Floored Logic

Kash and Sevan arrived at Ms B's house for some "light decluttering". The promised skip was in front of the house and after entering the front door, Ms B's brother, Mr S, met them and things didn't look too bad. A few steps around the corner was Ms B's domain and, well, there was a lot going on there. Her brother explained that the pair had lived in the house for 70 years, so had collected a lot of possessions in that time.

The actual task was upstairs in Ms B's bedroom where Kash and Sevan found clothes and bags everywhere. The floor was hardly visible apart from a narrow path through to the bed. The duo hoped that Ms B had had a minimalist epiphany and was ready to part with most of what lay around her.

Sevan tackled the 3 door wardrobe first, where only one door could be opened as belongings were piled high in front of it. Most items in there Ms B was willing to part with as they were older clothes that would no longer fit her, so they were bagged for disposal. Kash was asked to focus on a pile of laundry on the floor, which was split into 2 groups, to discard or to be washed.

Slow progress was being made as clothes started to be moved out of the room. The carpet was still far underneath the top layer though. Kash moved on to excavate the next nearest mountain, where she found more clothes (including some never worn), shoes and lots of mugs. Looking into the mugs, Kash found that some that could've been part of a school science experiment.

Ms B was finding it hard to let go, often saying either:

"Well I need to keep some clothes or I won't have anything to wear"

Or...

"I'll keep that. It's never been worn"

Sevan tried to counter the flawed logic, with some success

"Are you likely to wear it in the next 30 days? If not, is it something you'd wear on a special occasion?"

On the other side of the room, Sevan was trying to clear the space in front of the wardrobe doors. He found clothes, shoes, lots of cosmetics (10 identical boxes of unopened hand cream!), many black handbags, stacks of vinyl records and... more mugs. In total, Kash and Sevan found 2 carrier bags full of mugs, which were reunited with their friends in the kitchen. Mr S heard the noise of the crockery from downstairs and wondered what was going on.

"Were you moving bricks around upstairs?" - Mr S

By the end of the task, Kash and Sevan managed to move 14 bags out of the bedroom, with 10 of them plus some boxes finding their way in to the skip, never to return indoors. The biggest success was seeing the floor emerge from under the clutter, giving Ms B a safer path through her bedroom.