When the Body is Able But The Mind Is Unwilling

It happens even to the best of us! You’ve decided to declutter your home and you’ve started sorting. You started with lots of energy and enthusiasm but now you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed and are considering chucking the whole thing in, convinced you are destined to be messy.

OK, take a deep breath with me, and stay calm. You have already done this, you are doing this, and you can continue to do this.

To keep moving forward and avoiding feeling overwhelmed and giving up, try these helpful tips:

Whenever you feel overwhelmed, it means that the job you are working on is too big for you to imagine completing. So you need to break the job down into smaller goals. For example, if your original project is to declutter a bedroom, then you need to break this down in smaller, bit-sized goals. So your goals now become organizing the drawers, organizing the closet, organizing the bedside tables, organizing the bookcase. So your original goal has now been broken down into 4 smaller goals. Now your goal is to organize the bookcase, which you can see is much more manageable and doable.

• Ask for help – from family or friends. A job shared etc
• Ask a friend to be your buddy - if you don’t want others to see your mess, than ask your friend to be a phone buddy. Phone them at the end of each day telling them what you achieved. This way you are accountable for making progress
• Hire a professional organizer - not only will the job get done, you will also discover different ways to store items. By selling off your unwanted items, you can even cover the costs of the professional organizer.
• Ask yourself what do you plan to achieve by decluttering. Make the end result so powerful in your mind, that it is impossible not to strive to achieve it
• Do a bit each day
• Sing while you work. When you enjoy what you are doing, time passes quickly and the job gets done.
• Make your reward for completing the project so worthwhile that you will do what you need to do to get your reward
• Look at the rest of life and see where you are organized. What sorts of things do you do to stay organized in that area? Can you use any of that motivation to keep decluttering?
• Take a day off from organizing. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you don’t need to declutter in a day or a week or a month. Make an agreement with yourself to take time off and set a day/time that you will start again. You will find that you return to your project with renewed enthusiasm and energy.
• Watch an organizing type show on TV and be inspired by what they do. Read a magazine article on decluttering and find at least one thing that you can use. Search the internet for ideas and videos (give yourself a time limit of 30 minutes so you don’t procrastinate the day away surfing) and use one idea straight away.

Staying motivated can be challenging when you are decluttering. To keep moving forward and avoiding feeling overwhelmed and giving up, try some of these helpful tips above.

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