Decluttering Untangled with Heather Tingle : How to declutter when you're overwhelmed, ADHD or Autistic
In this podcast, Heather will teach you what really works, and what doesn't, to successfully declutter your home - as when you're overwhelmed, ADHD or Autistic, it isn't just a case of hiring a skip and having a big sort out - it's not that easy!Heather is an expert in working with families that live in chaos, and all the challenges that brings. She is Autistic and has ADHD so knows all about how neurodiversity links to clutter. As a naturally messy person herself, she can show you how to live in a clean, clutter free and organised home re...
156 - Is it OK to double up on zones?
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Summary
In this episode, Heather Tingle answers common questions about organising zones in the home, focusing on whether doubling up on zones like bedding and tech causes problems or offers benefits. She provides practical advice on system consistency and how to decide the best approach for your space.
Key topics
155 - Why Does My Suitcase Never Get Unpacked? (ADHD and Packing)
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In this episode, Heather Tingle shares practical tips and personal insights on how to make packing and unpacking less stressful, especially for neurodivergent travellers. She discusses strategies to simplify the process, reduce decision fatigue, and create routines that make travel easier.
Key topics
154 - What to do about clothes that don't fit
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather talks about the clothes that don't fit right now, and why packing them away in a separate box often isn't the answer. Whether it's the bag under the bed marked "one day" or the vacuum pack in the loft, out of sight can quickly become out of mind, especially for neurodivergent brains, and that box can end up holding a lot of quiet guilt along with the clothes.
Heather shares a different approach: keep the...
153 - Why Hasn't Anything I've Tried Worked? (It's Not Because You Don't Want It Enough)
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Have you ever been told, or told yourself, that if you really wanted a tidier home you'd have done it by now? In this episode Heather gets into why that message is so untrue, and why wanting it badly is rarely the missing piece. Money, health, energy, the people you live with, inherited stuff and sheer volume all play their part, and so do systems that were built for someone else's brain. Sometimes, though, what keeps you stuck is more psychological than that.
<...152- ADHD and the Guilt of Unfinished Dreams
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Heather Tingle shares a personal reflection on why decluttering sometimes means releasing more than objects. In this episode, she unpacks how a box of old business supplies surfaced an abandoned subscription box idea and what that revealed about identity, sunk cost, and the difference between a dream and the stuff attached to it. Letting go of stored items can also mean letting go of guilt, without giving up the possibility of a future version of the dream.
Timestamps
00:00 — Why this ep...
151 - The missing piece thats holding your decluttering efforts back
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This episode started with a comment from an Untangled Life member: "but that's the missing piece, isn't it, no accountability." Heather takes that and runs with a live confession: she set herself a DeclutterCon bonus challenge to find and sell £60 worth of stuff from her own home to pay for a course she's doing. She's found £90 to £100 worth. She's sold none of it, because she hasn't listed a single item. Heather unpacks why announcing something publicly isn't the same as being accountable for finishing it...
150- Is Tidying Actually Making Your Home Worse?
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Is Your Tidying Actually Making Your Home Worse?
We've all done it, shoved something into whatever drawer had space, told ourselves "away" counted as "organised," and called it a day. In this episode Heather digs into a pattern she sees in almost every client's home: drawers and cupboards with no real system, no zoning, just wherever things happened to end up. She walks through exactly how this spirals, the hunting, the giving up, the leaving things out "so I'll remember where it...
149 - What to Do If You Feel Like You'll Never Get Decluttered and Organised
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Ever hit the point in decluttering where it feels like nothing's changing, no matter how much work you've put in? In this episode Heather talks about the invisible wall so many people hit partway through their decluttering journey. The point where progress feels invisible and it's easy to think "what's the point, nothing's ever going to change."
Heather breaks down why this happens: shrinking dopamine rewards as you get used to letting go of more, the shift away from delayed gratification, working b...
148 - The Amazing Storage Solution We Never Think About!
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147 episodes in, and Heather realises she's never actually done a full episode on one of her favourite neurodivergent-friendly storage solutions: hooks. In this episode she talks through why hooks work so well for messy brains, busy lives, and anyone who forgets things exist the second they're out of sight. Starting with the fruit-bowl-turned-doom-pile most of us have by the front door, and a client's tiny porch that had become a genuine shoe-related fire hazard. From there, Heather walks room by room through where hooks...
147 - ADHD, Time blindness, and why decluttering doesn't go to plan!
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You said you'd "just tidy the side" at 11 o'clock. You look up and it's half past one, the kitchen looks worse than when you started, and you genuinely can't account for the last two hours. In this episode, Heather Tingle talks about time blindness. A genuine, documented part of how many ADHD brains work. Drawing on her own experience of starting ADHD medication and noticing, for the first time, what time feels like when it isn't "bendy." She breaks down the three ways time b...
146 - Why "Just Declutter Before You Move" Is Terrible Advice for an ND Brain!
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, host Heather Tingle speaks with Emma Sales about the unique challenges neurodivergent individuals face when moving house. They discuss the importance of planning, the emotional aspects of moving, and practical tips for decluttering and packing. Emma shares insights from her book, 'Unpacked Neurodivergence and Moving House,' emphasising the need for personalised strategies and the acceptance of one's own moving process. The conversation highlights the significance of creating a safe space during the transition and managing stress effectively.
145 - Is the 'House Hushing' decluttering trend right for you?
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There is a new decluttering trend doing the rounds called House Hushing, coined by Myquillyn Smith, known online as The Nester. Heather breaks down what it actually involves, where it works brilliantly, and why she has some real reservations about it for anyone with a genuinely full house or an ADHD brain.
What You Will Learn
144 - The extend and split decluttering mistake most people make
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You know that moment when the kitchen cupboard finally shuts, because you've moved half of what was in there to a back stock cupboard in the garage or a shelf in the cellar? It feels like a win. It isn't.
In this episode Heather unpacks one of the most common (and sneakiest) decluttering mistakes, splitting or extending a category so some of it can live in a different room. It solves the problem in room one for about five minutes, then quietly...
143 - How can I declutter when I'm sentimental about everything?
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Two clients, one week, the same sentence. "I'm worried because I'm sentimental about everything." It's a phrase Heather hears often, and one that quietly convinces people they're worse at decluttering than everyone else.
In this episode, Heather breaks sentimentality down into four levels, most of what feels precious isn't actually equal, and talks through how neurodivergence can shape emotional attachment to belongings. She shares the story of a bag of trip souvenirs that taught her the difference between a true memory and...
142 - "Do I Own Too Much?" Why Minimalism Isn't the Goal
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Heather debunks the myth that decluttering means minimalism, emphasising that a home should reflect personal love and functionality rather than societal ideals of minimalism. She discusses practical tips for organising, the importance of having backups, and embracing a lived-in, personality-filled space.
Chapters
00:00
Introduction: Debunking the myth of minimalism
00:29
Why decluttering isn't about minimalism
01:00
The importance of a home that feels good
01:27
...
141 - Why Can't I Keep On Top of My Home?
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Summary:
If you've ever put loads of time and energy into decluttering and getting organised, only to watch it completely unravel the second life gets difficult, this episode is for you. Heather talks through one of the most common patterns she sees in client homes and inside the Untangled Life membership: building systems that only work when everything is going well. She explains why that happens, what to do instead, and how designing for your worst week actually makes your best weeks even easier.
<...140 - Make Procrastination Work For You: The Swap Trick
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Summary
In this episode, Heather shares the trick she occasionally uses on herself, and with clients, to get a decluttering task started when it really doesn't want to happen. By pairing a dreaded decluttering task with another dreaded task that has a fixed deadline, she's worked out how to make procrastination work in your favour instead of against you.
Chapters
00:00
Introduction to Decluttering Strategies
02:48
The Letter of Two Evils Trick
139 - The Placeholder Method: Stop Waiting, Start Acting 'As If'
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Have you ever stood in a room, able to see exactly what needs to happen, but nothing will move because one thing is waiting on another thing, which is waiting on another thing?
That is the bottleneck, and in this episode we're sorting it out.
I walk you through the placeholder method: a simple, slightly-messy-in-the-short-term approach that gets everything moving again, even when the thing you're waiting for hasn't arrived yet. We use the sideboard example, but this...
138 - From Alone to Understood: The Decluttering Shift You Never Knew You Needed
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When did you last tell someone in real life what your home actually looks like? Not a partner, not someone you live with. A friend. A colleague. Someone you chose to tell? For most of us, the honest answer is never.
In this episode Heather gets personal about the thing that makes decluttering so much harder than it needs to be. Not the stuff itself, but the secrecy, the shame, and the exhaustion of carrying it alone. She talks about what she...
137 - Why Am I So Frustrated With My Decluttering Progress?
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If you've hit a wall with your decluttering and you're starting to get annoyed at yourself at your lack of progress, this episode is for you. Heather unpacks why lack of progress usually has nothing to do with laziness, and everything to do with what else is going on in your life.
From the aftermath of a heatwave to the stress of everyday life quietly draining your energy, there are so many reasons why progress slows down. And then there's the middle...
136 - Seeing potential in discards, are you in danger of Wishcycling?
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You can see the potential in it. You know someone out there would love it, fix it up, give it a new life. So into the charity bag it goes — because that feels like the kindest thing to do. But what if that well-meaning donation is actually creating a problem for the very charities you want to support? In this episode, Heather talks about wishcycling — the habit of donating items in the hope that someone else will do the rescuing — and what to do instea...
135 - When You and Your Partner See Clutter Differently (And the Resentment Is Building)
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Summary
If clutter is causing tension in your home, you are not alone. Whether it's a partner, spouse, housemate or family member, living with someone who has a different relationship with stuff than you do is genuinely hard, and the resentment that builds on both sides can start to feel impossible to navigate.
In this episode, Heather Tingle draws on a decade of working in clients' homes, as well as her own personal experience, to talk honestly about what actually happens when one...
134 - What to do when you hate your home
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Summary
Heather Tingle shares practical strategies for coping with the overwhelming feeling of hating your own home. She discusses how to create pockets of calm, enjoy your space now, and find small ways to improve your environment despite ongoing decluttering efforts.
Chapters
00:00
Coping with Home Discomfort
06:06
Strategies for Creating a Comfortable Space
09:45
Finding Joy Outside Your Home
11:36
Creating Pockets of Niceness
133 - The Junk Drawer Series: Decluttering those random screws and hardware
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Summary
In this episode, Heather Tingle tackles the clutter of DIY hardware bits in your junk drawer. Learn how to organise, declutter, and decide what to keep or let go of, making space and reducing stress.
Chapters
00:00
Introduction to DIY Clutter
02:48
Identifying and Managing Spare Parts
05:34
The Guilt of Unidentified Items
08:56
Practical Tips for Organizing DIY Supplies
11:48
Conclusion and...
132 - The Junk Drawer Series: Decluttering Instruction Manuals
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Summary
In this episode, Heather Tingle tackles the common clutter of instruction manuals, exploring why we keep them and how to let go. She offers practical tips on assessing their value, reducing clutter, and managing related anxieties.
Chapters
00:00
Introduction to the Manual Clutter Challenge
00:29
Why Do We Keep Instruction Manuals?
01:21
The Anxiety Behind Keeping Manuals
02:14
Assessing the Value of Manuals in Your...
131 - The Junk Drawer Series - Batteries
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather Tingle guides listeners through the process of organising and properly disposing of batteries found in junk drawers. She emphasises the importance of not throwing batteries in the regular waste bin due to fire hazards and provides practical steps for gathering, testing, and storing batteries. Heather also encourages listeners to create a routine for recycling batteries, making the process easier and more efficient. The episode is filled with actionable tips to help listeners declutter their homes...
130 - The Junk Drawer Series - How to deal with business cards
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In this episode, Heather Tingle explores the clutter and inefficiency caused by business cards, offering practical tips on decluttering and modern alternatives like digital contacts and QR codes. Business cards feel too important to throw away but not important enough to actually do anything with. So they sit in a drawer for years, representing contacts you may not need, from companies that may not exist anymore, for reasons you can no longer remember. In this episode Heather walks you through how to...
129 - How to deal with purchases that didn't work out
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In this episode, Heather Tingle explores the psychological reasons behind the difficulty of letting go of purchases that went wrong and provides practical strategies to resolve this common decluttering challenge.
We've all been there. Something arrives from Amazon, Temu, or Shein, and it's just not quite right. Not quite what you pictured. Not quite what you needed. And instead of dealing with it, it ends up in a bag or a box, where it quietly sits, taking up space and...
128 - How to fix the problem of gifts that never get given
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You bought the gift. You meant well. You have absolutely no idea where it is now.
This episode came in as a listener request and it is one of those topics that the moment you mention it, everyone nods. The gifts bought in a burst of excitement and never given. The birthday present found six months later still in the bag. The thing you ordered online that you are fairly sure is somewhere in the spare room.
In this episode...
127 - Are you measuring your decluttering progress wrong?
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You spent hours decluttering. You are tired. You look around the room and it looks basically the same. Sound familiar?
That feeling is one of the most common things Heather hears from clients, and it is one of the most demoralising parts of the whole process. In this episode, she explains exactly why that feeling is lying to you.
Spoiler: decluttering is decision-making. Some categories, like paper, can contain hundreds or even thousands of individual decisions that take...
126 - How to declutter the spare room of doom
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That room. You know the one. It started out as a guest bedroom, a home office, maybe a gym. Now it is a dumping ground with a closed door and a whole lot of delayed decisions behind it.
In this episode, Heather Tingle tackles the spare room head on. Why it fills up, why it is always the last room to get sorted, and exactly what you need to do to finally reclaim it.
In this episode you will...
125 - The Declutter Hack: Make Fewer Decisions and Get More Done
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Summary
Heather Tingle shares a powerful decluttering strategy: using category rules to minimise decision fatigue and make decluttering more manageable. Learn how to set effective rules for different categories of items to streamline your decluttering process and reduce stress.
Chapters
00:00
The Power of Category Rules in Decluttering
09:44
Implementing Category Rules with Help
16:22
Creating Effective Decluttering Rules
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124 - The Projects Box: An ADHD-Friendly Way to Deal With "Potential" Crafty bits
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Do you have bits and pieces scattered around your home that you keep meaning to do something with? In this episode, Professional Declutterer and Organiser Heather Tingle introduces the Projects Box. A simple, one-rule system that gives your creative intentions a proper home and actually gets things done. Perfect for creative and ADHD brains.
Chapters
00:00
Introduction to Intentional Clutter
02:15
Understanding the Projects Box
05:57
The Rule of the Projects Box
08:36<...
123 - How to declutter and organise wires, chargers and cables
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather Tingle addresses the common issue of cluttered electrical wires, cables, and chargers in homes. She emphasises the emotional and psychological challenges associated with decluttering these items and provides a structured approach to tackle the problem. Heather outlines steps to gather, sort, and organise cables effectively, while also encouraging listeners to let go of items that no longer serve a purpose. The episode concludes with practical tips for maintaining an organised system and fostering a stress-free...
122 - Neurodivergent Cleaning Tips When Routines Don’t Stick
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather Tingle discusses the often-overlooked distinction between cleaning and decluttering. She shares her personal struggles with maintaining a clean home post-decluttering and explores the challenges posed by executive functioning. Heather offers practical strategies for effective cleaning, emphasising the importance of habit stacking and lowering friction in cleaning tasks. She also addresses the unrealistic standards many people set for cleanliness and encourages listeners to redefine their expectations, reminding them that it's okay to seek help, whether through...
121 - Decluttering Keys: Clarity and safety
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather Tingle discusses the often-overlooked emotional and practical challenges of decluttering old keys. She explores the psychological burden these keys can represent, including feelings of responsibility and fear of regret. Heather provides practical steps for organising and deciding what to keep or let go, emphasising the importance of clarity and intentionality in the decluttering process.
Chapters
00:00
The Burden of Unused Keys
02:43
Understanding the Emotional Weight of Keys
120 - The 10-Minute a day decluttering myth (Especially for Neurodivergent brains)
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather Tingle explores why the common advice to “just do ten minutes a day” often doesn’t work for people with ADHD and other neurodivergent brains. She explains how this approach relies heavily on daily consistency, stable energy levels, and motivation, which can make decluttering feel harder rather than easier for many listeners.
Heather discusses how ND and ADHD brains tend to work in bursts, why unfinished tasks are particularly draining, and how open-ended plans can create...
119 - Why traditional decluttering methods don't work for ADHD brains
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather Tingle discusses the challenges faced by individuals with ADHD and neurodivergent brains when using traditional decluttering methods. She emphasises that these methods often fail because they are based on assumptions that do not align with the realities of neurodivergent individuals. Heather critiques popular methods like the coat hanger method, explaining why they can be ineffective and how decluttering should focus on visibility and immediate feedback rather than memory. The conversation encourages listeners to embrace their...
118 - Digital Declutter: Why We Screenshot Things We Never Use
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather Tingle discusses the often-overlooked issue of digital clutter, particularly focusing on the accumulation of screenshots on our phones. She explores how these digital remnants can weigh us down mentally and emotionally, serving as reminders of unfulfilled intentions and aspirations. Heather encourages listeners to reframe their approach to decluttering by recognising the difference between their current selves and their 'fantasy selves.' By letting go of unnecessary screenshots, individuals can create mental space and reduce the...
117 - Clothes Swishing, Style and Self Identity with Guest Expert Lisa Newport
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In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, host Heather Tingle speaks with style catalyst Lisa Newport about the deeper meaning of personal style and self-expression. They discuss the concept of clothes swishing as a sustainable and community-oriented way to refresh wardrobes while supporting charity. Lisa shares her personal journey and the importance of understanding one's style, as well as practical tips for hosting and attending swish events. The conversation emphasises the liberation that comes from embracing one's true self through fashion and the...
