A NEW decluttering business is aiming to help Northwich residents live tidier lives and give their clutter a new purpose.

Not so long-ago, professional home organising was a service only Hollywood stars used, but now Peter Jackson is bringing his Calm the Clutter business to Northwich and surrounding areas.

Professional organiser Peter, who lives in Little Leigh, wants to educate people on not acquiring too much 'stuff' and how to create a place for everything in the home.

He said: "I’ve always been organised, and pretty tidy, but to be honest I didn’t realise this was a career choice.

"As I researched the concept I found that so many people struggle with too much stuff, and that it’s a cause of serious stress and anxiety.

"Covid has made things worse for many people, and certainly being in our homes for much more time has focused attention on the home environment.

"People can get stuck in a cycle of accumulating clutter, followed by desperate searching for lost things or emergency tidying, and it’s very hard to break out of that pattern.

"But everyone can do it if they learn how."

Calm the Clutter is not about throwing away people's belongings, but rather working with an individual to discuss their aims and taking the process step by step.

And it's not about taking things to landfill either.

Items are recycled or taken to charity shops to give them a new purpose – which makes it easier for clients to part with them, Peter said.

He added: "The key isn’t just to remove things from a client’s home, it’s about helping them to make the lifestyle changes to keep their home permanently and effortlessly tidy.

"We achieve that by creating a place for everything, and by adopting habits of reducing excess buying and by upcycling, donating and recycling.

"Most people want to live clutter-free, but the main barrier is not knowing how to start, and that’s where a professional organiser really comes in."

Peter started looking into the idea as he was moving into semi-retirement.

"I didn't know this was a job and then I starting looking into it last year and then thought 'I can do this'," he explained.

"Then I did the training and got more and more interested in it.

"I was going to launch before Christmas but with the pandemic it wasn't the right time to go into people's homes.

"It's been a thing in America for quite a few years and now it has come over here.

"It's a trend, but as well, a lot of people are under more time pressure now, and there are a lot of smaller homes, so there's more opportunities to buy stuff now, but nowhere to put it."

Peter is a member of APDO, the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers, which sets standards for the industry and is a qualified home organiser and project manager.

For more information, visit calmtheclutter.co.uk.