We have all done it – woken up with a great sense of purpose and a steely determination to tackle the spare room, garage or airing cupboard.

You roll up your sleeves and get stuck in.

Then five hours later with everything pulled out from under the bed, the cupboard and those boxes in the corner, you realise things have not got any better, in fact it looks worse than before.

As a result, you end up feeling frustrated and despondent and stuff everything back just so you can shut the door on it and leave it to fester for another day.

Sounding familiar?

Want to know what went wrong?

Well there can be many reasons which I will address in future columns but most likely you just got plain distracted.

A book you have not read yet, old letters from friends and family, photos you have not looked at for years and a multitude of other long forgotten treasures reappear.

They provide opportunities to spend hours reminiscing and dipping into fond or sometimes painful memories.

Consequently time flies by and nothing has been achieved except more muddle.

So next time, before you roll up your sleeves and plunge into the clutter head first, take some time to think carefully about the bigger picture and ask yourself:

What do you actually want to achieve?

How long will it realistically take?

What will be your reward?

With these questions answered you now have the beginnings of a plan of action and it will be easier to remain focused on the task in hand.

So now, when wonderful distractions are unearthed, you can pop them to one side to come back to and enjoy after you have achieved your decluttering goals.

Brigitte Girling, of Style2Live, can be contacted on 01379 897248 or via www.style2live.co.uk