Downsizing

Our first session with you will start with a chat about your goals for the session and getting to know you so we are better equipped to serve you well. We will then get started helping you to curate the possessions that are coming with you into your new home. How we do this will depend on your goals for the session. Are we there to help you declutter for the sale of your home? Are we there to help you decide what furniture and possessions are coming with you into your next home? Are you having to do a double move, where you move out of your family home and in with family or renting until your next home is ready? Are we helping you pack? Are we helping you unpack and organise your new home? No matter what, we are here to support you both physically and emotionally throughout the  whole downsizing process so you can relax knowing we will help guide you through it.

Yes! It is important that you are present within the home and available to make decisions with us as we never make decisions on your behalf about what is to stay and what is to be removed from your space. We are also there to help and coach you through any difficult decisions.

We take your capacity into consideration in all sessions and it’s totally fine if you need to sit the whole time or take a coffee/snack break. In a typical 4 hour session we make sure we all have a quick 10 minute break so we can all have the energy to complete the session.  

Yes! We are able to take up to one car load of donations to charity at the end of each session. We simply invoice 15 minutes of time for this service and the TAOD team member will complete this after your session finishes.

We deliver to many charity shops around Australia and we know what they will take and what they will not take. If you would like your things to go to specific places, you will need to do that delivery yourself, unless it is convenient for our staff to do it on your behalf.

If you have more donations than fit in our car, we can help you book a donation pick up or help you fill your car also if you are able to do a donation drop off yourself.

Normal household rubbish is placed in your bins. For larger amounts of rubbish, we work with a company called 1800 Got Junk in our major cities and in regional areas use local rubbish removal companies.

1800 Got Junk are familiar with The Art of Decluttering and will often offer our clients an additional discount if you mention us when you book. The best thing about them is that they pack the truck for us which means our time is not taken away from working with you. They will also take it straight away so you don’t have to look at it anymore or deal with it at a later date.

You can also organise a skip bin to be on site for our session, this is especially helpful if you are booking several sessions in a week or are continuing decluttering after we finish our session with you.

Our team is really gentle and understanding and able to handle whatever state you’re in when you open the door.

Our team is very experienced in gauging situations and reading the room. Sometimes when you open the door you might feel exhausted and anxious so rather than racing into decluttering straight away, we want you to feel comfortable. We are there to serve you so if you need 10 mins at the start of a session to have a cup of tea etc then that’s totally fine with us.

Sometimes we do have the case when we turn up and someone says “I’m not up to it today.” In these situations, we have a few strategies that we use. Rather than say ok and walk away, and charge the full cancellation fee, we will ask you if you could do just 10 minutes together. Or are there any items we could take as donations? Are there some easy wins we could do?

We will often provide alternatives, maybe offering a shorter session. We might say, “What if we just try for half an hour/half a session?” because once we start together, more often than not people will start to engage and say “Let’s keep going, I’m feeling good now.” But we never push; there is always freedom. So if we turn up and someone truly can’t do the session, we fully acknowledge that and it’s accounted for in our cancellation policy and service agreement.

Upon booking your session we will send you an invoice for a session deposit (equal to one hour of services). Your deposit will be credited to your first session with us.

Your session invoice will be emailed after each session and payment is due upon receipt of your invoice.

Our cancellation policy is 2 business days. Any cancellations made with less than 2 business days notice incurs a full session cancellation fee.

For example: if you have a session booked for a Thursday, as long as you let us know before the session time on Tuesday (say 10am), there is no cancellation fee at all. However, if there is anything less than two business days, the full cancellation fee is invoiced.