While lockdown isn’t ideal for many reasons, it has got our household on the declutter buzz.

The biggest pain-point with our clients is the lack of storage from apartments to villas even through to large homes.

However, in some instances, lack of storage isn’t really the problem. It actually lies beneath the pile of hoarding that needs a stern “have I used this in the last year?” decluttering threshold.

On the move in the next six months? This a perfect pre-move exercise so when it comes to packing you’ve already done the heavy lifting.

The first place to look is with your children. They are masters of hoarding things they are attached to. Or maybe you think to yourself whether they might want to use that one day.

A great rule to follow is the 10.20.30 rule. Ten things you want to keep for when they are older. Twenty favourite books. Thirty of their favourite toys. Then when they get a new toy in, they have to choose from the 30 which one they will donate.

Next we can evaluate how much additional storage you need for the toy haul you have left. Go online and look through available storage solutions and get ready for shipping in Level 3.

Alternatively, if you have some pieces of wood or pallets lying around, your children could help sand or paint a few pieces and create some bespoke shelving to display all their favourite things.

The second spot we usually find is the dumping room or cupboard - in some case both! The reason why this becomes a dumping ground is because nothing really has a place and the entire wall is under utilised, mainly just leaving the floor.

If there were shelves that were labelled, plastic boxes organised with the same inventory, or hooks to hang those millions of fabric shopping bags up with, then we would see a much more maximised storage hub. Have a good declutter and stack things nicely until you can implement some specific storage solutions in the weeks to come.

Who knows, you might even claim some space in that storage room for a home office or yoga spot.

Lastly, we come to the knickknack drawers. We all have a couple of them. Unread mail, the loose coins, hair ties, old birthday cards and redundant phone chargers.

Take one drawer a day and declutter to your heart’s content. A great hack for these drawers is to buy some cutlery divider inserts. That way if you do have loose items like rubber bands and USB sticks they don’t get lost into a galaxy of odds and ends.

If you have some pieces of wood lying around at home you can make these yourself.

For a real DIY hack, find some straight sticks and bind the corners with jute string. All you need to achieve are small square pockets perfect for different sized knick knacks.

- Laura Heynike is director of Pocketspace Interiors