Ep 154: Stop Decluttering Burnout Before it Starts: 7 Tips to Save Your Sanity
This might be a bit controversial coming from someone who would consider herself a declutter coach and wannabe minimalist, but I do not believe you can live in a constant state of decluttering.
We need breaks from decluttering, just like we need rewards from hard things. If we do no stop to celebrate our progress, we will become overwhelmed and stop making progress.
There are ways we can approach decluttering that can make the process simple so that it will lead to success.
After all, we're not getting rid of stuff just for the sake of getting rid of stuff. We are decluttering and getting rid of stuff so that we can live the lives that we actually want to be living.
It’s about letting go of the excess so we can get to the heart of the matter and focus on what's most important in our lives.
And making sure we have the energy to get to that finish line is of the upmost importance.
This episode of the Wannabe Clutter Free podcast will help you discover:
7 tips to avoiding declutter burnout
How to celebrate decluttering successes
How I classify decluttering tasks in our home
5 steps to decluttering your whole home
What I really think about decluttering in ONE weekend
Helpful Links:
some of these may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links I may get paid a small amount. I stand by my recommendations. Thank you for supporting this podcast.
The Avalanche Declutter Challenge
Episode 116: 15 Minute Decluttering
The Home Systems Power Pack - A digital library is jam-packed with actionable workbooks, guides, pdfs, worksheets and more so you can start to make real progress in your home!
Wannabe Minimalist Family - come join my private group filled with amazing people just like you who are on their journey toward minimalism and simplifying.
No time to listen right now? Pin this for later!
Episode Transcript
You're listening to Wannabe minimalist with Deanna Yates episode number 154 on today's episode, I'm talking about how to avoid decluttering burnout. If you've ever been overwhelmed with decluttering, then you will not want to miss this episode.
Hey there, my friend. Welcome back to the show. I am so excited to have you joining me today. And if this is your first time here, well, then welcome. I hope you find lots of helpful information today and want to come back for more, but before we get into this conversation, I have a couple housekeeping items to discuss.
Let's start with the more fun of the two shall we. Last week, I hosted a giveaway with my guests from hand me up. They gave away one free mix and match wardrobe bag to a lucky listener. And I am excited to announce that the lucky winner is Bailey Hollister. Congratulations, Bailey. And if you did not win this time, please do not despair.
He ended me up is actually offering $5 off their wardrobe bags for kids. When you use code one to be five at checkout again, that's. W a N N a B E the number five at checkout. So if you are looking to try out a capsule wardrobe for your kids, The easy way Ian want to do it in an even more sustainable way with secondhand clothes, head to hand me up. shop.com and use code Wannabe5 at checkout for $5 off your first bag.
And that brings me to my second piece of housekeeping. You may have noticed that I changed the cover art for this podcast and a yup. That's because I have a new cover image because after almost a year with a new business name, I have decided to also change the name of this podcast from Wannabe minimalist to Wannabe clutter-free.
There has been some confusion on how to find me on social media and on my website because of the names. Being different that they're not the same. And so it was time to reconcile that and put everything under one name. I hope you love the new name as much as I do. And after hearing from so many of you being clutter-free is really what the game is all about. And it's really for me. And I know so many of you listening feel that way too.
It's not about living with the least amount of items or the bare minimum. It's not about deprivation. And so for me, it's more about making better and more intentional decisions. About the stuff that I let into my life and my home and stuff is just a tool to use. And so my hope is that I can encourage you to use it more wisely as well.
So from here on out, you will hear me refer to the show as want to be clutter-free, but please have patience with me. As I changed the name in all of the various places and locations where it lives in the world, you will probably be finding references to want to be minimalist. For a while as I make this transition.
And so with that, let's get back to our topic at hand today. This might be a little controversial coming from someone who would consider herself a declutter coach and a mentor. But I actually do not believe that you can live in a constant state of decluttering. We need breaks from decluttering. Just like we need rewards from hard things. There's ebb and flow. There's hard and soft. There's yin and yang. And I am not saying that we should go on shopping sprees and then big purges, but we should also understand that a continual state of big decluttering is going to lead to burnout.
And that is why I want to discuss avoiding decluttering burnout today so that you can actually continue to make progress on your journey without suffering the pitfalls of taking on too much.
There are seven points that I want to make today, but quickly, if you like what you hear today, can you please leave the show a rating? You can also leave a review on apple podcasts, or you can leave a comment for this episode. If you're listening on Spotify and your comments, reviews ratings, they make my day.
I love hearing what you take away from the show and what you can use in real life and how it's helping you. And if you have any constructive feedback, I take that as well and listen to it. And if you want to grab the show notes for today, you can get them on my website at wannabeclutterfree.com/154. Again, that's Wannabe clutter-free dot com forward slash the number.
154. Okay. So now with all of that housekeeping out of the way, let's get back to the point about avoiding decluttering burnout. Okay. So the first point I want to make is that I don't want you to try to declutter your whole home in one, go. Now, this might've been possible when you were younger or before you had kids in both instances, you likely had a lot less stuff.
I know that was the fact when I was younger. I mean, I could fit everything that I owned, especially when I was in college, in the back of a pickup truck. Right. So moving was super simple. We have moved lots and lots in our life. And I feel like every time we move, we always wonder where all this stuff came from.
So, if you felt that way in the past, don't worry, you are not alone. And I, there's even come times, I've talked about this story a lot, we traveled. A couple of times as a family and when our daughter was one. We took off with not knowing how long we were going to be gone. And so we actually sold about 90, 85 and eight 95% of what we owned. It's hard to say how much we actually got rid of.
I do actually ha I did have a running spreadsheet at the time, but you know, everything we owned fit in a five by eight storage bin. And so, I know what it's like to get rid of stuff. Now that was a big declutter session. It took me months. It was almost a full-time job for months. And so even with that, where we got rid of so much stuff, it took a lot and I couldn't do it all in one go. There is, it is impossible for you to declutter your entire house in one weekend. Sure. You can go through your home and declutter things from your entire home in one weekend, but to be done with the entire project in one weekend, it's just unrealistic and you are setting yourself up for failure.
If you feel like that is a goal that you can attain. If you hear people talking about this, this is probably because they didn't have that much stuff to begin with. Or they don't have a family or they're younger. And so they haven't acquired half a lifetime of stuff along the way, or they have an inherited stuff from family, so there's lots of different things that we have to take in.
Into consideration, and we have to learn how to have grace with ourselves while still making progress. And so that's really what I want to talk about in today. And so it starts really by. Just knowing you're not going to do it all at once. And so what do we need to do instead of thinking for this big project, we need to start by breaking it down.
Into smaller segments. Now you could break your home down into zones. You can break your home down into rooms. But even at that, I want you to break those down into smaller spaces. It might seem counterintuitive in the beginning because I know you're thinking, but I have all this stuff I wanted to cut her and I just want it all gone. Now I get it. But I promise this is a much better way to make long lasting progress.
Because if you just like with a fad diet or something where you're trying to make these big sweeping changes, it's much more likely that you will yo-yo right. It's much more likely that you will get rid of a bunch of stuff, miss a bunch of stuff, go out shopping and try to come, try to fix it and fill in the voids that you're feeling because you feel like, oh, I.
I did too much. I shouldn't have done that. And so that's what we're avoiding when we make these smaller changes and we take it room by room. So, how do we do this? Well, I want you to think about the space that you wanted to clutter, and then break it down into smaller areas. So for instance, if you want to declutter your bedroom, you can break it down into the following spaces, the nightstand under the bed.
A dresser. And then even your dresser can be broken down into each drawer. In that dresser, you can break down your closet or you can declutter your closet, which then can be broken down further into clothing categories or spaces within the closet. So you can say I'm going to do the top shelf.
The middle shelf, I'm going to do the top bar, the bottom bar. I'm going to do the pants or the shirts. See how there's different categories within each of this, these spaces that we're talking about. So this is step number one. No that we're going to not do our whole house. We're going to break it down into spaces.
Just that concept is step number one. Step number two is to actually create a list of all of those areas that you want to declutter. Now, one of the things that causes me to feel overwhelmed. Is when I try to keep everything in my head. I create this running to do list and it just kind of lives in my brain. And if I don't get it out of my brain, it makes it really hard for me to actually get started or make progress because I am constantly reviewing that list. Right. It's it's constantly there. It's.
Tick tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. I'm just thinking, what do I need to do next? What do I need to text? And the funny thing is that. I am. Absolutely. Going to miss something if I try to keep it in my head. Right. And the point is that I don't, that I'm trying, I'm reviewing it because I don't want to forget something, but if I don't get it out of my head, I absolutely will forget something. It's a practical guarantee that something will get missed.
And that is what leads to the overwhelm and the burnout, this constant feeling that I'm missing something that I'm not doing, something that I forgot, something that something is falling through the cracks. And so it stresses you out, right? And stress leads to overwhelm and overwhelm leads to burnout and all the things.
So in order to avoid this, I will actually write out a list of every space that I wanted to clutter. Now, if you're starting out, this is going to be every space in your home and me too, even though I've decluttered a lot over the years and again, and again, and again. I will still write down every list or every space in my home that I wanted to clutter.
I'm going to give you an example in a minute. But you can write this list out on paper or you can keep it digitally on your phone or your computer, whatever works best for you is the system that I want you to use. There is no right or wrong. Some people really enjoy having a digital version of it. Other people really work better when they have paper and they can check it off as they go.
So you just pick what works for you. Just pick one and stick with it. Okay. So how I do it is I actually walk around my home and I actually look at all the spaces because if I just sit at my desk and I think, okay, where do I need to do it? Inevitably, I'm going to miss something. Right. So I take it with me like, so if I'm doing it digitally, I'll just put it on my phone.
If I'm doing it written out, I will have a pad of paper or a notebook with me. And like, so for instance, let me walk you through my house. So let's start at the front door and then I'm going to scan from left to, right. So in our house I would write down, okay. As I'm coming from left to, right. I'm going to write down there's the little space that can sometimes become a dumping area right next to our door.
So guests might put shoes there. Our daughter sometimes will forget to hang her backpack up and it ends up there, or her like her violin stuff will end up there. So. Looking at that space, making sure nothing is there. And then two brainstorming. Is there a better way for me to put some organization things there? That's better. We'll get to that in a second, but that's just one space that I might write down.
The next would be our coffee table. It has storage in it. So that's going to be a space to declutter. I might list the end table. That's next to the couch. That's the next area that could hold stuff. Then we have our entertainment shelves. That's where our TV is. It's like a bookshelf. So that's got two shelves there.
Then I could list any bins or baskets that are in the space. I've actually removed most bins and baskets from our spaces. So I don't really have these, but a lot of people would have a bin or a basket. Then moving from left to right. I'm going to actually encounter our entryway. So then I'm going to do the entry shelf that has two shelves on it. So I could do one shelf and then the other, I could do the whole shelf depending on how much stuff I have. And the next is going to be our entry closet, which again, I'm going to need to break that down even further. So I could do coats.
I could do tools, shoes, and wrapping supplies. Those are the things we keep in that closet. They're all a little bit different. So depending on my. Stuff constraints and my timing constraints. I might just do one little section of that. And you're going to continue doing this for each space in your home.
Now, I know that sounds like a lot because at the end, of course, you're going to have this super long list and you might be thinking, okay, this is really overwhelming me. Like I don't, I don't, I don't like this. This doesn't feel good. And if we stopped here with just this list, the super long list of all the spaces we have in our house, of course, it's going to be super overwhelming.
But the next step is going to help us make sense of this list. Okay. So first we need to understand we're breaking down our house into smaller things. We're not doing it all at once, and we're going to be very methodical. How we go through it. Number two, we're going to actually make that list. And the number three, we are going to create a priority list and actually separate these items.
Into areas that are easier and tougher spaces to declutter.
Now, there is no shame in recognizing that some areas are going to be hard. Some areas are just going to be hard for you. And on the flip side of that coin. There are going to be some places that are easier for you. And I don't want you to feel bad about some places being easier. I know that might sound weird, but I do know that some people feel really guilty for not feeling attached to certain items.
So we're just letting all that go. We're just saying, we're just observing. This is hard for me. This is easier for me. Now we all have our own likes, once needs preferences. What might be easier for me could actually be harder for you and vice versa. So how you prioritize this list that we have, this giant list we made is going to be up to you.
But I want you to make sure that you understand that priority means one. We are not. Going to be working on five different places at once. I think a lot of our overwhelm and burnout comes from trying to do too much at the same time. And multitasking. Right? So we are going to go through this list and we're going to say.
This is an easy space. This is a heart space, easy space. HeartSpace. Maybe there's going to be a medium space here or there. Right? You could come across those spaces. But this is just going through and saying, I think this one is going to be pretty easy for me. And I think this space is going to be really hard.
And this way, we will be able to kind of oscillate and switch back and forth between those two. That way we can do an easy space when we're having a tough week or a tough day, we can do a harder space when we have a little more energy and we can really tackle it right. I recommend that you start with an easy space, especially if you are just starting out so that you can get an easy win under your belt. And then you can go back and forth between the hard and easy spaces. I know a lot of us think about tackling these hard spaces, especially when we first start, we think, oh, I got to.
It's almost like we're a glutton for punishment. We're almost saying like, I need to do these hard spaces, but it doesn't work that way. Every space is equal. You just have to kind of work through them. And if you can get rid of more stuff by going through these easier spaces. That's actually a much better win than forcing yourself to deal with these hard spaces because you feel like those are the spaces I should be tackling because decluttering should be hard. Right. I think a lot of us get fed that message and it's not always true.
Okay. So again, once you have your list of items in your home is separated out into easier and tougher spaces. The next part is to remember to address only one space at a time. And this goes back to my 15 minute decluttering method where you can just declutter one area a day in 15 minutes. So if you have 15 minutes a day and I guarantee you do we all do.
We spend these 15 minutes. In a variety of ways. We could be looking up things on Instagram doom, scrolling. Fixing tougher meals than we need to. Right. So maybe we simplify the meals we make. Maybe we just have a moment where we tell our family, like, Hey, I need 15 minutes and you just need some time. I know we can carve out 15 minutes a day.
And so this is why we broke our space down into these individual spaces. And we did this list of easy and hard. So that we can make progress right away. This is how you avoid overwhelm and burnout. It's with these small wins along the way. It is so incredibly satisfying to be able to check off boxes.
On that to do list. And once you have one space that feels decluttered and under control, it is so much easier to make progress in another area, because you can say, look, I did it. And you have proof. Your brain has proved to go back to you to say, you know what? I was a success and I can do this because I did that space.
So now I can, I know I can do this space. Even if that first base was easy. You still can say, Hey, I did that easy space. I can do this one. That's a little bit harder. I can, I can do hard things. It's okay. You can do it. And so one of the issues that I used to struggle with was flitting all over my house.
I would start a project here and I would start a project there and I would never finish them. And it would feel so defeating. I was putting in all this time and energy into decluttering, cleaning, tidying up. But our home still felt disorganized and messy. And so once I committed to finishing one space, no matter how small I was able to celebrate that space and see it as a win.
That built up some positive energy. And then I was able to take that with me into the other areas of our home and actually into the other areas of my life. So instead of ending a day and feeling like. You ask yourself, like, what did I do today? Like, great. Okay. It's the end of the day, my headset and the pillow. What did I do today? And then you feel kind of bad about yourself and you sit there and you maybe you'll spiral a little bit out of control, feeling really guilty that you didn't finish anything.
Well, I was able now to start checking things off, right. I was able to say, I declared this space. Or I decluttered that drawer. I got rid of 10 things that we actually never use, or I found a home for those pens that are always lying around. And yet we can never find one when we need them. I gave them a home today. And so now next time we need a pen. I'm going to know exactly where to go.
And you start to feel better about yourself and you can feel how these little wins build up your self esteem. They make you feel better, and then they make you feel like you can tackle more things. And so can you see how that would create better energy and help you avoid feeling overwhelmed, which then leads to burnout, which then leads to you not wanting to do anything.
Exactly. So the next thing I want you to do in your home in order to avoid decluttering burnout is to actually stop when you finish a space. Yup. You heard that right? I want you to take a break and celebrate your success. Now, please do not use this as an excuse to go out and buy more stuff. So avoid shopping as a reward, right. We were talking about kind of the yin and the yang, and I don't want you to declutter just so you can go shop. That's not the point. We're trying to make our homes.
A place where we feel peace and calm and stuffing it with more stuff is not going to do it. So instead, I want you to plan in for some self care or call up a friend to meet for lunch or better yet. Maybe you can even invite your friend over and celebrate your cleaned out space. Now this might not be what you want to do on the first session of decluttering, right? If you just decluttered a junk drawer and no one's going to see it, which by the way, I like to call them utility drawers so that you remember what you put back in there is actually stuff that you're going to use.
Instead of just junk you're keeping just in case. Little side note there. But having like, once you start to get these wins under your belt, Inviting people over to your space might just motivate you and actually motivate them to declutter to, so then you can cheer each other on and you can, as you make progress, right.
And then I want you to remember a few things as you're going through this. So this is pretty much, those are your four steps you're going to. Kind of look at your home, know that you're not doing it, get your mindset that you're not doing everything at once. Make your big list of all the spaces in your home, whether you actually will declutter them or not, at least, the spaces you have and where things can, it'll start to, for you to remember like, oh, I could put something there. That could be that place is home because maybe I don't actually have anything in there, or that's not where I should be putting some stuff.
Right. So it just gets your brain working. So list out all of your spaces. Then prioritize those spaces based on easy and hard, and then just do one space at a time. Okay. And make sure you're finishing each space and then celebrating as you go about it. Was that five things. I think that was five things.
So one point I want you to remember as you're doing this stuff is to remember that decluttering is not organizing. So when you are decluttering, you're actually letting go of stuff that you don't need so that you can focus on the things that you do, right. Things that you, the things that actually matter to you.
You can focus on the things that you use. You can focus on the things that make your life better. Or those things that you just really enjoy having, and it gives you more space. It gives you more peace of mind and it just lets you focus then on the bigger picture things, right. The time with your family at the time with your friends, your hobbies, things that ju like just jazz you up, that's what we're really after.
We're not just getting rid of stuff. Just for the sake of getting rid of stuff. We are getting rid of stuff. So that we can live the lives that we actually want to be living. And that means decluttering is not organizing. Like putting things away and making them pretty. That is great. That is wonderful. If that jazzes you up. But if that is not what lights you up, it does not matter. You do not have to put stuff in pretty bins.
You can just declutter it and let go. And that will make such a big difference in your life. Organizing might make it easier to find things later on, but you cannot organize your way out of overwhelming chaos. Too much stuff for you is too much stuff for you. So the only way out is to actually let it go until it's easier for you to manage.
And you can keep track of it and it just doesn't overwhelm you. So if you struggle with this stuff in your home, there is too much stuff. All right. So that is one point to remember. And then the final point I want to leave you with in order to avoid burnout is to remind you that you need some support.
This could be from your family members, if you are lucky enough for them to be on board and up for helping you out. I know that's not always possible for everyone, but I promise as you start to go through this, I've seen it time and time again. As you actually work through your areas and your stuff, your family will become more on board. They will understand. They will see the process.
And they will be more. Likely to jump on board with you. Okay. So we're going to start from a point of ourselves and we're not nagging our family to get on board, but if they're on board, fantastic, that's the best support system you can get. Cause they're right there in your home, living with you day in and day out in this stuff.
But if it's not them, you could also get help from your friends. You can get help from, your inner circle. That is great. I know a lot of people are also not comfortable asking other people for help. So if you struggle with asking people to join you in your cheering section, I would actually love to be in your cheering section. I would love to be a resource for you.
So you can join our community on Facebook. It's the wannabe minimalist family. It is still want to be minimalist over there, or you can DM me on Instagram over there. It is want to be clutter-free. You can see why I'm changing the name. There's lots going on. But please, please, please come on over, send me a message, ask a question, let us know what you need help with. And we will be there for you, myself or the community.
Everybody is really understanding with encouragement and just, love for each other. So I really love that we've built a really great community over there of help and understanding. So please come join us if you are looking for help and you're not really ready to reach out. To your in life, real people around you. We are happy to be there for you.
And so with that, I actually want to turn it to you. I want to know, have you been burned out by decluttering before? Do you think these tips would have helped? What was the one thing that was holding you back or what's one of the things that you struggled with the most? Like I said, I want to be here. I want to be a resource for you. So please come on over to the wannabe minimalist family group on Facebook and share.
There will be a discussion thread for this episode. There always is. Or you can come over and leave a comment on Instagram. Again, I'm @wannabeclutterfree on the platform and either way, I would love to chat with you in the comments. And as always, I will have links to additional resources and a transcript for this episode on my website at wannabe clutter free dot com slash 1 5 4. Again, that's wannabeclutterfree.Com forward slash the number 154.
So head on over there for my free resources, including an avalanche declutter challenge. And I just had the nicest testimonial come in for the avalanche declutter challenge. So Cassie said, I wanted to let you know that this has been such a great way of decluttering before our move in a few weeks, I have been able to catch up on days that we're too busy and have definitely already decluttered far more items than the days suggest.
I am. So looking forward to how much easier this move will be, then the last one. Plus I've been able to give away a ton of stuff in my neighborhood, no by group, which has made me feel a lot better about its likely use then taking it to a Goodwill or salvation army. Thanks again for putting this together. Well, Cassie, you are so welcome and I love hearing that kind of stuff. I'm so happy that the avalanche declutter challenge has worked for you.
It is one of my favorite ways do declutter. So if you are in need of a challenge, head on over to Wannabe clutter-free dot com slash 1 54, and I will have the links for the avalanche declutter. Clutter challenge there in the show notes. And so that wraps it up for today. With that. I hope you have a fantastic day. I will see you back here next week for a guest interview with Terry Cralle about the importance of sleep. She has some great tips on how to declutter our bedrooms.
And why we need to make sleep a priority. The information is really enlightening and I think in a decade or so, we are going to look back at our lack of sleep as a society. Like we look back at how much we embraced smoking in the fifties. It is a fascinating conversation. And so make sure you check it out. You definitely won't want to miss it. So subscribe if you're not. So you'll be notified of when that comes out.
I'm Deanna Yates and you've been listening to Wannabe clutter-free formerly want to be minimalist. See you next week. Cheers.
DOWNLOADS
HELP OUT THE SHOW
Leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.