Episode 389 – Overcoming mobility challenges when decluttering with member Rory

Ingrid: From the moment Rory joined the inner Hub, she has inspired fellow members with her openness. Honesty and determination. Rory is just over 60 and works full-time in it. Finance lives alone and has been managing an incredibly demanding 12 hour a day workload for many years as life got busier clutter buildup, first in sweep bags, then in boxes until it felt completely overwhelming.

Three years ago, she injured her back and now has bulging discs along with needing a knee replacement, leaving her with significant mobility challenges. Decluttering felt impossible, but she did it here in the membership and she's here to tell us how.

Ingrid: Hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid.

Lesley: And I am Lesley. Now, if you are here for the very first time today, or you've been listening in for ages, we want to say a huge thank you we have a little favour to ask.

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Well, hello Rory. Thank you so much for coming on as a guest on the Declutter podcast. I'm so happy that you're here.

Rory: inviting me. My friends think it's hilarious that I'm being some sort of, you know, Declutter Hub now.

Ingrid: Well, you are. You are, and we're gonna talk all about that because. You've had quite a story within, the Declutter membership and especially, you decluttering your garage has been an absolutely phenomenal success. But we're gonna talk about that later in the podcast. But first of all, I would love to know more about you, Rory, and also because as I said in the introduction, you actually are.

Struggling with a lot of mobility issues, aren't you? And you have pain all the time. So how, what happened and how do you, how do you cope?

Rory: and not in others, so I need a knee replacement and I've needed that for seven years, so that sort of hurts. Most of the time if you sit down it gets a bit stiff and then you've gotta get up. If you stand up, it hurts, therefore you've gotta sit down. But three years ago I started a new job and it was working from home and, you know, long days, 12 hour days, we sort of tend to do them in, in, in my industry, which is finance it in banks. And I just think all that sitting down and I put on a lot of weight as well in that time. All of a sudden I'm at home and I got these bulging discs in my back. so every time I stand up, after about 30 seconds, it's nine out of 10 pain straight away. but when I

Ingrid: Wow.

Rory: I'm okay. Luckily when I, when I lie down, so, so I'm really fortunate, you know, I don't have it all the time.

I mean, I've had sciatica and things like that, which are, which I've managed to resolve, but it's the standing up doing

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: bending and because my knee doesn't bend in the way I want it to, picking anything up off the floor, doing anything low down. and then I'm a bit worried about standing on a ladder to get anything up high. So. For a

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: now, you know, I've said, well, I'm in pain. I can't do this. I can't do it. I can't do it. But I wanted to push myself because I wanted to achieve things, and I thought, well, if the pain isn't going away, then need to find a way to work with it.

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. What. Well, that alone I find like an incredible, wonderful, positive outlook because I think, you know, when you've got such high pain, it can be very, very hard to go, well, I'm gonna have to work with it and work around it instead of, you know, how, what am I going to do? So I think that is fantastic that you were able to make that mindset change.

Rory: define me because I really felt overwhelmed, as you said. I felt as though I couldn't cook because I couldn't cut vegetables. And then people would suggest, why don't you sit down and do them at the table? And the table was full of clutter. The kitchen was full of clutter. And then I think to myself, well, you know, am I really making sort of an excuse for this now? Could I just go a little bit further? Could I, you know, because I want to get better. And I try everything that people suggest, and I do a lot of exercise that I can do chair exercises and water. So I'm thinking, Hmm, you know, shall I just try and just push myself?

Ingrid: Yeah, absolutely. Ama I think that's absolutely amazing. And, just thinking as well, have you done this all by yourself all this time? Or have you had like maybe a cleaning lady help you or have you had somebody in your, in your family that's been able to help you a little bit?

Rory: lady this time. I've had a couple of cleaners in the past, but they obviously, they don't cope with the clutter. They want a nice clean surface, and also they tend to throw things away that I.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: want to keep. I must admit, I, I haven't, but when I, when I started to, to do this project, you know, the decluttering, I asked my niece and nephew to help me.

They live locally with my sister and they're 23 and 25.

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: my niece loves a bit of decluttering to be honest. she really does. So they were brilliant. They came round and they, they, you know, they didn't try and dictate anything to me about, you should throw this or you should do that. They just said, well, what do you want me to do? So can you lift these things down off the wardrobe

Ingrid: Oh my God.

Rory: a clear wardrobe top? Can you reach down to a low drawer in the kitchen pull it out? And then when my niece is there, she'll soon start sorting it out because she really loves it. So they've been absolutely wonderful. And, and,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: sister came round and cleaned the carpets. So, also when

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: I spill a bottle of vinegar, it just felt way too low for me to, to do it. So she, she just nipped around to. To tidy it up and then she said, oh, shall I empty this shelf while I'm here? Before you know it, we were, down a bookcase.

Ingrid: Yeah. Well it's wonderful to hear that you've got, you know, your family, your sister, and your niece and nephew to help you with that because you know, especially when you're struggling with your mobility so much, it's really. Important to save the energy that you have for the things that you need to do, right?

Rory: I've saved up like a little list, so I might say, you know, I, it's the stuff on the top of the wardrobe. It's, it's cupboard, something from this cupboard. And then, oh, oh, I can't put this plant

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: and I get a little list. And then they, they, they nip round to do it.

Ingrid: Oh, that's lovely. So lovely. So, The main question of course here is today because you said, you know, I, I have a nine out of 10 pain often when I stand up, so I have to do everything and really kind of five or 10 minutes burst. But of course everybody's listening is gonna say, yeah, but that's not gonna help me.

That's not gonna make a difference. So how has that been for you? Has it made a difference those five or 10 minutes?

Rory: to start with because you look at the house and you think, oh my word. Look at the state of this. And then I put things down and then, you know, think I'll pick that up in a minute. And, and then it does look overwhelming. You don't know where to start. You do need structure. And, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm in pain. How am I going to do this? Will, I thought the same five minutes, or, what's that gonna achieve if I only move, you know? pieces of paper, then three pieces come in the post. What have I achieved? it does make a difference. And the way I work is that I choose, I don't choose several areas.

I choose one area at a time, and I stick to it so that I can

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: So say it was a chair in the living room, first of all, I might clear just a couple of things off one arm. I won't then move to the other arm. I'll keep on the same arm until I've finished. Then I'll move across basically, so a bit like a puddle so that I can see a, a space and I can see things.

And then those five minutes, then once you can see a space, it encourages you to go

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: And then I like a photo. I mean, I, I think I must have a record for posting in the forum of, of all the photos. But the, the, you do forget what things do look like. So with a photo, you can go back and you can say. looked like this and now it looks like this. I can see the difference. So did find

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: and some don't get me wrong, some days I would be able to do a lot more. I mean, when I was in the garage and I was sitting on a chair, sometimes I could do an hour or two hours, but mainly not mainly small chunks.

Ingrid: Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Rory: go out of a room now or go into a different room, I might pick one thing up and take it with me. I know that all these little bits add

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. it's honestly amazing, so. Let me then go back a little bit. So how did you end up with our lovely inner hub? How, how did you find us? What happens? How did you come across us? Because there's loads of people that are now doing the reset Your home challenge. They are thinking about, okay, it's the beginning of a new year.

I'm, I'm feeling inspired. How did you end up finding us, Rory?

Rory: and I to a lot about,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: and finance and. I saw it on there. I saw it sort of come up in the recommendations and I thought, oh, I've listened to a lot of podcasts before about, decluttering and tidy in reorganizing, but you know, I'm always open to listening to a new one. And then I listened to a

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: and I think you had a challenge on at the time, so I thought, oh, I'll join this free challenge.

It was for three days. then of course I didn't attend

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: I was supposed to. And then, they were online for two weeks and I still didn't read them. So, so then I, I said, oh, I, I

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: this. I want to see what it's all about, because the page looked inviting the colors were nice.

And I thought, oh, there looks as though there's a lot of things here. So, so that's what I

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: that. I, I, I then came on, I did the challenge and then I thought, oh, this, this looks good. So I had a discovery call with you and I thought that was great that you could come

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: could, and I was very concerned about my mobility and I said, do you think I'll be able to do it?

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: and you know, you were very encouraging and said, yes, you work at your own speed. There is no, you know, we don't have to rush it or anything like that. you know what I really liked about the whole thing when I looked around the website, I mean, and you showed me around, there's so much content, so much advice, and there was a proper roadmap to follow. Something that, you know, I mean, I, I'm an IT project manager and we like a plan. So, you know, we, we like structure and I thought, oh, this isn't something, have to guess myself because you would think that decluttering would be common sense. And I think everyone does think. It's just common sense, but there's so much, that you can learn and you can learn from others in the hub, hub who've done it before, and, and people who've, you know, been, been, been there before me. And tips and tricks that you would never think of. Even products, products that make your life simple. When I got a fold away, a fold down laundry basket, I'd never even heard of one. And now it fits in my cupboard and I'm not having to say, oh, I've got this laundry basket and there's nowhere for it to fit. it was things coming at me that I, I just hadn't even thought of, plus this structure, and I really thought, this appeals to me, I joined in February.

Ingrid: Yeah. You did. You did. And you've been, you've been motoring on ever since, haven't you? Because you absolutely. Your love for our roadmap. So let me explain what a roadmap is. So what we see a lot is that, you know, because we have indeed a lot of. Things that we have in the membership. We've got the live sessions and accountability and our message board, but we also have a lot of information and courses.

And in the past we would have like a bit of a pick a mix, like like a library. Here's all the different. Courses we have, but our members kept saying to us, but we would love to follow your order and your structure on how you would do a house. If you would have to start in the beginning, what would you do first?

And we would say, right, do you have to start in the kitchen? And then you go to the bathroom, and then you go to the linen cupboard and then you go, so we've got it all mapped out. And some people love following the roadmap. Others like to do more of a pick and mix in the library. But you love the roadmap because you love a plan, Rory, and you listened and you were like, I'm going to do this.

And you started in the kitchen, didn't you?

Rory: was a lot to read at the beginning. I was thinking, oh, there's a lot of content here. The learning as such, how to do things, the basics.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: and I thought, oh, am I ever gonna get to the end of this? Because there was a lot there. But then you realize, that you will do

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: it again and again. So started with the kitchen, as you say, on the roadmap. so I did the learning for the kitchen. But then when you get into the kitchen, there are different sections. You know, there's knives and forks and spoons, there's, there's food, there's all sorts of appliances. So I then redid the learning for each one just before I actually tackled it, and as a refresher, really.

And I thought that was great that I could keep

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: back, rereading, checking, anything like that. So the, the kitchen took me seven weeks. And I didn't do it every day. And it was, it was very much cluttered. I mean, I had three sets of, knives and forks. Why? Just, why? I mean, I've, I used to have a flat in London where I worked, and then a tiny little bungalow at home here in Essex. So I did have duplicates of everything, and I did that for many years. So that's probably where it all came from. But I did have to ask,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: it? Was I genuinely using it? You know, do I really need three? And then there's some very tall cupboards and very low drawers in the kitchen. Hence when my niece got involved and came round and I got rid of loads of things, things. also when you can't open the cupboard without things falling out and you think, you know, I've got five saucepans in here, am I using them or do I always have my favorite two? you know, have I got two potato peelers? So a lot of that did go to charity. And I worked on it for, for seven

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: end it, it looked absolutely great and I, I also did the hall at the same time because the, as you come in the front door, I've got a little hallway, it's very small it was easy to do as I went along.

And then you walk into the kitchen. So, so I did those and then I was really pleased. And then of course I took photos of everything. And then when you look back, you can see, oh look, I've got work s

Ingrid: Yeah. And you saw even with that five or 10 minutes a day and not every day and, and some people might go

Rory: Yeah.

Ingrid: weeks, but you were doing a lot of the learning and a lot of the and, and, and a. Kitchen has a lot of different things in it, right? It is indeed the nice and forks and glasses, but it's also the, the napkins and all the different food categories, and it's the, the chopping boards and, and, and, and the miscellaneous junk drawer.

It's, it's all of the things, isn't it? So a kitchen does take time, but you were doing it in 5, 10, 15 minute brackets a day.

Rory: was, was a

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: you know, it was full of junk and, and it got tidied up and, and glasses and mugs. Some of those had sentimental value, so some of them were from, from

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: And then, so again, I said to my niece and nephew, do you want these? And because they were from grandma and stuff like that, and N as we call her and the So there were a couple of bits like that, and then there were just appliances. Do I really need these appliances? Am I using them? So no, I didn't do it every day, and I would do maybe one draw at a time. And at that point I used to encourage

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: to do a whole draw. But now having learned what I've learned. I would be quite happy with half the draw. Now I'm, I'm happy at, you know, whatever I achieve because I think to myself, no, you don't have to

Ingrid: Yeah,

Rory: and, and, and do the whole thing. You can do half or you can do one draw or one cupboard or one shelf. you know, and even if I pull it all

Ingrid: yeah.

Rory: and clean and it hasn't gone back yet, that's an achievement.

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So wonderful. Now indeed, you also did the hallway and that hallway, tiny but mighty became a game changer, didn't it, Rory, when you had that hallway in that kitchen done.

Rory: door to the living rooms, but as you open the door, you come into this hallway, which was full of clutter, and then a kitchen, which was full of clutter, but having both of them done, they were lovely and neat and tidy. Now because of my back. get my shopping delivered or I go and do click and collect because it's at boot height and I can put it in the car.

But when they deliver these days, they don't have bags apart from one supermarket. So I have to open the door, have bags, take the things out of the, the trays. They have put them in bags, which is bending down, which kills my back. And, then I have to unpack them afterwards Anyway, not long after I finished the kitchen, I had a delivery, and I opened the door and said hello and everything. And the guy who was delivering, he said, oh, can I bring them in for you? And I just thought for a minute, looked around at the kitchen and I said. Yes you can. was absolutely amazing. He, he bought the trays into the kitchen. Not only that, but he unpacked them onto the work surface. I mean, I didn't have that much. he unpacked it onto the work surface. So when he left, everything was at work surface height and I could put it all away, straight away. And that was just such an amazing, know, I can actually have someone in now, not, not, not just visiting, but actually

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: do something that was really helpful.

Ingrid: Yeah. And, and not feel embarrassed about opening the door and letting somebody in. And I, I remember your post about it like it was yesterday because I could feel. Like your pride and your happiness, and we were all so happy for you as well. Right? Because such a game changer for you because it saved you picking stuff up from the floor and then tiring yourself out.

But that with that one job, that you could then use that little bit of energy to put it away and to,

Rory: I would think to my, I wouldn't even unpack it all because I'd think, oh, it's too much pain. I don't wanna do it. Then things would sit on the floor in a

Ingrid: yeah. Yeah.

Rory: you might trip over it or then something.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: If you forget to take something out there, it, it might go, might go off, you know, it needed to go in the fridge or something. So, but

Ingrid: Yeah,

Rory: I just unpacked everything immediately and yeah, it was just so strange. I.

Ingrid: yeah, yeah. Wonderful. So then next stop was, I believe your bathroom and your bedroom. Right.

Rory: of things in it. of things not necessarily using, but where you put them down, I'm going to use this cream, or I'm, you know, I've got a toothbrush here and, I've got plants in there as well. And then clothes on the floor, it, was quite a, quite a small bathroom, so there isn't a lot of, there's no room for a, storage. So, but, but everything was sort of on top of each other and falling over and falling into the sink. So yeah, I just pulled it all out as, as you know, as the learning says, pull it all out, look at it all, and put it all back. And it was very sparkly and shiny when I put it back. The hardest thing with the bathroom is the floor. Because it's hard to bend down. And

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: one of those old style mops, and again, I looked at online what was recommended, you know, a different style of mop. You know, these things really can make a massive difference. And I asked, I asked questions of, of, of

fellow declutters for all sorts of things, really about lime scale cleaning. And they recommended, again, cleaning products I'd never heard of, which turned out to be brilliant. And, you know, using a file out on, on some of the lime scale. the floor is hard because I find that when I'm standing and trying to mop and the skirting boards

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: in dust, that is the hardest thing, and it still is now out of the whole house.

That

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: it.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: I think it's one of those ones where I'm thinking it's not that big, so in the future I'm just

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: to grin and bear it. And then I moved onto the bedroom. Again. It wasn't massively messy

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: tidy, but there I had an ottoman full of stuff that really didn't need to be there. I had things on top of the wardrobe, which I don't really like things out.

I prefer them away. My nephew took them all off for me. Couple of suitcases I'm not going to use. Again, just, just a lot of things that went to, I mean, the charity shop, I felt as though I was there every day. And then, you know, we've had, also had, a challenge during that. We had the, your, clear out your closet. So that was a really good chance for me to clear out my

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: as well and think what am I going to do? And then when the carpets were cleaned, you know, that did really made a difference. They were a cream color and I find that just

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: now. Does just make that little bit of difference. So, so that was done and the linen

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: Now again, that was a mess. Everything was all over the place, but I, again, looked at the learning, looked at what I had, tried to work it out, measured before I bought my storage so that I bought something that was the right size. And then I found a way. I've got the mop will

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: now, the collapsible laundry basket. and everything has got a place now. I even put, I think, I think, well,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: gonna go in there. I got a lightweight Hoover because the other one's too heavy. the plug in there

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: for recharging it. And then of course I couldn't remember where it was because I forgot it had a place now.

So it now had a home, and I spent 20 minutes looking for it before I remembered that. But now everything goes in

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: got a, a place, everything fits. There's nothing hanging out the door. You can close the doors and, and, and. All of those were great. And then I, I did move on to the, to the living room, even though wasn't on the roadmap, I wanted to have people in, you know, for tea or a cup of tea. So I didn't do

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: I just did all the things you could see at the sofas, the chairs, the table. and I thought I can leave the drawers

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: until I, I reached that point.

Ingrid: Yeah. And then came your question, Ingrid and Lesley, because you, we have a live q and a every two weeks or so where we help our, members with decluttering questions and they, they want answers. And you submitted the question, has said, I've now done all of these rooms. I'm following the roadmap, but what do I need to do next?

And that is when we said. You need to do your garage. So let's go for a break and then we're going to talk a lot about your garage, so listeners don't go anywhere. You wanna hear this garage story?

Well, hello listeners. Welcome back to your podcast where we're speaking with Rory, who has. Despite having tremendous mobility challenges and having pain in her knee and bulging discs in her back and really has, honestly, she became a member last, February and has taken it absolutely.

Onboard all of the learning. She is absolutely smashing it. So after the summer when she did all of her room, she said, Lesley Ingrid, I now am ready to go take the next step, but I can do either my paperwork in my home office, or I need to do my garage. What do you advise? So Rory, what did we say and why were you not happy?

Rory: which I'm sitting in now is where I sit all the time and it has paperwork all over the place and

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: of a mess, but the garage is full of boxes of sentimental items, which I really didn't want to touch even though my mum died 14 years ago. I really wasn't ready for them. Plus, it had a load of stuff in there that needed clearing out. So I, my question was, which shall I do, and Lesley said. should do the garage and my heart sank the thought of having to do it, but obviously she made a valid point. We were in the summer, it was the better time to do it, you

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: the office in the winter when it got dark. I thought, right.

Well, I'm gonna

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: and brave it. Yeah.

Ingrid: I know, and I know you were like looking at us like, please, please, please say the home office. But it was more almost like a practical, seasonal thing. I mean, we knew, we do normally recommend to do paperwork later. We do realize that you are in your home office every day. You spent a lot of time there. So we had to really weigh up the pros and cons.

But because it was the summer and we still had those kind of nice, kind of late summer, late summer months to go. If you would've done your home office first with all of the paperwork, and there's loads of it. We've seen your office, we know there's loads of it. We knew it was gonna take you a while, but then by the time you would probably.

guesstimating when you would be finished, you couldn't do your, your garage because it would be dead of winter. And then going out with the dark, you know it's dark here at four 30 now till, you know, till nine o'clock in the morning when you are back at work. We thought it's gonna be far too hard for you.

So we kind of went, oh, we know you wanna do the home office, Rory, but I think you need to do your garage. And knowing that there were a lot of sentimental items from your mom in that garage. But we said it's not about, we don't want you to touch the sentimental items, but we do want you to start doing a pre-sort.

Right. But you start, you open those doors and you showed us the pictures and I think everyone went, oh, okay. So what did you do? How did you get through it? How long did it take you?

Rory: know, there's the gardening stuff and everything, which is all over the place. I've got a tumble dryer out there and a, I did have a fridge freezer, I've just got a freezer. I managed to swap that over with a friend, which is better. Then I had things like fans and garden chairs, and I had furniture because I'd moved from a bigger house to a smaller house, so I had furniture that didn't fit in. Two of the sideboards I really wanted to swap for the ones I had in the house because they matched. And then there were also like a wardrobe and mirror. Things I thought I would use again. But in six years of being back in this house I hadn't. But mainly it was these big boxes, sweet boxes, they've got everything in them. So someone coming round, you know, all of a sudden anything that's on the kitchen side, put in a carrier bag. Come back to that later. Then I hadn't, all of a sudden there's three carrier bags. Oh, what, what do I do with them? Will they go in a box? So now I've got all of these boxes full of miscellaneous, everything is in together.

An old mobile phone, you know, old love letters, cards, all sorts of things. A scar lead, really just paperwork. A bill, a, a phone bill from 2016. What, why do I want that? So, so that was the worst thing. And also. I tried to get, I tried to sell the furniture that which was at the back, again, some of it went, some of it didn't.

So if I wanted it to go from charity, I had to wait six weeks for them to come and collect it. And I'm thinking, oh my God, six weeks I can't move round. I can't pick things up and move them. And, you know, there's just the, the, the bulk of it all. And some of them were so heavy. so what I did started at the front and thought, right, well what can I get rid of?

my. I've got a friend who I offered her everything first, and she took a fair few things, that were helpful, like fishing chairs, and I didn't have enough storage, so my goal was to get storage in there so that I could, put these boxes on the shelves. Now, obviously, you and Lesley explained to me that really the ideal situation would be to pull everything out and then put things back, like for, like all, all together, but I just had too much. And I couldn't do that, and I physically

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: that amount of, of hours. And there were lots of heavy things in there. Again, niece and nephew lifting things up and down. And then one day, yes, I broke this, this bottle of vinegar and said to my sister, I said, oh, well you couldn't just come around and pick this up off the floor. And then as she, she did, and, and we, we, she cleared the side at the same time. It was an old bookcase that was falling to pieces. So she took that apart. We put it in the garden and then everything really was just. How much more can I do? Can I do a little bit more? Can I get it as far as the gate? Can I put it in the car?

No, it's painful. I'll do that tomorrow. Can I put, can I take it to the, to the dump? No, no. That's the next day. Can I take it to the charity shop? So it was all in bits and pieces and then I still had all the furniture, but I wanted to try and get this racking up and my niece wanted to do the racking.

She's very good at things like that. And, and, but we didn't have space for it. couldn't get in and out. So again, I tried to

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: move things forward, just I seemed to be constantly move, picking boxes up and just moving them. But I wanted to make a space for her to do this, and she put two of the units up, so then we put boxes on, on, on them. But when she got the rest of 'em, it's five units now. Five lots of shelving, very strong, heavy. I wanted the Mayan metal. I didn't want anything bowing in the middle. And once she did that, and we could put things on, and then once the furniture went and left space, but there was so much paperwork on these lovely nights when it was sunny, sometimes I would sit out there and just do them sit on a chair so that my back wouldn't hurt, although I was bending over a bit. And do the next one, and the next one and the next one. And I use a shredding service where you put everything in a bag and they shred for you. And then I found out you could take paper to the dump as well. So I filled those bags and some nights, yeah, I just couldn't lift them to the car and that'd have to wait till the next day.

So I had to learn to be a bit more patient with myself. so as my niece did the, the, the racking that took her two hours, I did two hours worth of paperwork. But then the next day I did five

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: And what really encouraged me

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: a photo. So I thought to myself, I'm gonna document this, obviously on the site, and I needed to take a photo every day.

Well, in order to take a photo, you have to have done something, if it's small, but you, you have to have done something.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: therefore, even if I didn't feel like it, that five minutes sometimes turned into 10 sometimes turned into 15 and sometimes was just one moving, unpacking one box so that I could get a photo. And I ended up, I mean I posted 501 photos. Now I can't say that a couple of them aren't duplicates because the beginning and the end, but that was the actual post and it took 95 days do that garage. And I thought originally it was gonna be six months. And I did come across things didn't wanna look at, sentimental items that have been put away. And I've

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: more questions since then. What

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: with things from my 21st and 18th birthday? I came across. Things from an ex-boyfriend where I'd sued him and taken him, taken him to court, and then I remembered your words, you know? And Lesley's, do you really want to look at these ever again?

Are they, they just gonna make you angry again or upset or whatever? I chuck them.

Ingrid: Yeah, it's, it's, I honestly, it was su such an inspiration to see your daily posts because you would actually just go, guys found another sweep box and just. Open it up and take a picture of it and then say, right, this is what I found. This is what I'm going to donate to the, to the goodwill to the charity shop.

This is going to be put on a giveaway app. This, I'm gonna check with my friend or my niece if they want it. This is actually very handy that I found this and I'm going to keep it. And you did swap around your furniture as well, didn't you? With help, of course. Of your family. But you did put that, that lovely sideboard in that you really wanted.

Rory: the other ones went off to to charity. match my set. Now they, they're not quite the same size. They've got drawers rather than cupboards. So again, would everything fit into them? And, and yes, it did. But

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: for the time being the house was a complete mess.

messy middle because I was bringing things

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: not quite finishing them, didn't have them. And then also it took me several days to actually clean those. When they came in, they'd been in the garage. I wanted to clean them, line them. again, just, just slowly, slowly doing them. And now and then,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: I, I

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: with a box in the garage that I, I, for, cushions. I hadn't measured the cushions on the outdoor furniture, and they're slightly bigger than what I thought was normal. And then someone suggested getting a box for them, which I did. And then now I have so much space in the garage that my, my, I've had a friend who was actually able to store some stuff in my garage for a few weeks while her daughter moved.

And it was nice to be able to, to say that. And everything now is in boxes out there and they're together and they're like, for like, so I have three boxes of electronics that need sorting. I have two boxes of photos and, and

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: So it doesn't mean to say that there aren't more projects there. I've still got to go through the sentimental

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: and I've got to go through mom's

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: which I've been doing with the kids. And, and again, you know, the photos are another project which right at the end of the roadmap, the, the electronics say, and other things that are out there. Even two boxes of ornaments that I, I haven't touched for ages. My nephew's gonna put some shelves up and then I'll do that. It is created other projects, but the garage itself is done and

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: go out there now

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: it and see all this space, just great.

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. And I think you really, we, we had to really kind of explain that, right? Like, you are not going to do all of the garage, but you are going to create some boxes with things you're going to do later, because I think that was your main thing you like, but I don't wanna do my mom's sentimental items.

And we had to explain, but you're not gonna go, you're not gonna do your mom sentimental items. What? What you. Are gonna do is create a couple of boxes where they all live together so they're not scattered around in 30 or 40 other boxes and you don't know where to start. We're gonna put like with like all together, and that's what you did.

You actually had a box with electronics and every time you found something electronics, you would go. Am I keeping this? Yes or no? No. Okay. Out it went to wherever it went, or Yes, I need to keep this because I think it's possibly something from a thing, and it went in the electronics books and not in one of 30 or 40 random boxes.

Then you can never then find what you're looking for. And yes, you now have an electronics project,

Rory: Yeah, that will

Ingrid: that's okay,

Rory: that will be

Ingrid: and that can be done later.

Rory: great big box outside now, so I will be able to lay out all of the electronics now with any old DBD players or

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: players. I mean, I gave one to charity yesterday and I was able to give them a scar lead with it because obviously I had a spare one. So again,

Ingrid: Y

Rory: the end, I will only want

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: lead one VGA cable, even if I use them anymore. And I will have room to lay things out and to compare them and then say, well, okay,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: are old phones. Make sure I've backed them up or taken photos of them. Then they go, but it, it will, it will make all my further projects so much easier.

Ingrid: Mm-hmm. I know, I know. And. A total, like everybody's been like following your journey, right? And there, there are members who've actually gone back to the beginning of your whole thing. And kind of, because I kept saying, because you every time because you're so hard on yourself. Well, I've only done five minutes and I've only done this book.

And I'm like, look back like. 45 pictures ago and look at all the work that you've done, Rory, and because I, I asked you earlier, right? I was like, please, come on. You were like, no, Gar, she's not finished. I'm not coming on the podcast.

Rory: an achievement. I've surprised myself. I mean, I found some strange things, you

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: old toys and things that I even took to the dump, and they've come back home again. Because as you know, if in doubt don't, you know, just put it to one side and I found it. Now, it's

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: easier now to deal with, sentimental items even now, because I, as I've been going through them. You know, just pulling one out here and there. I mean, I did find 150 euros in there. That was a, you know, I found 20

Ingrid: Nice,

Rory: dollars and 150 euros, and it was just a couple of days before my niece was going off to Venice with her boyfriend, so gave them to her. And of course she said, oh no, it's way too

Ingrid: lovely.

Rory: I said, no, you know, all your hard work and everything. And off she went with them. Bless her.

Ingrid: Oh, it's just, it's just absolutely phenomenal. It's so phenomenal. So I. Garage is in principle, finish the structure. Is there? Yes. There's still projects to do. Yes. There's stuff from the garage that's now in your house because there's things, especially paperwork that you found along the way.

You've brought some stuff in, so your lovely decluttered living room, became a bit of a, a sight again, didn't it? But we said Don't worry, don't worry. It's the messy middle. You, you've, you've really built up your decluttering muscle. You know, you've been working on that, maintenance, on that reset. It, it, it's, it's not gonna all change overnight because of course you've been pulling stuff in.

Right. So what's next then on your journey? Rory, where are you going now?

Rory: resets in the house, you know, like the normal cleaning and, and that, and do the garage at the same. Time. I mean, I, I

Ingrid: Yeah,

Rory: day. I exercise every night. I do some exercise during the day for my back. And so you've got to try and fit it all in.

Ingrid: I,

Rory: So, so I've now reset the, the, the bathroom, the bedroom, the, the linen, cupboard and the hall.

So it's the kitchen and bathroom to go

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: the kitchen. I'm halfway, no, no, the kitchen and living rooms are go the kitchen. I'm halfway, then the living room, I need those two rooms back. How they were.

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: I'll be back to the

Ingrid: Yep.

Rory: So on the roadmap next, it actually does say, So in this office that I'm in, I have a bookcase and it is overflowing, and I have books, in the house.

So again, I, I reckon it'll be this room next then. So with its paperwork, which to be

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: rid of quite a lot. I mean, I cannot believe how much paperwork was in the garage. So it'll be books and that letter, I'm just looking at my note. And then after that, it's the living room properly with all of the, the drawers and everything. go on to paperwork, which again, I'll have, I'll have done most of that, but there's still more to do. I'm trying to

Ingrid: Hmm.

Rory: and then after that it'll be photos. Now the resets are really important because, you know, I really do want to keep the house up to date and, and keep up with my housework,

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: But again, I find these things very

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: But, last week, I needed to change the dishwasher salt. And normally I would wait and ask my

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: and I thought, oh, you know, the pain of doing it and bending down to do it. And then I thought, well, actually it will only take five minutes, so why don't I just do it, go through the pain and sit down afterwards. And, and that was, you know, yeah, a

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: a revelation that I can do, that I can, you know, I can work out how

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: things. Like that. And then now I want to get back onto my reset so that I keep everything clean and tidy.

Ingrid: Yeah. Lovely. It's so amazing. Now, if you look back, Rory, because you've done, you've tried decluttering and Organising and everything like that before. Before you came into the membership. What has changed? What has, why did you not. Why were you, are you able to succeed now? Besides, of course, you know, being very brave yourself and, and, and stepping outside your comfort zone, what is it you think that's changed?

Rory: about, you know, who will have to look through my items when I'm gone. Do I need to really leave it

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: then my niece and nephew asked me, they asked me to take my charm bracelet apart and explain one Christmas. What all the charms were. And I thought, Hmm, I don't really have a note.

They don't know why did I keep this theater program? Why did I keep this bracelet? So again, we've been talking about things like that and I thought I need to either, you know, put some notes on these things to make sure, and also I did

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: two, say, two places before, so I ended up with, with, with, lot of items. I always thought that I was decluttering, you know, and, but things were just getting moved around. I was just moving things from one place to another and reorganizing nothing was actually going outta the door.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: and I, you know, I don't, I

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: of this, this mess has come about just because of being busy and thinking, I'll do that in a minute, in a minute, in a minute.

That's procrastination. Now. I want things to be. Neat, tidy, clean. I want to be able to, you know, invite people. I want maybe to start a book club and people to be able to come to my house for it rather than us to, to, to meet out. But,

Ingrid: Nice.

Rory: as I say, I don't really

Ingrid: I,

Rory: to, you know, leave load of items that, you know, people, why did she save this?

What was the point of it? And

Ingrid: yeah.

Rory: got diaries. I mean, they go back to, you know, 40 years and I'm thinking, well, what do I do with those? if things just

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Rory: and, and you don't put them out to look at. What is the point of that? I'm, I, you know, I think you do need a few pieces that are out. I mean, in my office I could put some shelves up put the, you know, e even things from my childhood, things that are important that I want to look at. 'cause you know, that's the whole point of them, isn't it?

Ingrid: Yeah, definitely. I think, and that's what we talk about a lot, right? How do you find that quality over that quantity? You can't keep everything. It's impossible. There's not enough. Even, you know, I've, I've been in very big houses and then still you can't keep everything. It's not the size of the house that matters.

It's the items, the few items that bring that, that special feeling that, that, that warm fuzzy feeling and. Side those things that you think, oh, that was a wonderful moment. I, and I love looking at that item because of that. And it brings me back to that, that place, it doesn't mean you have to keep 25 of the same thing.

One item is enough often to, to bring that. To the forefront, and I think that's something that you learn over time, right? You, you, you, your mindset, I, Rory your mindset has changed so much over the time you've been with us, and I think it's so inspiring to see that because I think you've, you've taken on board that learning.

You've built up your decluttering muscle. You are sharing your. How you manage to do it when you are in chronic pain all the time, and that you still can do so much and that those five or 10 minutes really make a difference and you share with us when you had a hard day and when you are struggling, but also when you've had great success.

And we've been celebrating your niece and nephew who were being total decluttering heroes and, and helpers. And you couldn't have done it without them, but it's. So much is on you that you have done and you have kind of really gone into it and gone, I really want this for myself. I want to have a nice tidy, neat house.

I want to have a book club come to my house. I wanna be able to open the front door to a delivery driver. I want, I want this for me. And I think that's really so important and. Everybody else around you has been celebrating your amazing success and it's been so happy for you.

Rory: about. know, I want a neat tidy house, but I couldn't have even thought about the delivery man. That would be, that, just something that

Ingrid: No, no.

Rory: as to being, you know, such,

Ingrid: Yeah,

Rory: just something I just never even occurred to me. And as I say, so many

Ingrid: yeah.

Rory: and suggestions that come from the group that, you know, I wouldn't have even, even thought about. And then just, just now, because I,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: I have done so much and it is the photos that remind me, I say, I'll go back and look at them. And some of,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Rory: the other ladies were mainly ladies. They say, do you ever go, do you go and look in the rooms? I said, yes. I just go and look at the room and think lovely and clean and tidy.

And as I opened the garage door, you know, there's all this space. And last week I had sort of a light bulb me be moment. It was the day that I did the dishwasher and thought to myself, yes, I can just do that. But then I went out, I opened the garage door, everything was clean and tidy. I can put the, the laundry basket on top of the dryer. and just everything seemed not as much of a struggle anymore. Everything seems just a little bit easier to do it. I'm not talking myself into doing it now. It's more of a yes. Let's keep on top of that. Let's do that. Today, the routines are starting to come.

Ingrid: Well, Rory, I mean. Absolutely fantastic, work, and I know you're going to continue. I know you've got so many things to tackle, please, and I know you love the community and the community inside the membership loves you and, absolutely phenomenal. I really, really appreciate you coming on today and sharing your journey so far, with us in, in the, in the Inner Hub and, Yeah, it's been absolutely fantastic to, to have you on the show. So listeners, are you feeling inspired as well? Are you thinking I want what Rory has? I want to do that, and gosh, I struggle as well with my energy and fatigue and, and, and physical challenges. And I, I, I didn't know it could be done, but now talk, listening to Rory, I feel like, wow, this is doable.

Come into the Inner Hub and come into the Declutter Hub membership. We would love to have you. All the details are on members.DeclutterHub.com. We would love to welcome you too. We would love to support you, be your cheerleaders and just like we have been with Rory so far. And Rory, thank you for being absolutely phenomenal.

Declutter Hub member and, and thank you for being here today. It's been absolutely lovely.

Rory: guys have set up the structure. I, I've followed it and I, I find that roadmap, both for the resets and the rooms really, really helpful because I don't have to think about it. Then it, it points me in the right direction and, I've still got a lot more to do, and then I'll probably do it all again.

Ingrid: Yeah,

well you're smiling about that now, Rory, so that's really, really good. Well, thank you so much again, and, listeners, I hope you've loved this, very special episode at the start of this new year and, we look forward to doing many, many more great Declutter Hub podcast episodes with you. So keep listening and we'll see you next week.