 Good evening and welcome to episode 306 of the Private Property Podcast. I'm your host, Uzaman Dunwar Kumalo. It's a Tuesday edition of the Private Property Podcast and if you're joining us for the first time, welcome to the Only Daily Property Podcast in South Africa. It's certainly a pleasure to have you join us this evening and we look forward to entertaining you and also of course helping you better navigate your property journey. And all our regular viewers welcome back, you know how we do it every single weekday. You and I have an appointment at 7pm where we tackle a hot property topic with expert guests who help us navigate our property journey. Doesn't matter where you are in your property journey, whether you're looking to buy, to sell, to flip, to renovate or of course if you're a tenant or a landlord, we certainly do help you out on navigating your property journey as best as possible. And talking about navigating your property journey, you know, of course that you can, you know, watch a whole host of other shows that we have across private properties, social media platforms. As it is a Tuesday, you can catch a award-winning farmer on the farming podcast later this evening at 8pm, which always tackles a topic that's relating to agriculture. So if you've got an interest or even green fingers, I mean, I've now officially started, you know, gardening, you would have seen on my social media pages, you can follow me at Xamantoma underscore K and using some of the tips that I've picked up from the farming podcast, especially when they talk about your tending to your own garden at home, growing your own food and how best to do that. So you can of course follow that journey on my pages and tune into the farming podcast when Balie's always in conversation with people who unpack farming matters for us. And every Mondays and Fridays, you can catch Chad on the Home Shopper Show. He always takes us through amazing properties that you can find on www.privateproperty.co.za. And of course, every Wednesday's SC class and brings you the first time home buyer show, which he's always in conversation with people who've not only walked that first time home buying journey, but have gone on to grow their property portfolio from strength to strength. Those are the great programs that you can catch across private property's social media pages every single weekday at 8 p.m. So do make sure that you stay tuned after, you know, private property podcasts with myself. And certainly do catch up with the shows this evening. And of course, also stay in touch with us across our social media platforms for us on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, on YouTube. And of course, we are also now on TikTok. So you can also follow us and catch really great videos that Chad, as well as Estie, bring to your screens. You can follow myself at Zamanthuan underscore, okay, on Instagram, as well as on Twitter. Now this evening's conversation is with somebody I absolutely love having on the show. And you know, every time she's here, always even reference, you know, their page on Instagram, because it's such a great page to just scroll through because the homes that she gets to work on and transform and just beautify are so exquisite. And I always say that I want to be able to, you know, use her services because I am not much of a decor person. You know, I'll go in Pinterest, I'll do a Pinterest board, but she's got that magic touch. I mean, this is something that she was absolutely born to do. And this evening, I'm joined by Lulu Mutsukira, who's the founder of Namasaya Creations. And we're going to be talking about simple steps for a more organized space. Lulu, good evening. And thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me on again, Zaman. It's always such a pleasure to be here. I think chatting to you always makes me realise because every time, you know, before we chat and even after we chat, I always go back to the Namasaya page. And I am usually very close to the page. I mean, I even say to you is every two days you can catch the designer tip. She really gives us great insights on what we can do at home because sometimes you're still saving your coins so you can hire her. But in the meantime, you obviously want to still make sure that your house looks great. Now, Lulu, we are talking about how we can make our spaces more organized. One of the things that I'm very guilty of when I found out from you at home is not having the most compact, the most put together space. More often than not, you know, my helper is my saving grace. She really does an incredible job. I am the type of person who just kind of put stuff in the wardrobe and at some point my new vula and things fall apart. And it's unfortunate, right? Because I also want obviously a space to look amazing. And I think when we look at how so many of us are increasingly spending a lot of time at home, having home offices at home, and everything just kind of gets mixed up, then we certainly do need tips on how to best organize our space. But before we even get to the different rooms of some of the tips and tricks you can share with us, I think holistically first, what are some of the rule of thumb is when it comes to just organizing our space in our homes? Thank you, Zama. I think the first thing is you're not alone. All of us suffer. Most of us, let's not say all of us, some of us are naturally beautifully clean and beautifully organized, but most of us suffer from a little bit of a hoarding spirit where we want to just make sure that we keep everything that we love at bay. And sometimes that translates into a home that doesn't look too neat, into a home that feels a little bit cluttered. I think, and I love the fact that you mentioned that your helper is your saving grace, very important. So you need to be able to lay the foundation for your helpers or for yourself so that at the very least you're doing a decluttering exercise once or twice a year or not every six, seven, every, you know, seven days or every month or every second month. A massive declutter is something that you want to do, and it's very important to do once or twice a year. But if you've got the foundations in place, the day-to-day foundations in place, your decluttering process is not going to be a mammoth scary task like the ones we watch on TV. It's not going to be a show or for hoarders. It's really going to be a smooth transitional period and a very therapeutic period at that. To answer your question, the first step, and I think it's the step that a lot of us don't get into, because I can guarantee you, just like myself, you also, maybe one Saturday will decide, this house is a mess, and you decided that that's the day that you're going to spring clean and declutter. It shouldn't happen like that. You need to plan your decluttering or your space or your sort of clearing out an organization. You need to build an organizational plan. It's very important. That saying if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, rings very true in this sentiment because a lot of homes, let's not say rooms, whether rented or owned, declutter is a build up. This organization is a build up. In that same breath, the plan to organize and the plan to declutter should be a build up. It should come in phases. You should plan it properly. As a first step, you really must take time, sit down, plan. What are the rooms that need decluttering? What is it that you think needs the most decluttering in all of the spaces? Which rooms need the most attention? What do you think, and in as far as your plan is concerned, are the big ticket items? Once you've got your plan laid out, you need to then really get into the spirit of not wanting to be the queen or the king of doing it all at the same time. You're going to lose steam. I've done this way. I woke up. I wanted to do it by black plastic number three. I'm out of energy. I am done. I do not want this to happen anymore. Then it ends up happening is you take everything, throw it back in the cupboard, and decide that you're going to see this next time. This is not a today project like you thought it would be. I think Lulu, as you were even saying that, I want to interrupt you because as you were even saying that, I was just thinking about how when we were even growing up, right, we would often have our parents one day, and then taking down, you know, next thing we were washing, you know, windows and all sorts of things washing. And I think many of us probably get spring cleaning or decluttering and have done it that way, right? So we're certainly not not queens and kings of having to adequately plan it and put certain things aside and put a good plan in place. And I certainly want to get a sense of how do we go about even drafting a plan because I can already tell you now that when it comes to things like spring cleaning, again, it will be if spring cleaning needs to be done, I'll ask my helper. I'd like these things to be moved around to, you know, these places, and that's as much sort of foundation as is there. Whereas we know that we've grown up with, there are certain days in a year where you do that kind of decluttering at scale. So do share with us how we can go about thinking through the plan because I think that's probably also another pressure point for many people at home who probably want to do it. Because as you say, it can be quite therapeutic. I mean, there have been instances where you know that when you declutter even your wardrobe and take certain things out and put things aside to give away, go through the home office and do the same stuff. There is an aspect of it's just, you know, being a bit of a therapeutic experience, but it can easily be overwhelming as you've just pointed out that, you know, two hours in, I'm suffering, you need to just like bring the champagne like I'm over this and your house is outside that. So we want to not get to that point. Okay, stunning. First things first, home in rooms or pods or home. So sometimes you want to do it in rooms, maybe you want to do it in sections, but let's, let's, for the intent and purposes of this exercise, you have to, you have to split your, your home up in bedrooms or in rooms. So you can say the kitchen, you can say the bedroom, you can say spare bedroom, you can say kids room. So now you split it up. You seem to have lost Lulu there for a moment. Do apologize for that. We're going to get her back shortly. I know that she's probably having issues with her connection. We're actually talking about this earlier on. Lulu, I just want to check. Go into that. Lulu, just one second, apologies there. We had lost you for a second. The connection was a bit bad. You were saying we must split things up, you know, differentiate the different rooms and bedrooms. That's the last bit that we had heard from you. We can pick it up from them. Apologies for that summer. Yes. Once you split it up in, in the various, in this very specific rooms, I think then the next and the most prudent thing for you to then do is to have an honest conversation with yourself around what it is in the, in that space that needs decluttering. I'm always telling you about honest conversations and it's because they are a necessary thing to have with oneself in order to get a plan, a proper plan in place. So if you know that your shoe closet is the one in the bedroom, that's the biggest miss. You write their shoe closet, you split your bedroom or you split that specific room up in also little bits so that they are bite sized. That way you can then create a timings plan for those things. So instead of planning to do the whole bedroom in one go, you can say this Saturday I'm going to organize the shoes and you know that that's an hour out of your day. It's not going to overwhelm you. And then you say next Saturday we're going to organize the clothing. The clothing's part is then where you have even the shoe part and that's like a full, a full decluttering plan has to have what we call, we call it the four box, the four box method. And what the four box method is, is you take four boxes, you divide your, the things that you want to declutter, the things that you want to put together into these four boxes. And these four boxes are remove it from the bedroom or remove it from the space and relocate it. It's about keeping what it is that you want to keep. It's about donating or giving away some of the items and it's about throwing items away. Now a lot of people what they tend to end up doing is they end up putting everything in the keep box because they're just too sentimental. Those shoes that you haven't worn in 15 years that you bought when you're filled with your first salary or the first pocket money that your mom gave you in varsity, you still want to keep that in the keep box. That's where the honesty with oneself has to come in. You have to decluttering and keeping your spaces in and keeping your space, a clear, organized, really needs a lot of self-sacrifice and a lot of self-discipline. And so part of your planning process is about creating that four box sort of process and planning what it is that you want to and be strict with yourself. So say anything before 2010 because I know I said pairs of shoes that date before 2010. Why? Why? You asked me, why? Anything before 2010 goes into the giveaway box or the throwaway box. No questions asked and that will help you maintain your plan and be truthful to your plan. Yeah. Yeah, if you are just joining us this evening, I'm in conversation with Lulu Mutsukere, I was the founder of Namaseh Creations. We're looking at simple steps for a more organized space, whether you're renting in a property or living in your own property that you've bought, we all need insights and certainly help with better organizing our space, optimizing our space, being able to make our place look good, especially considering that we're also living at home. So I think the added pressure of living at home, rather from home, I think the added pressure of working from home is also unfortunately meant that so many of us have brought in extra things. I know with many of us have even brought in a printer and other office related equipment that we feel we need that our homes are actually best equipped to have because not everybody has separate home office that they can work from, but some people, you know, you're working in your lounge or in another part of your house that's not a designated and standalone office. So you need to be able to find different ways to organize your respective spaces as best as possible. I want to find out from you at home what are some of the tips and tricks you use to better organize your space? I like the tip that Lulu shared about when you start decluttering first have a plan and once you start implementing the plan, you look at what did you have at year X. So anything before 2010, I like he also in the past five years, why you hold on to it. I know I'm also guilty of this. They're searching clothes that I haven't worn in like the past five, six years. And a part of me is like, I want to fit into that business again. So I'm going to hold on to it until I can fit into it again. I absolutely cannot let go of this. I need to prove to myself that I will be that body again. So I must hold on to it. And otherwise they're just no longer serve you. They never no longer serve a purpose. You know that you're no longer dressing like that at all. So certainly you want to clear them up as much as possible. So do share with us some of the tips and tricks that you use to better organize your space. I specifically want to even hear from people who are renting because I find that one of the difficulties that you can share perhaps for us how we can best navigate when we are renters. Because unfortunately when you're renting and I found this, I mean in my twenties, there was a time when I was moving so often and at some point I just got over moving part a lot. I was probably moving every six to eight months. And the thing that moving also does is you want to as much as possible not have too many things, but in the same breath, you also sometimes do have quite a lot of things. You move to a different space. The size might be slightly smaller. Sometimes you're fortunate it's slightly bigger. Some places just have more storage units, storage space built in units which is fantastic for sort of like putting away things. But unfortunately other apartments don't have it. I mean one of the things I've seen with a lot of the new developments that we're seeing is that there isn't that much storage space, right? And you still have stuff. So even when you've given away clothes, the ones that you have just don't fit in the wardrobe that comes with that particular unit. So how can we almost make better use of some of the apartments specifically that we are moving into that may not have the greatest storage sort of compartments. And we still obviously want to have an organized household, especially if you're living in a whether it's a bachelor one or two bedroom apartment. Okay, that's a great question. So obviously homeowners have the benefit of almost being able to relocate a lot of the stuff that they've built up over the years, either by adding cabinetry to their homes or putting a staircase storage facility underneath the staircase or creating a storage facility in the garage. So homeowners do have unfortunately under that reality a little bit more of a balance or a benefit when it comes to storage. But renters have the ability by way of temporary storage tricks and hacks that could help them at least keep their spaces very clean and neat, as well as maintain a very good sort of cater free storage plan. And that really speaks to sort of containers that you buy, the baskets that you've got in your home, and certain elements that you can put in place to help you sort of manage your storage or your clutter issue. So for instance, as a renter, nothing stops you from putting hooks, obviously you use hooks that you don't have to drill onto the wall, but hooks in your kitchen on your kitchen walls that you can hang towels on versus having a whole host of them in the drawers. And then it suddenly doesn't fit. So now some of them are sitting on the cabinet counter hooks are a great way of sort of adding to a to a decluttering or to declutter a space without doing too much permanent damage. Baskets are a beautiful way to declutter a space in a very strategic manner. Now what we've been told for many, many years around baskets is that a basket that closes and need to end good basket, but a basket that closes that's consistently closed hardly gets used effectively. Once it's closed, you assume that it's full so you don't use it effectively. And don't quote me on this. My opinion is that open baskets work better than closed baskets because once it's open, you can see it and you know to either take out items and put them in the wash or to make sure that it's sitting neatly and everything is stacked away neatly. A lot of things that cater a space also are things that we generally use every day. So let's not talk about even the shoes that we've had for 15 years. Let's talk about the blankets that was currently using in our lounges because it's cold and you and suddenly you've got like three blankets in your lounge area. Just keeping a space neat and keeping a space declutter just speaks to always having a place for those items. So if you know that in winter, even in summer, you've got a beautiful throw that you put on your couch. You've got a beautiful throw on your bed. Make sure that there's a basket, a beautiful basket to store those things in. Make sure that you're using storage containers. I love clear storage containers. They are the world for me and a lot of homes just like you said, Summer, a lot of rented homes have very little space but very few don't have that cabinet or that kind of that piece of the cabinet at the top where you usually put your suitcases, etc. I find people put empty suitcases in their versus suitcases that they can fill up with some clothing that they're wearing for the different seasons. So in summer, you keep those clothes in the suit, your winter clothes in the suitcase and then once winter comes, you just do a swap over and so that you've got a little bit more space versus just having empty suitcases in those cabinets. And so those are the little steps as renters in particular. You can do in order to make sure that your space is as catafree as possible given your limitations. Nothing stops you if you're lucky enough to rent with a garage. From storing nice things in the garage, in storage boxes are not necessary, building shelving like a homeowner would potentially have the opportunity to. I will touch briefly on certain things that homeowners can certainly do especially because they've got the freedom of taking down a wall or even building a storage facility. We are taking your questions and comments this evening as we explore simple steps for a more organized space. I certainly want to find out from you what have been some of the tips and tricks and hacks that you use in order to keep your space as organized as possible. Do you have a system in place or are you like me who relies on somebody else to sort that aspect of my life out as much as possible? And I'm into the point where every time I move, I don't even do a lot of my own packing. I outsource that bit because I have moving anxiety. I think I've moved a lot in my 20s. So I don't want to move. I don't want to pack and unpack. I get people to do that and I'll say this, this, this. I want it there and so on as opposed to actually getting my hands dirty during the move. We've got a great comment here coming through on Facebook from happiness Martina Manolega who's saying for myself, I like to do DIY projects with my old clothes or shoes. I donate the ones that looks good and I DIY the oldest ones. I love that. I think one of the other things that being at home as often as so many of us are currently at home is we've taken to DIY different aspects of our lives and different things. And I think it's so important that we kind of just explore that creativity and it's always great to be able to tap into that as much as possible. We've got Omar Darshanang saying, I love storage baskets in the bathrooms and the bedrooms. And those were the ones that Lulu was mentioning and like to me. So she's like, do I lighten up my house since I have very bad lighting? I like this question. So how do we deal with lighting in our space when you have bad lighting because the unfortunate thing with bad lighting is that and I have some of the rooms in this house is that you may have a beautiful space. It's nicely organized but bad lighting can just mess it up. So how can we sort of better manage terrible lighting in our respective homes? That's a beautiful question. So with regards to lighting in a home, there are various things that we as interior designers like to do just as quick hacks to try and brighten up a space. Obviously the paint color of the home has a big effect on the the lightness of the home. And because the topic for today speaks to really capturing a space, a darkened space can really add to the feel of plata in a space and heaviness in a space. And so lightening up the home by way of paint color, by way of choosing various furniture items that can lighten up the space. So if you know that your home is very dark and your house is facing a direction that becomes quite dark, you want to make sure that your furniture pieces are quite light, your paint color is quite light. And a beautiful hack that I'm obsessed with and I swear I swear on is the use of mirrors to reflect light, whatever little light that you've got. If you use a mirror and not only doesn't expand the space, which makes it feel bigger, it also does this beautiful job of reflecting light into a space. And those are the small little hacks that can help really create a beautiful light in a space. And that's making the space feel less cluttered and less small because obviously, once a space is small, even your couch can end up looking like it's too big. Once your space is dark, your couch can end up feeling like it's too big for a space even though it's not. So lightening up with the paint, with the type of furniture that you use, don't use massive furniture pieces in a space that's very dark. You want to use as sleek pieces as possible in order to, to, again, get in as much of that light as possible from all the different angles. And then share mirrors to add to that and reflect upon the little light parts and the light sources that you are getting. More of your questions and comments at home. We've got Okuma Okumelo on Facebook saying, I put my old clothes on my pillowcase for my kids. That's the first time I'm hearing that one. Before we run out of time, when we then look at home owners and what they can potentially do, you know, the fortunate thing is they've got more freedom. They can play around with the property, you know, more than somebody who is renting. What are some of the, the hacks that they can use to, you know, better organize their space and find those certain spaces within their property where they can store some of their, their certainly some of their clothes or other items that they probably don't use as often. Okay, obviously, as I mentioned before, home owners have the benefit of being able to break down walls. They have the benefit of being able to use the little nooks and crannies that seem like dead space in homes as almost storage facilities. So a lot of homes, for instance, particularly the smaller complexes and the flats, they have, if they're, if they duplexes, they've got that under under staircase area, which usually goes unused. And that usually makes for a beautiful storage facility or storage location. If you just close it in that rectangular fashion that it's in, you can build a door in there and you can beautifully lay out a beautiful storage facility. The passageway in a lot of homes can be used as a beautiful, if you've got the capacity to break it down and create a little gap for some sort of cabinetry, that becomes a beautiful location for you to put a passage pantry in order to put all your linens and all your, your shoes that you're, you're not wearing or your winter shoes in summer, etc. Another, another area that people don't utilize, underutilize, and I see it in a lot of homes that I do is the patio or the bar or outside, let's call it the outside patio area. A lot of those, of those spaces have such opportunity for cabinetry because they, they shade it. So there's no rain that will come into the space and this, it's quite Boston space. And that's beautiful opportunity for either a little bit of a, of a, of a bottom shelf for you to put cabinetry in or a full cabinet that you can use from a cabinetry perspective. And then before you, you shut me off summer, the one area obviously that we love to store stuff in is the garage. Invest in doing it properly. And then when I say that invest in putting good shelving in that space, sturdy shelving, shelving that goes up to the ceiling and you'll find yourself having so much space. Barrages are beautiful storage locations, but they also have to be maintained. They also have to be planned for. And, and Lulu, before I let you go, any other final tips for our viewers at home when it comes to, you know, best practices when it comes to organizing their space? A quick tip that will help motivate you and keep you motivated, take before and after pictures of your spaces. And when you've got a before picture, and when you see what you've done from after you will not want it to look like the before again. It's a little thing that we do in the interior design space. And I find it's so helpful for, for people to see their before because they become very, very passionate about the afters. So take those before and after pictures. Color code, if you've got the, the proclivity to do it. It also helps to motivate you. So these are all motivation tips. And with regards to making sure that space is decluttered, you want to keep your self motivated, motivate yourself by color coordinating your items so that you can see everything quite clearly. Some people don't like it, but if you, if you do have the proclivity, do it. And then when you are done, maintenance becomes key. And that goes to what you are saying about who auntie then who comes. The auntie needs to maintain not to start and end. Otherwise it'll be a consistent start and end forever. So maintain, when you see that it's getting a little bit messy, take that five minutes and resolve it quickly instead of waiting for it to build up again. And that really is, it's, it's a full time commitment to your home, a full time commitment to just freeing your space up so that you are, you're living in a try to feed free environments. And that's certainly a great note to leave it on Lulu. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. Thank you, Zama. And that is Ululu Muzikira was a founder of Namaseya creations. If you want to follow the great work that they do in some of the beautiful homes that they get to work on, you can follow them on Instagram. I even get really great tips on how you can better, you know, manage your own home and space and add a bit of beauty to it. And that brings us to the end of the Tuesday edition of the private property podcast with myself. I do apologize for really shaky signal that we've had this evening. I know that we haven't had the best signal, but we certainly were able to make it work. And I'm grateful that we were thank you for tuning in and bearing with us until the very end. We absolutely do appreciate it. Well, I'm signing off. I'll be back on your screens tomorrow evening at 7pm until then, hoping you stay home and stay safe.