How to Declutter Your Home When you Feel Overwhelmed
Decluttering your home when you feel overwhelmed can change your life! a bold statement but so very true. Ditching the mess can ease anxiety and help you to regain control in every home space. Decluttering, organizing, and clearing through the chaos in your home doesn’t need to be stressful.
Anxiety can rise with every item you bring into your home. Putting strategies into place to declutter and ditch the mess will ease the stress you feel with clutter taking control.
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Constant clutter And Overwhelm
Do you feel overwhelmed by constant clutter in your home? Having a clutter-free organized home will transform your life. It sounds like an outrageous statement, but having a system that works for you and your family will help you be more productive and think more clearly, too.
If your clutter makes you feel overwhelmed and stuck in old habits that keep you from moving forward, below are some handy tips to get you started today!
Overwhelm in a cluttered family home can creep in slowly. It’s so easy for clutter zones to build up quickly in areas that are often used.
Decluttering Tips When Overwhelmed| Tackle The Pesky Clutter Zones
For example, kitchen tables and counters can be ideal zones for clutter to mount up with paperwork, kid’s school items, and all sorts of bits and pieces during the week.
Clothes in bedrooms (clothes you have tried on, dirty clothes, etc.) can build up on chairs, the floor, or on dressers, multiply that by the kid’s rooms and your room, and that is a lot of washing, ironing, and folding to do!
Finding these annoying clutter zones and quickly dealing with them will set you in the right direction to create an uncluttered, ordered family home.
Whatever system you choose to work with to declutter your home, find one that works for you and that you are happy to maintain.
Keep it simple, effective, and easy so that you can keep it up in the long term.
The decluttering tips in this blog post are going to help you if you identify with any of the following feelings of overwhelm :
- I feel overwhelmed with clutter in my home.
- How do I have the motivation to clean, organize, and declutter my house?
- Where do I start with the clutter in my home?
- Help! I have a messy home and don’t know which clutter pile to begin with?
- I want to simplify my home by decluttering, but I feel overwhelmed by housework, let alone dealing with decluttering.
- Help me declutter and clean my family home!
- Every surface, drawer, and cupboard is full of clutter – how do I start with the mess in a big family house?
- How can I start decluttering my house and life and embrace the simpler life?
- How do I start a 30-day decluttering challenge step by step?
- I need a decluttering challenge to help me organize and clean my house -help!
- What are the benefits of decluttering my home?
- Minimalist lifestyle looks so amazing, but my house is a mess – how do I simply start to declutter?
How Do You Get Things Done When You Feel Overwhelmed?
Feeling emotional, stressed, and overwhelmed when you have many rooms and many items to declutter and sort through is normal.
If you think things are spiraling out of control and you need to refocus so you can keep going through your list of decluttering, go over the following handy ideas for encouragement:
- Take a deep breath and know you can do this.
- Make a list of everything you need to do room by room and allocate the length of time each will take.
- Be kind to yourself; you are making a positive step towards a healthier living area and mindset.
- Don’t go it alone. Involve your family, your friends, or your neighbors. Having other people to help and bounce ideas off will take the burden away from you doing it all alone.
- Begin with the most effortless room in the home and work towards the most complex.
- Or start with the most challenging room/area in the home and get it done first.
- Time yourself as you clear the clutter – having set goals will speed up your process and reduce frustration.
- What you are going through (emotionally) is normal. Find support where you can and remember this process will help your mental health.
7 Benefits When You Declutter and Organize Your Home That Will Change Your Life
- There will be less to clean daily.
- You will find lost treasures you forgot you had.
- You will save money.
- Stress and anxiety will decrease.
- Sleep will dramatically improve as stress levels go down.
- You will feel more productive as you gain control of your home space.
- Your home will be easier to clean, sort, and organize.
10 Incredible Tips to Declutter Your Home When You Feel Overwhelmed and Unmotivated
Sometimes the hardest step to take is the first.
The thought of beginning the declutter can be as daunting as actually tackling the mess. Decluttering your home doesn’t have to be stressful or all-consuming.
By starting the process of decluttering, you are breaking through the most challenging step – the beginning. At this point, you begin to control your clutter instead of feeling like the chaos is in control of you and your home.
#1. Make A Choice to Start Today
As hard as you may find it, decide to start today.
Making a to-do list room by room is a fantastic way to this.
You are making a plan, and it’s shaping your incredible choice to make your life more manageable and take back control.
Map out your whole house and garage and grade each area from 1-5 (1 being the least cluttered). You are creating a master plan to reduce your stress and frustration. By having specific goals to work towards, you can declutter one area at a time, starting at either the most challenging or the least.
#2. Begin with the Small Stuff
Simplifying your life is your goal. Sometimes even when you have written your plan, it’s hard to know if you start with the larger, more in your face items or small stuff. When you begin with the smaller things, you get more momentum to keep going until you reach the more challenging hurdles.
After all, it’s so easy to talk yourself out of decluttering! Make it easier on yourself by starting with the smaller items (drawers, dressers, bedside tables) and take the small wins!
This will help your mindset so that you feel more motivated to carry on section-by-section seeing real progress.
#3. Set A Time Limit
Not having direction can sabotage all your great decluttering work. Take your plan and write down the highest traffic areas and start with them. In the home, these areas will often be the most cluttered as they are used as dumping grounds for mess and clutter.
Hot spots are easily found; mine tend to be the kitchen and living areas. All the family use these rooms daily, and everybody’s mess builds up fast. Paperwork, books, water bottles, and coffee cups all build up in these hot spots, and that’s normal as these family areas are used all the time.
Once you have your high traffic areas, set a time limit for each one and start! Having a timer helps you to focus, stay on task, and get more done. Also, the end is in sight as you know exactly how long you have left!
Keep going as once that timer goes off; you can assess your progress and congratulate yourself on a job well done!
#4. The 15 Minute Daily Declutter Challenge
You may be skeptical about the limited time this decluttering Challenge gives you, but once you try this and stick to it daily, you will be astounded at the sheer amount you can get cleared in as little as 15 minutes a day.
When you set aside specific time-based slots to tackle a decluttering job you have been putting off, you find you will speed through your to-do list, ticking things off at lightning speed, plus you will feel so motivated to do it all again the next day.
Find a time that suits you, pick one cluttered room at a time, and set your timer for 15 minutes. Have all your supplies at hand – rubbish bags, boxes to donate, etc. to make it as easy as possible to blitz through the time.
After 15 minutes, take stock of the progress you have made in such a short time. Imagine how much you could get done in double the time – only 30 minutes every day!
These little steps towards a more organized home add up and make you feel inspired to carry on. 15 minutes of decluttering can work for you. Find a time that you can slot into your day and go for it!
# 5. Create A Harmonious Happy Space While You Are Decluttering Your Home To Reduce Overwhelm
This may seem like an obvious step.
But as you declutter and clear the mess from your individual spaces, it is challenging work physically and emotionally.
Creating a lovely harmony within each room or area you are working in; you will make the process much simpler. Some tips that have worked so well in the past are to:
- Wear comfortable clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
- Put on your favorite music to keep you motivated or listen to a podcast.
- Have a “break area” with refreshments ready for you.
- Create uplifting scents in your decluttering space using a diffuser and essential oils – lime oil is wonderfully fresh. It will help to boost mental clarity as well as purifying the air with fresh aromas.
#6. Don’t Strive for Perfection If You Have Decluttering Overwhelm
Take progress over perfection every time. If you spend too long focusing on organizing rather than decluttering your space, you will find it harder to get the mess out of your home.
You are spending your time wisely by taking care of getting all the easy junk out, such as broken items, newspapers, magazines, and items you don’t even like or find useful.
This process will feel so good as you make instant progress, and you can see the results so fast.
There’s a significant difference between organizing and decluttering. To help you stop feeling overwhelmed during the process, it’s essential to start with decluttering to get the clutter out; then, you can organize what you have and create a system that works for you.
- Decluttering – This is the first step, to go through the clutter you have, take a good look, and decide what needs to go (throw away, give to charity, or sell)
- Organizing – The second step is to assess what you have chosen to stay in your home; you can then create a system that works for you to store and organize, which is functional and beautiful.
#7. Act – Get It Out of Your Home Today!
As you begin to work through your plan, room by room, you will fill bags (and bags) of rubbish and items to donate to charity.
To reduce the feelings of overwhelm when decluttering your home, make sure your car is ready to be packed with bags so you can take them straight out to the tip/dump or donate them. This way, you can fill a bag, put it in the car, keep on going, and then get the clutter out of your home.
You are taking action, getting the clutter out of the home, and right away, you can see your progress. It’s a fantastic feeling when you know you have cleared one full room, plus you have taken all the clutter you didn’t want or need away too.
Removing the clutter immediately may be the one decluttering tip when you feel overwhelmed that motivates you to carry on. You will visually notice a clearer home quickly, giving you the motivation to move on to the next home space to clear.
#8. Take the FREE 30-Day Decluttering Challenge
Getting rid of unwanted mess from your family home has never been so easy! If you are feeling overwhelmed by clutter the 30-day challenge may be the perfect way to begin your decluttering journey so that you can feel less anxious and stressed.
Take the Free 30-day Challenge, and you will get rid of 300 items in 30 days.
It’s a great challenge to start and successfully finish in January or at any time of year if you are serious about decluttering. Some pointers to get you started are:
- Set aside 30 days when you can fully commit to this decluttering Challenge
- Every day donate or throw away ten items from your home
- Make a concerted effort not to buy or replace items you are decluttering
- After the 30 days, enjoy having 300 less unwanted items in your home!
Download your FREE decluttering challenge bundle to get started today!
Complete the Challenge and feel how motivated you become as the clutter leaves your home. As the mess leaves your home, you will find you are less stressed and more focused on carrying on with your decluttering and home organization.
For more details about my FREE 30-Day Decluttering Challenge, I have written a post about all the information and free printable PDF (including checklists and daily prompts) to decide if this is the best challenge for you.
#9. Take the 45-Day Kitchen Declutter Challenge
How many handy gadgets and essential kitchen utensils do you have lurking around in your kitchen drawers and cupboards?
Sometimes unwanted clutter can gather in the areas we don’t expect.
My kitchen drawers were packed with all sorts of “essential” items until I took this useful Challenge. Did I really need a melon-baller?
Try it so you can identify what you do use and need in your kitchen instead of what you think you need.
Here’s how the 45-Day Challenge works:
- Take a storage box or cardboard box and set it aside in the corner of the kitchen
- Fill the box with gadgets and kitchen utensils
- For 45 days, carry on as usual, and if you use anything from the box, clean and return to its usual place in the kitchen – drawers or cupboards.
- At the end of 45 days, whatever is left in the box – donate to charity
- Congratulate yourself on decluttering!
By completing the kitchen challenge, you can identify if you use the kitchen items that are causing so much clutter, and then at the end of the Challenge, you can get rid of all unused items.
#10. The 1-Drawer 1-Shelf Decluttering Challenge
Feeling overwhelmed and intimated by clutter is normal. It’s taken time to build up, but now you are ready to reduce it and get it out of your home.
This Challenge will help you start even though it may seem like a small dent in the clutter chaos.
Focus on one drawer or one shelf to clear in each room of the house. Choosing a single area to work on in each room will give you focus and make a significant impact as you know you are tackling tricky, clutter hot spots.
Time Yourself
Use tip number 3 and time yourself, so you don’t get stuck in one cluttered area. This will help you zip through each room, bag in hand, clearing one drawer or one shelf in no time.
This is a brilliant challenge to set yourself as it removes inadequate feelings of overwhelm when you are looking at the house’s chaos as a whole. Plus, you can do this (timed) twice a week and see amazing progress!
When you are going through each area, think about what you want to keep, not what you want to get rid of. This will help you to refine the chaos and see what needs to go right away.
1-Drawer 1-Shelf Decluttering Challenge Room-By-Room:
- In each room, choose 1 drawer or 1 shelf to declutter armed with binbags to dispose of the mess right away
- Kitchen – 1 kitchen drawer, 1 pantry shelf or 1 kitchen cabinet shelf
- Living room – 1 drawer, 1 mantlepiece, 1 DVD shelf, 1 display shelf
- Bathroom – 1 vanity/toiletry shelf, 1 towel drawer/shelf, 1 first aid shelf
- Bedroom – 1 bedside drawer, 1 clothing drawer, 1 beauty product drawer
- Laundry – 1 laundry shelf, 1 laundry drawer
- Dining Room – 1 display shelf, 1 shelf of storage cupboard
- Garage – 1 display/storage shelf, 1 cupboard shelf, 1 drawer or 1 small box
decluttering Tips When Overwhelmed | Conclusion
Clutter that takes over our homes can be overwhelming and stressful. Faced with all our clutter daily – it’s a constant reminder of poor decisions you have been putting off for so many reasons.
Taking the first step by contemplating de-junking the home is a positive one and makes you feel ready and willing to get stuck in.
Once you have decided to tackle the mess by ticking off some of the steps above, take a minute to congratulate yourself. Just knowing that you have stopped ignoring the clutter in your home is a huge step forward.
You have clutter and mess in your home, and you are doing something positive to clear it and get it out of your home! It’s a great feeling, and you should feel proud no matter how small your steps are to decluttering.
No matter where you start, just start. In no time, you will be on the road to decluttering your family home without feeling overwhelmed or stressed.
Don’t forget you can download your free 30-Day Decluttering guide (see below to download right away) and get instant access right now so you can blitz the clutter and banish the chaos.
Feeling overwhelmed when faced with decluttering is stressful and can create roadblocks to success. Finding solutions to take control and ditch the clutter will change your life and add positivity and harmony to every former cluttered space in your home.
For more decluttering, organizing, and house clearing inspiration take a look at the Top 7 Decluttering Fears and How To Overcome Them and How to Declutter Your Home To Reduce Anxiety to get started today.
