Dublin decluttering expert warns against the 'high of the buy'
It’s long been known that a chaotic living environment can mirror a chaotic mind, with jam-packed drawers and tags still hanging off unworn clothes only serving to foster shame and guilt across countless households.
But Fiona Hall argues our attachment to clutter isn’t a personal failing and instead reflects a complex mix of emotional undercurrents. As the founder of Consciously Clearing and Ireland’s first psychotherapist specialising in mindful decluttering, she understands that the constantly increasing barrage of ‘stuff’ we acquire goes much further than simple messiness.
Speaking with Dublin Live, Fiona broke down the psychology behind clutter and explained how she uses her background as an accredited psychotherapist and counsellor to allow people to confront the hidden triggers of consumerism and free their minds by clearing their space. “Often if we're going through difficult times or we're stressed or unwell, we don't always take care of our home environment. And our home environments can often be an external expression of our internal world,” she said.
Whether delivering decluttering workshops at various Dublin City Council Libraries or personally guiding clients one-on-one, Fiona knows well how changing one’s physical environment can massively improve personal wellbeing. “We all have way too much stuff, so we should just be able to give it away, but if it were that easy I wouldn’t have a job,” she said.
Constantly buying things, whether that’s new clothes, the latest gadgets, or another half-price item we don’t need has become synonymous with the modern world. This fuels an endless cycle that Fiona refers to as “the high of the buy”.
There’s a fleeting energy rush that comes with scoring a deal and although seeing something reduced from €100 to €50 might seem too good to pass up, this is a false equivalent. “Unless you were prepared to pay €100 in the first place, it's actually not a bargain. It's €50 that you have spent to bring something into your home based on the price, and not whether you need it."
According to Fiona, we’re constantly being “hoodwinked” by the retail around us, and without setting firm boundaries around spending habits, it’s easy to fall into these traps. Even sales signs play into innate psychological triggers with the colour red leaning into a sense of urgency and prompt quick decision making.
“One of the things I say to clients is we do not have to acquire everything we admire. We can see something beautiful and admire it, but we do not have to buy it and bring it into our home, particularly when it is based on a price,” she said.
It isn’t just high-end purchases causing the backlog either. There are so many smaller, everyday items we hoard under the guise of practicality. Fiona spoke about a quintessentially Irish obsession, the infamous "bag of bags”.
We keep them because our brains hate the guilt of throwing them away, yet we inevitably buy a new one every time we shop. However, a simple fix is to fill these bags with unwanted books or clothes and give them directly to a charity shop who are always happy to receive plastic bags they can reuse.
Many will be familiar with Japanese organiser Marie Kondo’s famous phrase “does it spark joy?” where she encouraged people to clear out the clutter in their lives by getting rid of everything that doesn’t bring them happiness. Fiona believes Kondo’s method was perhaps a little bit too strict and even joked that once she had children of her own “she changed her tune a little bit”.
For Fiona, decluttering is about bringing order back into our lives and the urge to hang onto kids’ scribbles, doodles, and drawings is a natural and understandable thing. This is where things like memory boxes and scrap books are so useful because they offer the opportunity to keep the things that are important to us in a way that doesn’t clutter up the space around us.
This emotional attachment even extends to how we treat ourselves on a daily basis. Fiona notes a common trend of "subconscious self-abandonment" in the homes she visits, where people relegate themselves to using chipped, faded mugs while leaving the pristine, "good" Denby pottery locked away for special visitors’ use only.
We refuse to give ourselves permission to use the nice things, keeping them on display so guests believe we are a certain type of person. But as Fiona points out, you could easily be those people right now, if you just allowed yourself to use what you already own.
This becomes especially relevant when someone in our lives passes away and we are confronted with a lifetime's worth of belongings to sort through. Fiona says people often have the urge to try and keep everything, which can lead to something called complicated grief, where people cannot close the circle on their healing and get in a deep state of emotional turmoil.
Instead of trying to keep every plate, saucer, and cup, Fiona suggests just taking one and allowing that to act as a symbol of the whole. “It’s actually extremely therapeutic to let stuff go, because by letting it go we clear psychological space as well as physical space,” she said.
When taking up a new hobby, it’s easy to get overexcited and want to jump in head first, but that urge can also cause problems if it’s not handled properly. Fiona speaks about clients who decide on a whim that they’re going to take up golf and before they’ve even set foot on a course they’ve already invested €500 in gloves, balls, bags, and clubs.
“Then they do one or two lessons and think ‘No, this isn’t for me, it’s boring, I hate it’,” she said. “Now you’ve got all this stuff in the house and it goes under the stairs, or in the boot of the car, or it goes to live in the garage for a little bit.”
Fiona explained the deep-rooted psychological game that is at play here. People don’t want to part with items when they’ve made a mistake because that would give up on the imagined version of themselves who was about to become a pro golfer. “We don't have to buy stuff to figure out if we want to do stuff. It's easier to do the doing first and then be the being,” she said.
With simple rules like “try before you buy,” Fiona says we can avoid clutter and not be “bogged down by the burden of stuff”. Even the act itself of clearing up can add new excitement in somebody’s life, as Fiona says the cathartic nature of clearing one’s home forces people to evaluate what they own and what is important to them.
Often just getting started can be the hardest thing, as we’re overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff that needs to be sorted that we end up continually procrastinating. For this reason, Fiona suggests that once or twice a year people set a timer and devote themselves entirely to the job of decluttering.
“It could be three hours of continuous decision making, which can be mentally, physically, and spiritually exhausting," she said.
“Then once it’s done you need to leave the house because your brain will be overwhelmed from all the thinking and you need to go to a calm environment. Go for a walk, calm down your nervous system, do not go shopping.”
Fiona says it’s common for people to want to tackle their entire house over the course of one weekend and that is not always feasible. Instead, it’s better to break things down into smaller tasks or just dealing with one room at a time.
“You don't have to upend your own life. This shouldn't be a punishment. This should be an enjoyable experience.”
Another trick is to create situations that motivate you, such as planning a dinner party for a month's time and knowing you have that much time to declutter the house.
Those struggling to break the habit of mindless consumption can also follow Fiona’s advice with a simple exercise. For one month, every time you’re fighting the urge to buy something based on the sales price instead of a genuine need, take €5 and place it in an envelope.
By the end of the month, you’ll find you’re up to €150 richer and with way less clutter around the house. Then, instead of using that money to purchase an item, instead spend it on an experience. Whether it’s a nice dinner or a weekend away with a friend, Fiona said that 20 years from now you won’t remember the coat on sale that sat unworn in your wardrobe but you will remember the memories you made with loved ones.
To hear more about Fiona's decluttering advice or learning about upcoming workshops, follow @consciouslyclearing on socials..
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme