Knowing how to start decluttering when overwhelmed can seem like an impossible goal. If you’re already stressed, tired, and depleted, the last thing you want to do is deal with piles of stuff. Help decluttering and organizing is one thing, but what do you do if you lack the motivation to begin?
I love helping people organize their spaces, but I’m often met with a lot of hesitation when I start with decluttering. Figuring out how to declutter when you want to keep everything is undoubtedly a challenge. However, decluttering and organizing go hand in hand, and getting rid of excess stuff comes first.
How to Start Decluttering When Overwhelmed and Exhausted
Instead of focusing on specific decluttering and organizing tips, I’m centering this piece more on how to take that all-important first step. This is for the folks out there who don’t know where to begin, turn a blind eye to the fact that they have five spatulas, and accept every hand-me-down that comes their way.
Help Decluttering and Organizing Starts With Getting Rid of Things
If you need some gentle help decluttering and organizing, you need to start somewhere, right? And you start by decluttering. Here are three points to help you push through that initial freeze when you’re facing the clutter conundrum.
Create a “Wait-and-See” Box If You Need Help Decluttering and Organizing
A couple of years ago, I wanted to drastically cut down the number of clothes in my closet, but it was tough. There were quite a few things I simply couldn’t make decisions about, and I didn’t want to expend any more energy thinking about them.
Often, the reason people freeze is paralysis by analysis. They face too many decisions about what to keep and what not to keep (decision fatigue is real, people), so they keep everything.
For me, I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere continuing to stare at everything in my closet. I stuffed the questionable items into a bin and put the bin in my attic. It was much easier to do because I wasn’t getting rid of them. Instead, I was going to “wait and see.”
Over the next year, I only went into the bin for one item. By then, I knew I could let everything else inside the container go. We did the same thing with my son’s hoard of stuffed animals (over 60).
He chose 20 to keep in his room and the rest went into two bins in our attic. Over the next year, we would pull the bin down whenever he wanted to swap out some stuffies. Each time, he would end up getting rid of three or four plush, and now, there’s about a half-full bin remaining.
Try a Small Decluttering Challenge
I am fairly competitive. So if you give me a challenge, I’m pretty much going to accept, as long as it’s legal and I’m fairly certain I won’t break any bones. If you need help decluttering and organizing but can’t get started, choose a challenge. There are tons of official ones out there, like The Minimalists 30-Day Minimalism Game.
However, you don’t need to commit to someone else’s decluttering challenge. Set your own or ask a friend to give you one, but start small. Perhaps it’s to get rid of one thing a day for two weeks or declutter one dresser drawer per week.
My son and I set a timer and see if we can fill a box with books or toys before the alarm sounds. If we succeed, he gets a fun snack or we play whatever game he wants to play for 15 minutes. (It’s a great way to motivate kids to declutter.) Pick a goal that works for you. The idea is to choose something that will spur you into action.
These smaller tasks are excellent ways to build your decluttering muscles and set you up for future successful organizing. As you gain more confidence and energy, expand your clutter-reduction efforts.
Stop Focusing on Organizing
That’s right, I said it. If you really want help decluttering and organizing, stop thinking about organizing. If you start buying storage solutions, sorting items into baskets, and piling them onto your shelves, you’re only pretending to organize. Decluttering needs to come first. So until you declutter, put a pin in all of those organization tips.
Dividing help decluttering and organizing into two separate projects is essential. Plus, it’s much less overwhelming. You’re no longer looking at all of your stuff and stressing about where to put it. By the time you declutter, you’ll have much less inventory to contend with, and organizing will be much more manageable.
Sometimes, all you need for help decluttering and organizing is a new approach. Use these ideas to shift your mindset when it comes to clutter and organization.
Have a trick that works for you? We can always use more help decluttering and organizing, so share your clever hacks and tidbits!
