As September brings a sense of renewal for many households, a BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour special detailed four practical strategies to declutter homes this autumn, urging people to start small, plan disposal routes, prioritise meaningful items and distinguish nostalgia from sentimentality.
Psychologists cited on the programme say tidying living spaces can reduce stress and boost energy, and that the darker evenings and return to routine make autumn a natural moment to reassess what is kept in the home. Experts on the show warned that the hardest part for many is simply beginning and urged realistic, step-by-step approaches.
Michelle Ogundehin, writer and judge on the television series Interior Design Masters, recommended starting with a single drawer or cupboard so the task feels manageable rather than overwhelming. "It's not about thinking 'right, that's it! It's all got to go!' It's about taking it one step at a time," she said, adding that people should give themselves permission to discard items kept out of obligation as well as those kept for enjoyment.
Planning what happens to discarded items was emphasised as an essential early step. Ingrid Jansen, a professional organiser and co-founder of Declutter Hub, said arrangements for donation, recycling or disposal should be made before or within a few days of decluttering to avoid piles building up in hallways. Declutter Hub, which the co-founders say includes more than 60,000 members, points users to a range of options from charity shops to local reuse apps.
"You don't want to have piles and piles of stuff building up in the hallway," Jansen said, recommending charities, giveaway platforms such as Freegle and Freecycle, and municipal tips for items that cannot be reused. Selling second-hand through online marketplaces including Vinted and eBay was presented as another option, though Lesley Spellman, Jansen's Declutter Hub co-founder, warned that the lure of turning clutter into cash can encourage "churning" — repeatedly packing items for disposal without actually moving them on. "Selling is a fantastic way to make money out of your clutter, but you have to exercise some realism," she said.
Experts also advised prioritising quality over quantity and creating containment: assigning specific places for objects to avoid them spreading through living spaces. Ogundehin suggested keeping items that "reinforce you, that uplift you when you walk through the door," whether that is souvenirs, photos or children's artwork. The containment approach, she said, helps preserve the items that matter while preventing accumulation of less meaningful possessions.
Emotional attachment often complicates decisions, and the programme drew a distinction between sentimentality and nostalgia. Stelios Kiosses, a psychotherapist and host of Channel 4's The Hoarder Next Door, explained that sentimentality refers to the present emotional value of an object as a symbol of a relationship or achievement, while nostalgia is a longing for past times that an object can trigger. Recognising the difference can help owners decide whether an item is being kept for current emotional meaning or merely as a trigger for memories.
Jansen gave the example of a child's first pair of shoes to illustrate how memories can be the real reason items are retained. "You think you keep it for them," she said, "but actually it's your memory, because you remember going to shops and buying it with them and thinking how cute they looked." She and other experts noted that modern smartphones make it easy to preserve memories with photographs, reducing the need to keep every physical memento.
The discussion on Woman's Hour offered practical norms for people approaching decluttering: begin with a small, clearly defined space; decide ahead of time where discarded items will go; keep items that have ongoing emotional or functional value; and interrogate whether attachments are sentimental or nostalgic. Experts framed decluttering as an incremental project rather than a single dramatic event, with realistic expectations about selling and donating the best safeguards against unfinished piles and stalled progress.
For households taking advantage of the seasonal shift to reassess their spaces, the collective advice from organisers and clinicians on the programme was consistent: make a plan, start small, be honest about why items are kept, and use available reuse and recycling channels to prevent waste. Those steps, the guests said, can make the task less daunting and the home more restorative as autumn sets in.
