Being productive with any task depends on our ability to focus and how easily we allow ourselves to be distracted.

There is one typical example of distraction that I regularly encounter during decluttering sessions: my client comes across a photo album and immediately they sit down and start looking at photos. I get it, they have not seen those in a while and it’s tempting to open the album, but in the meantime they completely forget about the task at hand.

Have you ever found yourself saying “yes” to do something and you immediately knew you really didn’t want to do it but felt obliged to accept anyway? We are all primed to say “yes” from a young age: “be polite”, “don’t be rude” and “help those less able” are phrases that have been hammered into children’s heads from a young age.

As adults, we often find ourselves in situations where that choice between “yes” and “no” can become difficult to navigate.

I’m sure you’ll agree that being prepared for emergencies is better than running around like a headless chicken when disaster strikes.

I suggest having an ‘emergency box’ that contains the stuff you would want to grab if you had to leave at speed. That does not need to be a box, any portable container will do (a box, backpack, or a small suitcase) as long as it can hold whatever you have decided is something you need in an emergency (a health crisis, a fire, flood or any other reason you’d have to leave in a hurry).

Consider this: how much time and energy do you spend beating yourself down instead of lifting yourself up? Imagine what your home could be like if you stopped being a perfectionist, people pleasing and comparing yourself to everyone else.

Self-sabotage often goes hand in hand with a lack of self-awareness or a disconnect between a person’s desires and their actions. People may unintentionally sabotage themselves because of low self-esteem and fear of failure.

When it comes to dealing with clutter, we often focus on the status quo: the stuff that sits in our space and – maybe – how it affects and is affected by the mental health of the person living in that space. While this is an excellent starting point, there are other elements to the physical clutter that is often overlooked, but that have a huge impact on understanding what is going on and the necessity to deal with it sooner rather than later.

Once the last child leaves the family home, parents tend to experience a sense of emptiness and a certain amount of nostalgia called “empty nest syndrome”. What now?

Downsizing might be on the horizon, but before you trade your four-bedroom for something cozier, there’s one big question: what do you do with all their stuff? Who gets to decide?

“Going shopping” has turned from a necessity to replace worn out clothes into a fully-fledged leisure activity. In itself, this is not a bad thing: in our free time we like to do things we enjoy and if this is what you enjoy, why not? However, shopping can be a slippery slope when it becomes more than a necessity or a pastime you share with friends.

More and more people go shopping for more problematic reasons, and it can easily turn into retail therapy, i.e., shopping to make oneself feel more cheerful or to distract from sometimes serious problems. Then it’s no longer all about finding that special thing, but running away from issues in real life that need dealing with.

Dealing with the items left behind after a death in the family is probably the most common – but by no means the only - situation where you have to deal with items intrinsically associated with grief.

It’s a difficult time to start with, fraught with emotions and a certain dullness of thought, so having to deal with whatever precious things remain in that person’s home will likely be emotionally charged and can bring up memories, thoughts and regrets at every turn.

We are all collectors in some way, it seems to be baked into being human. Some collect beautiful things at random, others have hobbies that require certain materials, and in some cases the collection is digital (photos on your phone, anyone?).

Of course, collections can be a healthy way to occupy your free time, but they can easily take a turn towards the dark side, when collecting becomes an obsession. "Collection" can mean many things, though...

I’ve talked about using lists, journals and calendars as simple tools to stay organised, plan ahead and ensure that things that need doing aren’t forgotten. Often, though, those simple tools are not flexible enough or don’t offer the exact solution that works for you.

Of course, there are more complex tools to consider that may need a little more time and input to make them work, but could possibly serve you well.