Thousands more will be booking extra holidays this summer with the riches they acquire thanks to the first national Clear Your Clutter Day on March 19.
Hoarders will be encouraged to dig out their stash of unused items and to sell them at car boot sales, on classified and free local selling sites, and even at auction houses. They will also be urged to bin useless junk and to donate knick-knacks and clothes to charity shops and the homeless. Collectors will even be shown how to upcycle other curios to make free presents for family and friends.
It is hoped that the annual scheme, called ‘Clear Your Clutter Day’, will reduce the UK’s bulging mountain of unwanted stuff and give consumers a huge financial boost so they can afford an extra fun holiday this summer.
Organiser Jasmine Birtles, the consumer finance expert, said it will also help the one-in-five UK households in “bric-a-brac bother”.
She said: “Britain has long been a nation of hoarders, with 20 per cent of households admitting to having enough clutter to fill a whole room. Most people would like to de-clutter but either don’t have the time or are overwhelmed by the task at hand.“Clear Your Clutter Day is the long-awaited catalyst to help people live stress and clutter-free lives. It is a time when hoarders can rid themselves of useless items once and for all.”
Jasmine, the founder of Moneymagpie.com and a regular guest on BBC Breakfast, Sky News and Channel 5 News, added: “The initiative benefits every one – the hoarder, bargain hunters, and UK charities.” which takes place on Saturday, March 19, a selection of how-to articles will be added to Moneymagpie.com.
A free ebook will also be available to anyone taking part in the Clear Your Clutter Challenge. On the day itself Birtles, dubbed the ‘Queen of Cash’, will be joined by a team of experts who will host live webinars on Google+ and Periscope.
To celebrate the inaugural launch of Clear Your Clutter Day,
Jasmine’s Top Five De-Cluttering Tips:
1. Make a bid for freedom. Look on de-cluttering as gaining space and freedom rather than having to get rid of things. If you see it as gaining something you’re much more likely to throw out things you know you don’t love or need.
2. Do it space by space. Don’t try and do your whole home in one go. Do it drawer by drawer and cupboard by cupboard. Start with the easiest room in the house (probably the bathroom) and once you’ve cleared that room, give yourself a quick break and then start on the next easiest room. Once you’ve done two whole rooms you will already have more of a sense of satisfaction and control over your life which should spur you on to do more cluttered parts of the house.
3. Do it with a friend. Get a friend or family member round to help you. It will make it more fun and help you sort more of your home than you would on your own. If you’re a natural hoarder, bring in someone who loves throwing things out, so that you’re not tempted to just keep everything.
4. Use the four box rule. Get four boxes which are marked ‘throw away’, ‘charity shop’, ‘sell’ and ‘recycle’. Everything you decide not to keep should go into one of those boxes. The ‘throw away’ one is easy (although even some broken electronic items could be given away through