Decluttering & Organising Horoscope - August 2024
Our Decluttering Horoscopes are a fun way to find inspiration for decluttering and organising your home. Look to the stars and see if decluttering is in your destiny for August 2024
The “Bystander Effect” and household clutter
In a busy household, clutter can quickly pile up as each family member assumes someone else will take care of it. This is called the “Bystander Effect”. Here's how you can recognise and overcome this effect to maintain a tidy and organised home.
Winter 2024 specials
Winter is a great time to declutter - you’re inside anyway with the yucky weather outside, so let us pitch in and nail your decluttering goals before the sun makes its reappearance later in the year.
Why is it so hard to ask for help?
I am reluctant to ask for help - it feels like I’m a burden, or an inconvenience. Perhaps an admission that in some way I am not good enough if I cannot manage everything on my own. Can you relate?
A new understanding of consistency
If you’ve felt a lack of motivation (maybe even a sense of dread) when it comes to decluttering, I wanted to share with you that getting your home under control doesn’t have to be a big bang, an all-or-nothing, a whole weekend of you slogging away in misery to achieve your goal.
New name, new services, new professional organisers - same excellent customer service
The winds of change have blown and it’s time to announce some changes. The Ship Shape Shoppe has been renamed The Decluttering & Organising Co!
It's been a hot minute - hello again!
Yikes. The last time I published a blog post was November 2022. To my horror, a whole year (and then some!) has passed. This post is purely a quick update on the last 15 months or so, so anyone that has been wondering “where’d ya go, Beks!?” can get caught up.
How to declutter your wardrobe this summer
Summer is here and if you can’t find your jandals because your floordrobe is out of control, then you need my simple 3-step guide to decluttering your wardrobe.
Is this the golden era for photo albums and frames?
We recently suffered a catastrophic tech failure. Our hard drive storage failed and died, taking with it about 15 years of digital memories. Poof, gone, just like that. When I first realised, my heart beat a little faster, I asked why, and how, and wanted to apportion blame to someone, anyone.
When it all becomes a bit too much
A personal essay reflecting on stress, motherhood and running a business, and the realisation that I was simply not thriving.
Tips for organising busy spaces
Organising busy spaces with lots of fiddly components (like craft supplies) can be overwhelming. Follow these guidelines to reduce feeling overwhelmed when you DIY your home organisation.
3 surprising decluttering lessons
I was working with a lovely decluttering client last week and we were making excellent progress after about 1.5 hours together. I had a couple of my large bags filled with stuff to be donated, and our piles of things of things that had been sorted and required action were in excellent shape
Should you get a storage unit?
The topic of storage units comes up often when I'm working with clients. I think there naturally comes a moment when the process of decluttering feels a bit hard, and the solution seems to be to hire a storage unit.
Welcome to the team, Jo!
Jo is a recent addition to The Ship Shape Shoppe. We’ve worked on two client projects together, and I found Jo lovely to work with. She gets down to work quickly, and has excellent ideas about how to organise spaces.
What's your decluttering personality?
I've been a professional organiser for 4.5 years now, helping people around New Zealand declutter and organise their homes. In that time, I reckon I've come across three distinct decluttering personality types.
How to make clutter disappear
I worked for a lovely client a couple of weeks ago who had just moved her studio and shop to a new location. She needed help organising her stock room; with less space than she was used to in her previous premises, she was feeling overwhelmed at the idea of creating an effective and fuss-free store room.
Try this simple decluttering strategy in your home
Something that I see often with my clients is things overflowing from a designated space into other areas of the home. Think - towels overflowing from the jam-packed linen cupboard to take up space in the spare room's wardrobe; cans of peaches that don't fit in the pantry being tucked into the garage.
Meh, who needs help getting organised? Erm... it takes all sorts!
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Kylie Klein-Nixon for an article she was writing for Stuff - she wanted to chat about the online trend of watching other people organise their spaces. What was really cool is that during the article, Kylie asked if I had any clients that might be willing to have a chat with her to provide another perspective for the article.
The hidden power of positive procrastination
This week I haven’t felt like doing much. The weather has turned to custard – it is cold, wet and windy and I have reminded myself that I always feel a drop in productivity at the change of seasons; my inner cavewoman tells me that it is time to hunker down and conserve energy during the hard winter months.
The wife's role in a household 😬
An essay on the modern-life conundrum; we're on the treadmill of doing, doing, doing - there is no relief in sight, no end to the to-do list. We are too busy, our partners are too busy, and so the jobs pile up.