When it comes to house clearing, one of the areas that never ceases to be a problem spot is the attic or loft space. For many of use, we use our attics as a place to put stuff that we want to keep, but rarely, if ever, use.
Aside from the Christmas decorations, things like children’s toys, old duvets, school reports, old love letters, clothes that are too small but we are certain we will get into again one day, all end up piling up so that when it comes to moving house or clearing out the house after someone has died, clearing out the loft becomes a rather daunting prospect.
It’s All About Being Organised
The first and most important part of clearing out your attic is being organised. Make sure that you have given yourself plenty of time to actually go through everything in the attic thoroughly, so you don’t make a start and end up having to stop because you’ve run out of time. However long you think it will take to clear the loft, double it.
Once you have given yourself a time frame to work in, the next thing you need to do is make sure you have plenty of bin bags on hand to get rid of things that you should have thrown out years ago. Along with bin bags, it is a good idea to get some plastic storage boxes, vacuum bags, storage cubes and any other type of storage solution that you think will help put everything in its place and let you keep everything organised.
The final step of being organised is to get your mindset right. Though there are things with sentimental value that you will want to keep, your goal in clearing out the loft is not simply to re-organise the stuff up there, but get rid of things that are no longer needed, or should have been thrown out instead of kept.
The Questions to ask to keep your mindset
Though you can go into clearing the loft with the right mindset, about an hour into clearing the space, there is a good chance that you will have lost it and be stuck looking over old photographs instead of clearing.
To help keep you on track, and to help things keep moving forward, there are several questions that you should ask yourself about every item that you are thinking of keeping:
- When was the last time I used this? If it was more than six months to a year, then it needs to go. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but on the whole, if we haven’t used something for six to twelve months, then we probably aren’t going to use it again.
- What will I use this for? There are often things that we keep that we think we may find a use for but never do. If you can’t instantly think of how you are going to use something in the next six months, then it needs to go.
- Will I miss this? This can be the hardest question to answer and requires a lot of honesty (even though it can be easy to lie to ourselves). If you haven’t used something in the last twelve months, then it’s unlikely that you are going to miss the item. If you have things like photo albums stored in the attic and want to keep them, it may be time to move them out of the attic.
- Does it still work/fit? If clothes don’t fit or things that are being kept are broken, then they should be thrown out. Holding onto things thinking you might fit into them or that you might get them fixed is understandable, but not helpful when it comes to clearing.
What to get professional help clearing your attic space? Call our experts today and see how we can make your house clearance easy.