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Sustainable Decluttering

With just over five weeks to go until Christmas I wanted to discuss sustainable decluttering this month.

How can you declutter sustainably?

You might find that you are keeping things longer than you need to as you want to avoid disposing of items in landfill.

I like to support my clients to declutter in a sustainable way. This involves identifying new homes for the things that you no longer need and giving other people the opportunity to use it rather than buying new.

My clients feel much happier decluttering sustainably as they know as they know that the items they no longer need will be reused elsewhere.

Sustainable decluttering reduces environmental impact as you keep stuff in circulation, rather than simply storing and not using it in your own home.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Sustainable decluttering starts with reuse and recycling of your existing clutter. Once this process is complete it moves onto lifestyle changes that will ensure you reduce what you consume on an ongoing basis.

Reduce

“One person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure”

Part of the process of decluttering is to identify which items that you need to keep and those that you are holding onto but no longer need. Often these are still usable and should not end up as landfill.

Firstly, you can consider if it can be reused elsewhere. There are many ways to recycle what you don’t need so it can be of value to someone else.

1. Regifting: You could pass things onto family/friends either as a birthday gift or simply because you know they will enjoy using it or find it useful.

2. Donating items: You can use Freecycle, Gumtree or local Facebook Groups to recycle the things that can be used again. There are also some fabulous local initiatives for specific items (see website below). I can also recommend local places for specific items that you may need to recycle to be reused.

Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, also known as the 3Rs of recycling, are the three ways in which you can minimize the impact on the environment caused by the materials that we consume.

Different Councils collect different materials for recycling. Find out what your Council collects, and what you can take to local recycling sites by visiting www.recyclenow.com and entering your postcode.

Where can I recycle specific items?

The website www.reducereuserecycle.co.uk offers lots of tips on how to and where to recycle common household items that you no longer need. Here are a few examples:

· The charity  Against Breast Cancer  offers a recycling scheme for bras, clothing, printer cartridges, mobile phones and stamps. There is a local bra bank at Atlas Translations Ltd, 8 Spicer Street, St Albans, Herts, AL3 4PQ

·  On Vision Aid Overseas collects and recycle old glasses (spectacles). You can drop off at branches of Vision Express, Boots, Specsavers and many local independents
· Work clothes: there are two charities which collect good quality work clothing to empower men and women to feel confident when returning to the workplace Suited and Booted and
Dress For Success

Alternatively, you can recycle the items that you no longer need to make money. You can sell items through eBay, Gumtree, local Facebook groups and car boot sales (depending on the season). Here a few examples:

· Phones: You could sell through  Fonebank,  Mazuma Mobile or  CEX

· Clothing: Many shops now have clothing exchange schemes where you can earn a voucher for donating clothes that you no longer need.
H&M – £5 voucher for bag of unwanted clothing (minimum £25 spend).
Marks & Spencer – Marks and Spencer have partnered with Oxfam to offer a £5 voucher to spend at M&S. (minimum £35 spend)
· Music: You could sell through Music Magpie Music Magpie or Discogs

Reduce

As you can see there are many options to recycle the items that you no longer need to avoid the environmental impact of manufacturing and distributing the same items new.

Changing Purchasing Habits

Most of my clients say that starting their decluttering journey has also had an impact on their purchasing behaviour.

When we think about simplifying our lives and being environmentally friendly, we need to focus on purchasing with intention. This means buying what we need, and not stockpiling items i.e. buy only when empty or in need of replacement. This will help you to cut back on additional clutter and reduce waste.

This can be done in two ways. Firstly, buying less and reducing your purchasing. Secondly purchasing from sustainable sources.

There are some amazing local companies who are passionate about sustainability and protecting our environment

1. Package Free Shopping:  The Refill Pantry

The Refill Pantry is a packaging-free natural and organic whole foods shop located at 26 London Road, St Albans, AL1 1NG. Bring your own containers and refill as much as you need.

 

 

2. Cleaning Products:  Norwex Cleaning

Norwex is committed to reducing chemicals in our home. They sell a range of cleaning products which are natural and chemical free. To find out more contact local represent Joanne Todd www.joannetodd.norwex.co.uk/

 

3. Clothing: Tommy and Lottie Tommy and Lottie

Tommy and Lottie is a unisex baby, kids and adult clothing and lifestyle brand, specialising in ethically and sustainably made clothing and wall prints.

 

 

 

4. Skincare:  Tropic Skincare

Tropic is a natural and cruelty-free range of skincare products. It’s completely natural and vegan. All the Skincare products are made up of oils, fruits, vegetables and minerals. Contact local Tropic Ambassador Eileen Morrison at Beautiful Bea

I hope this post helps to reassure you that it is possible to find valuable homes for the things that you no longer need in your home. I am always happy to offer advice on where to donate items if required.

Let’s keep organising!

Tracy Ross
Professional Organiser
Blissfully Organised

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  • Tracy is exceptional at what she does and is generous in what she gives. Highly recommend.

    thumb Jayne reah
    February 23, 2022

  • Tracy is amazing. We were renovating our house and finally was able to plan some extra storage. Tracy helped us to plan out new fitted wardrobes and then came back a few months later to help me get into a system with my laundry ( one of the things as a family I find hard to keep under control! ). She is kind, non judgemental, motivational & inspirational! I would say most people could do with a bit of Blissfully Organised in their lives!

    thumb Laura Dannan
    December 14, 2020

  • Tracy has helped me many times over the years, and I think I must have known her for 10 years now! When I first contacted her I had reservations about letting someone into my home, making judgments and telling me what I should do. But Tracy's service is NOT like that at all. She did a full home audit and we chatted about what I hoped to achieve. For years I'd been frustrated by our storage area, a large room under the house which was hard to access and full of things we hadn't seen for years. We agreed to tackle it and Tracy suggested that to start with, we took everything out. I thought she was completely mad at this point. Three hours later we had done just that, assessed what was there, got rid of some of it, sorted some and made plans for the rest. It was like a massive weight had lifted from my shoulders. After that she helped me organise rooms, and filter through boxes of stuff. More recently she helped me prepare for a big move. It's always an absolute pleasure to see Tracy and she is very thoughtful in her approach. Her service is life changing and I am very grateful that I contacted Tracy all those years ago. Contact her now, you honestly won't regret it.

    thumb Clare Suttie
    June 11, 2020

  • I first met Tracy in 2019. I live overseas and wanted to help my Mother clear a downstairs room to become a bedroom, I needed a gentle, trusted professional to complete the task after I had returned to my home. We all met and agreed upon a plan, but it was not to be as my Mother’s health deteriorated very quickly and she passed away. Although I did return to the UK a few times that year, decluttering wasn’t a priority. Then Covid put an end to my being able to return. Finally, in spring of this year, flight restrictions were lifted and I saw an opportunity to return to the UK, now faced with the task of clearing the family home. I contacted Tracy and thankfully, despite short notice, she had some free days to help me. We arranged 6 days throughout my 2 1/2 weeks to help me stay on track and motivated. Tracy helped me stay focussed and helped me believe we could achieve a fairly daunting task of going through a lifetime of memories, papers, photos and possessions. I had to be very disciplined about what was kept as whatever I chose to keep was to be shipped back to my Country. Tracy gave me time to tell a story about an item and why it made the “keeper”, or “think about it” pile, yet didn’t break stride in her work whilst listening. It was a very cathartic process. I felt like I was talking to a long time friend. She has a talent for putting you at ease, and for helping you see objects with a critical eye. Not once did I feel she was making the decision, more that she helped me verbalize my attachment, or not, and that really builds a bond of trust. After each session, I had “homework” to complete before we met again and a follow up email charting the successes of the day and the plan for the next session. As I was on my own during my stay in my family home, this could have been rather lonely, but knowing that Tracy was coming, both broke up the monotony of going through endless boxes and kept me on task such that the job was successfully completed.

    thumb Andree Stow
    May 9, 2022

  • Tracy helped my young girls and I declutter before a house move. In particular I was impressed with how Tracy got on well with the girls (7 yrs and 3 yrs) straight away and explained the sorting process simply. This has had a lastly impact on my children, getting them to appreciate you can’t keep everything!! I too enjoyed spending focused time with Tracy looking at my wardrobe. I will definitely be implementing the learnings for my clothes purchases such as reducing my tendency to buy some items in too many colour ways! Thank you Tracy for all your help. Jo

    thumb Joanna Dew
    August 25, 2020