DE-CLUTTERING LIVES
Some people keep everything, others just don’t like tidying up. Birgit Medele helps to get the structure back into homes and offices. She is a German born professional organiser, based in London. The German Link accompanied her on a client appointment.
Tabitha Potts, her husband and their two young sons live in a small house in East London. On entering the house you find yourself right in the living room. It is a homely room with white wooden floors, a sofa and bookshelves. Boxes and books are piled up in a corner. On the first floor is the bedroom of the boys. They have evenly distributed their soft toys, clothes, books and games around the room and on to the beds. The soft toys don’t mind. Tabitha does. She has hired Birgit Medele to help her to get the house back into being the home she envisions. “I have lived in California for a while”, she says. “In the US it is a lot more common to get the declutterers in.”
“The problem is the lack of space in the house”, analyses Tabitha. The family have outgrown it – there is a For Sale sign on display by the front entrance. The other issue is a lack of time. The mother of two is setting up her own home based business, Mimi Myne (www.mimimyne.com) – sourcing and selling ecologically sound children’s clothing. The kitchen table on the lower ground floor hosts her laptop and doubles as the board room. She dreams of her own office, possibly an extension. Apart from time and space constraints there’s another point: “Sometimes I just don’t have enough energy or will power to keep everything organised. And that also goes for my husband.”
Birgit Medele doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the Potts’ household. “Most homes feature a room or a corner that is disorganised”, says the former journalist. She lives in London with her husband and two young children. “Originally from Munich, I only wanted to stay for six months. But then I fell in love with the city and embarked on an art degree. I think I always had a passion for beauty,” she says. She discovered her love of organising quite early on. “But as a student, I didn’t consider it very glamorous to be good at tidying…!” But then her sister died and nobody was able to handle her belongings – only Birgit. “And that was when I realised that I have a special skill. That it is a gift to be able to deal with things and to let go. Letting go - even of just one book – can be a very profound process.” For the last three years Birgit Medele has been organising flats, houses, garages and offices of others – both in the UK and Germany. She revamps the filing, does wardrobe edits or takes items to the charity shop.
There a golden rule in her practice: nothing will be disposed of without the agreement of the client. Nobody is talked into parting with an item. - She goes through about 100 soft toys with the boys. Every single one is taken up and she discusses with the children if this particular one should stay with the family or if it can move on to another home. Many clients of Birgit Medele finance the decluttering service by selling the items they no longer want. Tabitha Potts says, she had asked her husband, if he would help her to organise the house at the weekend and hire some childcare. Or if they should get a professional organiser in. They agreed on the decluttering service.
“It is a bit like life coaching but very hands on,” says Birgit Medele. Every single one of us owns about 10 to 15 000 things. When people are attached to something, it is never about the thing in itself, but the story behind it. A clearing session is far more than just tidying up. It brings in new clarity and vision. “You should only keep things that mirror who you currently are.” Her clients were not more disorganised than others, they would just sometimes find it hard to let go things or didn’t know where to start. She has clients in all age ranges and from all parts of society. Often children play an important part. “Kids spread chaos,” says Birgit Medele. It takes a lot of energy to get children to tidy up.
After two four hour sessions the children’s bedroom looks like an image out of the IKEA-catalogue: Tidy, more spacious, every game and every soft toy in its place. The beds feature no longer as additional storage space but are solely being used for sleeping. The kids’ room is back to being a place where playing is fun.
What differentiates the clients of Birgit Medele from other people? “Nothing”, says Birgit Medele. “They are just more honest.”
By Christiane Link - Published in: The German Link, 10/09
