How to declutter and create a beautiful space in 30 days

In case you were wondering where I've been, I've been a little, ahem, busy with the above.

Some backgound--there is perhaps an opportunity opening up that I could be in a slightly different location, for a temporary period. With that in mind, I would need to think about renting out the flat, or getting a house sitter maybe. So on that basis, I decided to give renting a test drive, to see how it would make me feel about my space and what direction to go for a longer term plan. Here comes the decluttering bit...

My space is currently very--'lived in'. Since I work from home most of the time I have a tendency to have work and career related ideas everywhere. It's been one merry-go-round after another of tests and certificates and presentations. First it was the driver's licence in Feb after a few months practice and studying, then I had another two in April that didn't happen due to the ash cloud. One of them happened three weeks ago (a pass), the other make-up is in two weeks...so 'housekeeping skills' has been low on the agenda, and this new location option gave it a boost up. So then what? I fell upon the idea that my motivation for getting the place up to snuff would come from renting it out to complete strangers.

I know some declutter sites have various ideas to motivate you like:

• Imagine that you're going to move overseas, what is really important to you? (been there, done that)
• Imagine that you suddenly die and your relatives are left to sift through your belongings. (so what would it matter than, if I'm already dead, besides, my relatives already know that I can border on slobdom.)

My motiviation-->rent the place out to total strangers for a short period, and make that period soon enough in the future that I would need to crack down and clean it up quickly, rather than a long, drawn out process.

No really.

Some background--I've had plenty of couchsurfers over, hospitality club people, etc. Granted, they're staying a night for free so expectations are lower. However, it gave me the impression that I'm comfortable to have people in my space. Shocking behavior for an only child, I realize. I believe living in Germany socialized me somewhat to more of a community lifestyle.

So there are a few sites out there, that are basically extensions of the couchsurfing idea, but that you pay to stay at someone's place, rather than staying at a hotel. I had picked up on this idea from a New York Times article on the topic.

So I chose a future date where there was an event happening in my corner of Essex and I put up an ad about 6 weeks before it. At 4 weeks before it, a young couple were in contact, and they booked up and paid via the site. So I had 30 days to get the place into tip top shape. Sidenote: I have ads on a few of the sites the Times' article mentions. In this specific instance, I used Crashpadder. If you would like further nitty gritty details of the transaction or to friend me there or view my flat description, if you have my email send me a note, or send a note to this one: phillygirl06 @ the opposite of coldmail.com.

So I broke apart the 30 days and went after the largest items first. Specifically, that was the impetus behind my recent painting mission. :-)

So many tasks I had been sitting on now had a reason to get done, and a self-imposed deadline.

So that will probably be the focus of the next few blog posts, the flurry and activity of getting things done and how they turned out in the end. No before photos were taken to protect the innocent. ;-)