13 Tips on How to Start Decluttering when Overwhelmed
People say to me, “my house is so cluttered, I don't know where to start” and I get it.
I might geek out about decluttering nowadays but I spent the first 35 years of my life surrounded by chaos, clutter and impulse buys.
Even now, I still feel overwhelmed and procrastinate before starting a new minimizing project.
Luckily, feeling overwhelmed by your clutter is completely normal, and easily fixed - all we need to do is work out our particular flavour of overwhelm.
Pick the statement below that best resonates with you, or scroll to read the full article & 13 tips on how to start decluttering when overwhelmed.
What about decluttering feels overwhelming to you?
Click which speech bubble resonates with you most, or scroll to read them all.
I don’t know where to start decluttering
No problem, if you don’t know where to start decluttering, I have a few options for you to choose from, just go with whichever one appeals to you the most:
Start small - you could take things one drawer / one shelf at a time, or you could declutter for 5 minutes a day. Easing yourself in is a great way to start your decluttering.
Start big - you could get things started with a bang by dedicating a chunk of time and making a lot of progress right from the start. I love this method as quick, big wins are great motivators! I always recommend that people start with my 2 hour capsule wardrobe, and then my 10 minute toy rotation.
Prioritise your pain points - the whole point of decluttering is to make your life easier. You can fast forward to the benefits by tackling the areas of your home and parts of your routine that piss you off the most!
Prioritise where you spend most of your time - Along the same lines, you could enjoy the benefits of decluttering quicker by first focusing on the areas where you spend most of your time.
Prioritise items out in the open - this fun trick will make your home feel decluttered sooner, as the spaces you see most (counters, floors open shelves, etc.) will be cleared first. You can then go back and tackle the inside of cupboards and drawers.
Do the worst, first - just think how easy the rest of the house will feel after you’ve conquered your scary basement!
Do easy things first - does the thought of going through paperwork bring you out in hives? No biggie, try tackling your kitchen or bathroom first instead. Your paperwork will seem much easier to declutter when you’re further along.
I don’t know how to declutter
You don’t need to know how to declutter, here’s my easy decluttering process.
It’s ideal for people who feel overwhelmed and indecisive when it comes to decluttering.
There’s even this free interactive decluttering tool for you to use.
I don’t know what to keep or what to let go of
No worries if you get analysis paralysis when you try to declutter, the Minimize My Mess Method (MMMM) is free and easy.
There are set questions to ask yourself for each item, and then there are easy instructions to follow depending on your answers.
There’s even this free interactive decluttering tool for you to use.
I don’t want to make more of a mess
Oh you’re smart, you know that it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
You’re right, decluttering is a messy process, but there are ways to minimize the mess as you work through this.
If the idea of the short term mess feels too stressful, you could:
Tackle smaller areas at a time
Regularly let go of recycling, rubbish and donations as you go, so they don’t build up.
I don’t know what to do with the stuff I don’t need any more
If you’re wondering what to do with the things that you declutter, I have just the post for you - here’s how to get rid of stuff you don’t need anymore.
Basically, you can donate, sell, recycle, repurpose or dispose of items.
The post explains the easiest and most eco-friendly ways to do so.
I’m sentimental and don’t like letting go of things
Oh my gosh, me too - I’m such a big softie. I mean, what if I need this museum map from 2004?!!
Here are 13 tips to be able to let go of sentimental items without feeling guilty to help.
Phew!
I don’t have time to declutter the whole house
That’s ok, there’s no rule saying that you have to do everything at once. Just start with a small project first and see how you feel.
My favourite thing about decluttering and minimizing is how much time it saves me.
Most people see the benefits of decluttering really quickly, which inspires them to find a few minutes here and there to keep working on it.
Just go at your own pace and focus on the task at hand.
I’ve always been messy, so why bother?
This was me, to a tee.
Everything I tried to be tidier took so much effort, and only lasted for a short time.
Until minimalism.
For me, it all boils down to this:
We messy people do not have the luxury of owning as many things as we’d like.
It’s purely a numbers game - the less we own, the less we have to tidy.
Getting my things down to a manageable number changed everything.
Once I minimized I was able to organize (give everything a logical and labelled home).
Once I organized, tidying became easy.
I couldn’t believe it. Putting things back where I know they belong is quick, easy and mindless.
The overwhelm came from all of the unknowns. I found not knowing where to put every little thing so exhausting.
Having less things removed the overwhelm for me.
Related posts: you can dive deeper into being messy here, brighten your day with some funny quotes about being messy here, or hear more about my journey from messy to minimalist here.
I don’t have a car to get things out of the house
This can feel like a big barrier to decluttering but there are ways around it:
Offer things for free in your local buy nothing group - recipients usually come to you to collect (be sure to let them know if the item requires more than one person to move, or if there’s any stairs, etc.)
Arrange for your donations to be collected - google “donation pick up near me” to find organizations that offer this service
Arrange a junk removal service
Ask a friend to help you with their car
I hate selling things and dealing with people on marketplace
Me too!
I used to have a giant pile of things that I felt like I had to sell.
They built up and up, making the place look just as cluttered as before - but now I had the guilt of procrastination to deal with as well.
When I finally built up the will to sell something, I hated every part of it.
From taking photos, writing descriptions, setting prices and dealing with flakes and no shows …it was not how I wanted to spend my time.
If you don’t desperately need the money, I suggest that you skip the sell pile all together, and donate anything in good condition.
Making the decision to only donate things was so freeing.
I don’t know where to put anything
Good!
Deciding where things go is organizing, and it’s really important to keep the minimizing and organizing phases separate.
Once you’ve fully minimized a space, you’ll have less things and more of an idea on what’s really important, so prioritising and finding homes for things will seem so much easier than before.
For more support at that stage, you can work through my free How to organize your home in 30 days challenge
There’s too much to do, I’ll never finish
I hate to break it to you, but none of us will ever fully “finish” decluttering and minimizing.
It’s an ongoing process for us all, so don’t let an imaginary finish line stress you out from getting started.
My partner / kids have so much stuff, why bother
I’m a firm believer that we only have control over ourselves. We can’t control other people - their thoughts, feelings, actions, belongings.
The more you focus on yourself and your stuff, the more you might be pleasantly surprised by the positive knock on effects to those around you.
Saying that, as long as everyone has their own space for their things, I think it’s fair to aim to keep communal areas as clear from clutter as possible.
If you clearly communicate, compromise a bit more that you think you should & extend grace, you’ll find the right balance for you and your family.
Here are some more tips on how to argue less about mess.
What if I give up halfway through
Perfection often presents itself as procrastination. If I can’t do it perfectly, why bother starting at all …sound familiar?
If you give up halfway through, the worst thing that will happen is that’s you decluttered half of your home and made your life so much more easy and enjoyable :)
That doesn’t sound to bad, right?
I can’t afford storage bins
This actually works out well because storage bins just get in the way at this stage.
Storage bins are for organizing, and you won’t be working on that yet.
As you minimize and declutter, two things are going to happen that will make storage bins much less of a necessity:
You’ll have less stuff to put in storage bins
You’ll free up other boxes, baskets and bins that you can repurpose for storage when it comes to organizing your home
My family won’t support me so I’ll have to do all of the work myself
This is a tough one as I’m a huge pusher of an equal division of labour. I think that everyone in the home should do their part to maintain it.
But if you’re the only one that’s interested in decluttering, I would recommend that you tackle it, even if you have to do so solo.
Sean had zero interest in decluttering, so I slowly started to chip away at it by myself. And I’m so grateful that I did.
Our home is so much calmer and less cluttered now. And I have to say, in this season of life where we both work full time and I run Minimize My Mess, Sean does a lot more around the house than I do.
He finds tidying and cleaning so much easier now that we have less stuff. He’s proud of our home.
So I can’t guarantee that your partner will take on the lion’s share of the housework if you declutter, but I can promise you that life will be easier and happier for everyone.
Don’t forget this guide to argue less about mess.
I don’t know what to do with all of these piles of paperwork
Bleugh. Paperwork was my kryptonite.
Just looking at a pile of paperwork would be enough for me to give up and rewatch another episode of Queer Eye.
Now I keep less than 30 pieces of paper. Here’s my ridiculously easy way to declutter paperwork.
13 Tips for how to start decluttering when overwhelmed
Now that we’ve covered some common barriers to decluttering, let’s dive in to 13 tips for how to start decluttering when overwhelmed and how to make the entire process easier.
1) First, a secret about decluttering
The more decluttering you do, the more decluttering you want to do.
Letting go of things that we don’t need feels good.
It feels like less of a chore, and you might even find yourself excited to start another project.
2) How do you want your home to make you feel?
We so often focus on how we want our home to look, but I suggest you concentrate on how you want your home to feel.
When you walk through the door, do you want your home to stress you out more, or instantly calm your nerves?
Look around the room you’re in. Visualize how you’d feel if this was an uncluttered space.
Measure your progress by how each space makes you feel. Pinterest perfection doesn’t have to be the goal.
3) Have a plan
You don’t have to approach decluttering with a military precision, but it’s great to have a loose plan of what area you’d like to tackle first.
Here’s a reminder of starting points, with some more examples:
Start small - Instead of feeling overwhelmed by your entire wardrobe, just concentrate on a small category first, e.g. socks.
Start big - I always recommend that people start with my 2 hour capsule wardrobe, and then my 10 minute toy rotation, as they’re big, quick wins!
Prioritise your pain points - if you want to pull your hair out every time it’s time to make food, you could tackle the kitchen first.
Prioritise where you spend most of your time - if you spend most of your time in your bedroom, tackle that space first
Prioritise items out in the open - concentrate on your kitchen counters first, then move on to the hidden areas inside of cupboards and drawers.
Do the worst, first - finishing a giant project like your basement, attic or junk room first will make you feel invincible!
Do easy things first - if you’re feeling overwhelmed with going through your wardrobe, maybe start by letting go of out of date food first? If the thought of wasting food stresses you out (like it does for me), consider sorting through your old make up first.
4) Do you have to do it now?
Sometimes overwhelm can be fixed with a reassuring blog post (hi, that’s me), but sometimes it’s a sign that you really don’t have capacity for another project right now.
Decluttering will make life easier, but be kind to yourself and don’t take on anything that you don’t have the energy for.
I’ll be here to help whenever you’re ready.
5) Just focus on one thing at a time
Like I said, a vague plan is great but don’t overwhelm yourself even more by getting too caught up in all you still have to do.
Just take it one drawer and one shelf at a time.
6) Skip areas if they feel too hard
If you find yourself spiraling deeper in to overwhelm at any stage, just skip whatever it is that’s stressing you out.
There are no rules and no minimalism police, so feel free to skip areas as you please.
I promise you that you’ll feel more ready to tackle them at a later stage.
7) Drop spots
I go through this in more detail in the Minimize My Mess Method, but I recommend that you create drop spots in your home whilst you declutter.
Drop spots can be a box, bin, bag, dining room table, corner of the room, shelf, etc., which you can label and keep specific items as you declutter your home.
Drop spots help streamline the decluttering process, and keep your home more organized during the messy stage of minimizing.
Decluttering drop spots examples include a donation pile, ‘to sell’ pile, recycling, etc.
8) Memory box
One of the most important drop spots is the memory box.
Taking a detour down memory lane is the quickest way to slow down your decluttering process.
So I recommend that you put anything remotely sentimental into a memory box, to be reviewed all together at a later date.
Here’s how to declutter sentimental items without feeling guilty.
9) Maybe pile
If you’re a scaredy-cat minimizer, the maybe pile is a powerful drop spot to use.
It takes away all of the stress of decluttering, because you don’t have to let go of anything before you’re ready.
Here’s how to use a maybe pile whilst decluttering:
Add anything that you don’t USE, or LOVE …but that you’re not quite ready to let go of yet
Box it all up & label it with a date three months from now
If you need anything specific from the box before that date - don’t fret, you can go grab it - but in general, try to just forget it and go about your business
Review the contents on or after that date
If you’re ready to, let it go, if not, pack it up again and label the box for another six months from now.
Repeat as necessary :)
10) Teeny tiny tidy
For me, building the habit of tidying every day is more important than how long I tidy for.
So every day, come rain or shine, in sickness or in health, I set a timer for 1-5 minutes and then tidy my little heart out.
Try the magic of a daily teeny tiny tidy for yourself - it’s a game changer!
11) LBT box
The last drop spot I want to highlight for you here is the lazy but tidy box (LBT box aka shit box, aka dump drawer).
Tidying should be quick, easy and mindless, because you’re just returning items to their logical and labelled home.
Constantly stopping to guess where things go snaps us out of action, and in to procrastination and distraction.
The LBT box fixes that because I throw anything in there that doesn’t have a home.
Then, when I’m in the mood to organize / problem solve, I go through the LBT box and find logical and labelled homes for each item, or add it to the donation pile.
12) Take before and after photos
Just trust me on this one.
Even if you never show another living soul, you will be pleased as punch to have before and after photos to compare.
I promise you it will spur you on.
13) Maintain easily by practicing the one in, one out method
The simplest way to maintain your progress is to follow the one in, one out rule.
For example, when you buy a new pair of trousers just pick out an existing pair to donate.
Conclusion
We’ve chatted about several ways how to start decluttering when overwhelmed. I really hope that you’re feeling better about tackling your clutter - in the way that’s best for you and your family.
If you enjoyed this, please share using the buttons below - I’d love to help more people who are feeling overwhelmed. Thanks!
