeks, I’ve been doing just that. I’ve tackled one thing at a time and done those little niggling jobs that take about ten minutes to do, but that make a big difference – such as the bathroom cabinet upstairs which is now neat and devoid of random razor heads and empty bottles of toiletries.
In a bid to sort my own life out, or at least get my house spick and span and bask in the glory of my organising prowess, I’ve done the following five things:
Streamlined my wardrobe. Combine having a baby with a house move and you get multiple boxes and suitcases filled with pre-baby, maternity, post-baby (read: leggings) and somewhere in between clothes. Add to that separate bundles for winter and summer/holiday gear, and occasionwear that hasn’t seen an occasion for a while and you get the idea – clothing chaos. It all came out, was sorted into what I really wanted to keep, what can be stored (i.e holiday stuff) and what can go. I took a very decisive approach: if I couldn’t remember wearing it last or if there was something that I didn’t quite like about it, off it went. Admittedly, there were a few wobbles as things meandered between keep and throw piles, but in the end, I got there and I’m now confident that what is left, I’ll happily wear and feel good in.
Sold on Vinted. I mentioned in a previous newsletter that I’m a fan of Vinted and have found some great buys on there. But I also find it great for selling. I listed some of the clothes I’d decided to part ways with and made myself some pocket money. Good for the planet, good for my wallet.
Recycled clothes at H&M. Did you know you can take a bag of clothes to H&M to be recycled? If you’re an H&M member (which is free), you can earn a £5 voucher by doing so. The Garment Collecting Programme was rolled out in 2013 and whatever is collected is either reworn as second-hand clothing, reused as textiles or recycled into other materials. While looking into this further, I came across the brand’s Take Care series with tips on how to ‘make do and mend’ clothes, which is a brilliant idea. It includes simple tutorials for removing stains, fixing buttons and rejuvenating something old into something new.
Donated clothes and homeware to local charities. So I divided my ‘to go’ clothes into three piles. Vinted, H&M and the chazza shop. And no, I didn’t just put the poor relations in this one. I made sure to donate some nice pieces that will hopefully find a lovely new home. Cushion covers, unwanted ornaments, some bedding and books went too. Plus, to make sure that I don’t hang onto things endlessly (and dump them in the spare room), anything I’ve listed in Vinted that doesn’t sell by the end of February, is going to charity. If anything, I know I work well with a deadline.
Recycled at Boots. You know when you have lots of toiletries from gift sets or minis left from hotel stays? With minimising and organising in mind, I’m on a mission to use them all up before buying anything else for my bathroom drawers. So I’ve been doing just that and popping the packaging into a tote ready for a trip to Boots. This is a relatively new find for me and is the first time I’ve done it, but Boots’ Scan2Recycle scheme takes hard-to-recycle packaging like makeup containers, tubes, empty toothpastes, pump dispensers, wipe packets etc and recycles them after you’ve deposited them in store. I will say that it is a bit of a faff to scan and upload each individual item to the online system (you have to photograph and categorise it), but I hope this will become easier as it’s developed (yes, Boots?). Either way, it’s a little bit of effort to stop these things going to landfill and it means my bathroom is more organised.
Now that I’ve sorted my space (or at least made a start), I also want to be mindful of what I am using and buying. I’m on a quest to simplify my skin and hair care products, and reduce what’s in my makeup bag – creating a core collection of products that I love, am happy to invest in and will happily use up before I replace. Every time I finish something, I ask whether it’s worth getting again, or if I indeed could do without. I’d like to do a similar thing with my clothes, creating a great wardrobe of pieces I’ll love for years and wear time and time again. I don’t know if it’s that new new year feeling, the promise of spring in the air or what, but I’m a woman on an organising mission – Stacey would be proud.