Ep 21 - Where to start decluttering when you feel overwhelmed

 

This week is all about a topic that comes up frequently as an organizer - how to start. Specifically - where to start decluttering when you feel overwhelmed. I hope that this episode gives you tips that you can use to take action in your own projects. Let’s jump in!

You can listen right here, on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or you can read the transcription below. Enjoy!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Today we are going to be talking about where to start decluttering when you feel overwhelmed and. This matters a lot to me as far as a topic that I wanted to cover, because it's something that I hear all the time. Overwhelm is the number one word that comes up when I'm talking to people about the clutter in their homes.

I can say that with confidence because we did a big survey last year, asked people a bunch of questions, and when we created a word cloud with the results, overwhelm is the word that pops up, larger than anything else. And getting started is the hardest part for people. Once you know how to get started and you have the tools that you need to go from there, that's really the biggest hurdle that people need to climb.

There are a number of other tips along the way that can help you, but getting started is really the toughest part, so that's why I wanted to address it. So my goal today is to give you kind of a shorter but sweet episode with tips so that you can get started with an action plan and it's going to make it a lot easier to make progress that you can see - and to get something finished.

Why this matters

Finishing is a highly underrated part of the process. There's something that I call “the squirrel effect” that happens while you're organizing. What I mean by this is, say you get started decluttering in a space and say you start in your kitchen and you find things that belong in your bathroom.

So then you take those to the bathroom and you realize “oh my gosh, this space isn't organized either”. So then you start going through your bathroom and then you find things that need to go to your closet and you realize that part isn't organized either. It's so you end up working in there and what ends up happening is that you're making a lot of little bits of progress in many different spaces, but the amount of time that you're putting into it doesn't really reflect you finishing anything. So it can feel really disheartening like, “I did all this work and I can't really see it”, versus the snowball effect.

What that is is you finishing a space feeling really good about it, being able to take that energy and that momentum to get you started in another space, work on it, finish, high five yourself, feeling good, and then taking that momentum to another space. With every space that you go to through you are flexing that decluttering muscle, getting stronger, being more confident, and taking it into the next space.

What I really want to do is help you get tips that are going to get you more of that snowball effect versus the squirrel effect. Some of these tips come up in a free class that I have. If you have already taken this, this is going to sound familiar - it's going to be a refresher. If you haven't taken it yet, I highly recommend.

It’s called How to Create a Clutter-Free Home WITHOUT Giving up All Your Free Time. 

The way that we are going to get you started and get you taking action is to create an action plan. And this is going to be the difference between just kind of winging it, we’re taking action in a more structured way. Don't worry, this is not gonna be super intense. This is gonna be a very basic action plan that you can create and, but it's very important, and I think it's an underrated part of the process.

Creating your Action Plan

I think it's very, very helpful to have it so that you know what you need to work on now and what you need to work on next. So when you're making your action plan, you could probably pick 20 spaces in your home that are driving you bananas. I know when I do consults with my in-home clients and they give me a little virtual tour of their home, they can list off tons of things that are bugging them and that's super natural.

You are not alone. And all of this is very important to note that you are not alone because I mean, that's why I created the Clutter-Free Home Process so that other people could have community around not feeling alone, because it can feel very isolating. But what I want to let you know is don't worry about that whole list for now.

What I want you to do is just list the top three spaces that you wanna work on, and I highly recommend picking spaces that bug you the most every day. What's driving you bananas? What is bugging the shit out of you? Those are the top three spaces. Bonus points if they benefit you versus everybody else in the household, because I know if you're listening to this, there is a good chance that you are putting everybody first on a regular basis. So for this, I want you to be a little bit selfish because we all know that self-care isn't selfish, right? And this is gonna be all about self-care. It's gonna be all about putting your oxygen mask on on first, and taking care of your needs. Something that's gonna make your heart happy.

So we wanna pick these spaces that are bugging you every day. Just pick. Note that closets are gonna be their own spaces. So if it's your bedroom and then your bedroom closet is part of it, the bedroom closet would be its own space. If your main bathroom that's like attached to your bedroom, if that is also bugging you, that would also be its own space.

Okay. So that could be, you know, in this example, maybe it is your, your bedroom area and then your bedroom closet and then your main bathroom. So, from making those top three, then we're gonna break down those spaces even more. So I always give the bedroom example. Instead of just saying “okay, I wanna declutter and organize my bedroom”.

Bedroom could be the header, but then we're gonna break it down even further. Break it down, break it down. Break it down now. So then your bedside table could be one. Your dresser. If you have multiple dresser drawers, list them out each as their own. Item. So dresser drawer one.

Dresser drawers: 2, 3, 4. If you have a top of dresser that also needs some decluttering and a little bit of organization or not, and if it just needs decluttering, mark that as its own thing. Under the bed. If it's getting all crazy, we're gonna mark that as its own thing. If you have laundry basket piles up piling up in a certain area, that's gonna be its own thing. And finally, if you have a pile that's just kind of somewhere, or say you have multiple piles in multiple spaces, those are gonna be their own things. 

Where to jot it down

I really like to do an action plan online, like on a Google Doc with check marks instead of dots. So then you can print it off and you can check off your check boxes. For some reason, for me, check marks feel very satisfying or you can just cross it out, whatever you like. I like it being online because then I can go back and edit it too. I create these action plans regularly for my in-home and my virtual one-on-one clients. When it’s online you can edit it, you could print it out, if you need to change things later you can, or you can change the order.

If you do prefer to write it down, that's also fine. There's no wrong way to eat a Reese’s, and there's no wrong way to create an action plan. Then when you're working through your spaces, breaking down those tasks into smaller chunks will also help you mentally break it down.

Breaking it down 

Those smaller chunks are going to be less overwhelming than “getting organized” as one big task - that can feel very overwhelming. That feels very overwhelming to me. And I do this for a living! So if it feels overwhelming to  you too - that’s fair. That's why we want to break it down into small chunks, because if I say “okay, you're going to go through the top of your bedside table”, that's a lot easier than “getting organized”. So it just helps you break it down to these smaller chunks that you can start tackling them in 15-20 minute increments.

Let's say you have a pile of random stuff at the end of your bed and that is going to take you larger than 20 minutes, that's fine. But if you can aim for working through them in 20 minute chunks, those are chunks of time that you can get on your calendar.

It's a lot easier to say, “okay, I'm going to spend 20 minutes, three times a week” on this, and figure out when those times work for you. I can't tell you when that should happen because you know your schedule better than me. But you can aim to work on decluttering in that 20-minute chunk three times a week, five times a week, etc.

Those 20-minute chunks are a lot easier to find than me saying, “okay, we’re going to get five days on your calendar and just tackle your whole house”, which I highly do not recommend at all. We’re going to break it down to smaller chunks because it's gonna be less overwhelming, and this is also gonna help us get to that “complete” phase sooner.

When you complete one drawer - it’s easier to cross off the list than your whole bedroom, amd that's when you get to give yourself a high five, because you’ve accomplished your task!. You did it! And that's what's gonna get you into that “snowball effect” versus the “squirrel effect”.

Decluttering as the foundation of organization

We're always going to use decluttering as the foundation of all things organization. This is really going to be the difference between just sorting everything that you have into pretty bins, versus creating simple solutions. When we're just sorting, sure - it's technically organization. But what I have found is that 99.9% of the people that I work with have some things that they can let go of very, very easily, feeling like absolutely fine with it.

There just ends up being random trash that we accumulate over time without even knowing it. Yeah. I'm talking about things like (in a dresser) old random buttons and old tags for things, socks with holes in them - that sort of thing. Things just can get out of your home.

In my private community, we talk a lot about how to get them outta there. I know that going back to the holes in the sock example, in the last episode I talked about Retold Recycling and how that's a great resource for my business. I'll add the link in the show notes there too.

If we are able to use decluttering as the foundation, we are going to be able to create much more simple solutions. And that's going to be the difference that won't have us still sorting through and digging through too much crap day in, day out, that we don't even use want, need our love. That is why we do decluttering first and then organization.

DOOM Areas

Okay, so let's talk about DOOM areas. I didn't even know this until recently, but DOOM is an acronym. It's Genius. I don't know exactly where it came from, but it's genius. I did not come up with it at all - cannot take credit for it, not taking credit for it, but it stands for Didn't Organize, Only Moved. So that could be like when you have company coming over and you have some things in your living room that you throw it into a laundry bin, and then that bin sits in the corner of your bedroom for months. It could be you needing to have dinner, so you throw everything on the table in a target bag and you throw that target bag in the closet and then it sits there for months.

Didn't Organize, Only Moved. If you have doom bins I highly suggest making it part of your action plan. If you have a bunch of bins, highly recommend breaking it down by number of bins. Maybe pick one or two per task so that as you empty them out, go through them, for every two you're checking it off the list. For every one you're checking it off the list. Something that's much smaller than the entire number, because they do take a lot of energy. Plus, kind of like an archeologist, doom bins have endless layers to them. And sometimes you can't really tell just by looking at it how long it's gonna take to empty it, because it could be 500 pieces of paper, which is 500 little decisions, or it could be filled with 10 pieces of clothes. So those are gonna take different amounts of time. It's hard to tell by looking at it what you're gonna find and what those decisions mean, so it’s good to break it down by the number of bins (or bags) so that you have a better chance of checking it off your list and feeling good about the progress and being able to, like visually see the progress that you're making. If you have a doom pile (and know that it’s very, very common) I would suggest just starting at one side and working your way through it in those smaller chunks of time.

How to not “squirrel” while decluttering

I also wanna note, as you're finding things that you that belong in other rooms, like as I mentioned, that squirrel effect, you're finding things that belong in your bathroom. You're finding things that belong in the kitchen, wherever they are, wherever they need to go - I want you to refrain from organizing in that other space - even if you're not exactly sure where the home is in that other space. I want you to take those items to the space where it belongs and put it there, because we're going to work on organizing those other spaces later. So if it goes in the kitchen and you're not exactly sure, use your best guess and leave it in the kitchen.

We will figure it out, But it's not gonna be right now, because we're concentrating on a space. So if you have a doom room, which is also very, very common, I just want you to know like that's something that I help people with all the time.

So what I would do is start at the door and work your way in. If you can kind of move around once you get into the door, then I would start on one side and just kind of work your way around. The reason that we want to. Pick a direction and go that way. The reason that we're gonna pick one direction and work our way around is so that when you're taking a break, when you have that time between sessions (and by sessions I mean the time that you're spending on it), when you come back to it without knowing which direction you're working in, it can be very easy to just feel overwhelmed by the gravity and the scale of the project.

If you're working in the one direction, you can say, “okay, I just need to set my timer for 20 more minutes, and I'm going back to where I stopped before and I'm just taking 20 minutes figuring out where those items go and putting 'em away”. And as you go, especially with doom bins, rooms, piles, you're going to find a bunch of stuff that goes other places.

So sort it as you find it, and then put it away at the end of your session. So instead of going back and forth to the kitchen, back and forth, back and forth, just make a pile for the kitchen. Take it all to the kitchen at the end, a pile for the garage, take it all to the garage at the end, and so on and so forth.

Every win is a win

So the last thing that I wanna share is to know that baby steps help get you to where you need to. You can do this in small chunks and that is totally fine. All of it counts. All of it matters. All of it is worth celebrating. This is honestly a big thing in the private community because we celebrate every win.

Every win is a win, and that's the reason we wanna take all of these tasks and we wanna break 'em down into smaller chunks, and we want to celebrate them all. They all matter. They're all awesome. They all deserve high five. So if you have any questions about this, let me know. DM me on IG, or there's a Contact Carly form on tidyrevival.com and I would love to hear from you if I end up getting a lot of the same questions, I'm considering doing an AMA (ask me anything) in the future. I would love to hear from you. So I hope this is helpful to jumpstarting your decluttering and organization, and I hope that it helps you get moving on your projects and get you in the direction of where you wanna go because you totally, totally got this.

Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you wanna learn more about how I can help you, head to tidyrevival.com to learn more about how I work with people one-on-one or in the Clutter-Free Home Process private community.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you'll always have access to the latest episode. We would love to hear your takeaways. You can tag us @Tidy Revival on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.

The Tidy Revival podcast is written and hosted by me, Carly Adams, and it's edited by Brittany McLean. The title song Maverick is by Dresden The Flamingo. And until next time, remember -

 
 
 
 

Links mentioned in this episode

 
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