If you have ever felt like decluttering is far too overwhelming and complicated because there's way too much involved in the process, today's episode will cut out all those unnecessary extra steps so you can focus on the most important concepts, which is deciding what you want to keep and what you want to let go of.
Hey there, I'm Nicole from The Maximizing Momma, and I am obsessed with creating a home that gives me more peace of mind, more time to myself and more time with my kids. I teach you the tried and true secrets to clearing your clutter, getting organized, and managing your household in a realistic and sustainable way.
This show is where we talk about things like motherhood, decluttering, organizing, creating routines, mindset, energy, and everything in between. Our homes are the foundation for the rest of our lives, and it's so important to have a calm, relaxing household so you can have the time, the peace of mind, and the freedom to truly enjoy motherhood.
So sit back and get ready to take charge of your home.
Tell me, if this sounds familiar. You wake up in the morning and you already have a dozen things running through your head. Throughout the course of the day, you need to pay bills, complete home and work projects, return phone calls, put the laundry away and answer a million questions from your kids about why the sky is blue and what you're making for dinner.
It's enough to make anybody's head spin. And this is likely why you reach the end of the night feeling way too mentally drained to declutter at all. Of course there's physical energy, but there's also mental and emotional energy. And if you have ever reached the end of the day and literally didn't feel like de cluttering, it's highly likely that it had nothing to do with motivation.
But more specifically, it had everything to do with decision fatigue. You see, we make on average 35,000 decisions. Every single day. From what to wear, what to do next, why to eat and on and on and on. And the thing is a lot of these decisions are subconscious, meaning we're not even aware that we're making them.
Well, this decision fatigue is the concept that says that the more decisions you make, the quality of your decisions gets worse. Meaning when you reach the end of the day, you likely can't make a single decision at all. So you might be wondering what in the world this has to do with decluttering organizing and taking charge of your home.
Well, it actually has everything to do with decluttering because that's all de cluttering really is. It's decision-making. As a matter of fact, there are several decisions involved in a basic decluttering project. There are the basic decisions like deciding where to start, choosing a decluttering method and deciding how long you will declutter for.
But then there are the main decluttering decisions, the decisions that really make the biggest difference when it comes to decluttering your home. You have the decision of whether to keep something or let it go. And then you have the decision of deciding what to do with the unwanted, decluttered items. Do you want to donate, sell, or discard them? And depending on that answer, you'll then need to make another decision to decide what to do with that thing and where to hold it for the time being.
So as you can see, Decluttering is basically just decision-making. And this is why it's so hard to decide where to start, what to let go of, what to focus on next, what to organize, et cetera. Because by the time that you're able to find a few minutes in your day to declutter, everything, all the clutter and the messes in your home, they seem equally important. They're all a scattered mess. They're all competing for your attention.
But you're literally drained and can't even decide where to start. So you're suffering from decision fatigue. We all suffer from it. And if you have kids, it's very likely that de cluttering feels overwhelming and complicated because you're, you're making way too many decisions throughout your day.
So instead of trying to make even more decisions, every time you choose to declutter, I want you to remember that decluttering is decision-making. Because when you keep this in mind, There are a number of things that you can do differently.
First you can choose to declutter at a time of day when you're at optimal capacity. For many mothers, this will be first thing in the morning. Now I know that might not seem realistic, especially if you're not a morning person. But at the risk of going too far off topic, I'll just say that you don't have to be a morning person to start waking up 15 minutes earlier.
I'm not a morning person. As a matter of fact, I am a literal night owl. I have worked nights since I first became an adult at the age of 18. And even now, currently at my part-time job, I still work nights. Sometimes not getting off work until 2:00 AM. But during the week, I need to wake up to take my kids to school. And I have found over the years that if I wait to wake up until the very last minute, if I let my kids wake me up, I cannot be the best version of myself for my family, because I'm essentially rushing to get everything done. So because of this, I make a point to wake up earlier so I can do the things that I want to do without being interrupted by my kids. So I don't have to break up fights and make a dozen decisions before I'm really even awake myself.
After doing this for a few years, I now wake up an hour or more before my kids. But when I first got started, it was literally just 15 minutes. So all of this to say, if you are really suffering from decision fatigue and you are outnumbered by kids, meaning you have more than one child, it will do you really well to wake up before your kids, before your kids wake up. And declutter then. Because remember decluttering is decision-making. And the first thing in the morning before the rest of your household is awake is often the very best time to make decluttering decisions.
Now let's get back on track. Choosing to declutter at a more optimal time doesn't necessarily have to be first thing in the morning. If your kids are school age and you stay home, it could be before they get home from school in the afternoons. Or if you work overnights, it could be right before you go to work.
Your optimal time of day to declutter will essentially be the time of day in which you have the most mental clarity. And for most mothers that is not at the end of the day, which ironically is when we all try to declutter. So find out when that time is for you, when you have the most mental clarity and then choose to declutter then.
My second tip is to have a list of areas that you can choose from that you can declutter, tidy and organize. I highly recommend creating a declutter list that is basically a list of spaces in your home that you want to transform. More specifically, it should include smaller areas like one pile of stuff or individual pieces of furniture that you need to tackle and de clutter.
Then when you have a few free minutes in the pockets of time throughout your day, you can pull out this list, choose an area, and get right to it. This already eliminates one of the decisions involved with decluttering. The decision of deciding where to start. And by the way, If you would love to have a list of areas that you can pull from along with detailed steps about what you need to do, well make sure to stay tuned because in the next two weeks, we have something coming that will give you a month's worth of ideas so you never have to wonder where to start or what to do next. I will be sharing all the details right here on the podcast, as soon as it's ready. So make sure to subscribe to the Take Charge of Your Home Show and follow along on my Instagram stories.
Now having a list of ideas to pull from knocks one decision off the list. But let's keep going. The next decision that's required to declutter is choosing a decluttering method and then deciding to keep something or let it go. So when it comes to simplifying the decision making process, I highly recommend not sorting your clutter into piles. Don't follow the method that you hear from professional organizers, because that just adds on way more unnecessary decisions. I talk about this all the time, but this method typically involves pulling everything out of the space and then creating all these different piles, like keep relocate trash, maybe, shred, et. Et cetera. That's way too many decisions. It's way too complicated. And I want you to avoid that altogether. Instead, just choose a space to start in and pull out one item at a time. And then narrow it down to just two decisions by asking yourself, do I want to keep this or do I want to let it go?
If you want to keep it, it will go back where you found it. If you want to let it go, you'll set it to the side. And then you can move on to the next item and follow that same process of asking if you want to keep it, or you want to let it go. This is a major way to take out all those unnecessary decisions and just hone in on the basics, the main decisions that are necessary, deciding what to keep and deciding what to get rid of.
I really love this process because it helps you remember what decluttering is all about. When you're following the method that professional organizers suggest of pulling everything out of the space and sorting it all into different piles, that really causes you to get caught up, focusing on rearranging your things and trying to make the area look more neat and tidy and organized.
But you're not really letting go of enough stuff to make much of a difference. And that's largely due to the fact that decluttering has way too many decisions. That method of sorting everything into piles has way too many decisions. So it's way too easy for you to get lost and confused along the way.
But when you strip out all those unnecessary decisions and just ask yourself if you want to keep something or let it go, there's no extra steps involved. There's very little room for error and just a whole lot of real tangible progress. So once you have finished de cluttering and culling through that smallish area, you will be left with a pile of things that you're willing to let go of. So the next decision that you'll need to make is deciding how you want to get rid of these things. Do you want to sell, donate or discard them? I highly recommend choosing one main exit method, the method in which you will get these unwanted items.
Out of your house, because if you're trying to sell some kids' books while also donating some coats and shoes, and then also throwing away some broken toys, that's just more decisions and more steps in the process. Which again, just speaks to all the decisions involved in why you're likely having a hard time following through.
So with that said, ideally, you should choose to donate everything. Or donate some and discard the rest. I don't recommend trying to sell anything unless you can sell it for more than $40, because otherwise anything that you sell for less than $40 will not be worth your time and effort. Especially when you consider all the time and effort that goes into selling an item, even on Facebook marketplace.
It might end up taking you a couple of hours to post the item online, message potential buyers, drive and meet them somewhere.
So three to four hours later, that only equates to $10 an hour and that's just not worth it. Your time is so much more precious than that. So anyway. Like I said, ideally, you would, you want to donate as much as you can or donate and discard the rest. And. This step, this step of deciding how you will get rid of these items, this exit method, and deciding how you will get them out of your house.
Sometimes it can be easiest to just add them all to a donation box. And then on another day when your mental capacity is a bit higher, when you haven't been decluttering on it on a day, when you have chosen not to declutter, you can then choose to go through that donation box and discard anything that you're willing to and drop off everything else at a local charity or a shelter.
Now let's run through the action steps real quick. First, choose to declutter at a time of day when you have the most mental clarity. This is most likely in the morning, but it could be at any time throughout the day, depending on your lifestyle.
Next you want to have a list of smallish areas you can easily pull from that. Make it super simple to decide where to start when you have free time available to declutter for a few minutes. You can create your own declutter list, but I am also coming out with one that you can access very soon.
For step three, you want to simplify the entire decluttering slash decision making process by only focusing on two questions. Do I want to keep this or do I want to let it go? If you want to keep it, put it back where you found it. If you want to let it go, set it to the side. And then finally, when you have finished decluttering that specific area, you can gather up all the things that you want to let go of and add them all to a donation box, a trash bag, et cetera.
And that's it. Four different ways that you can really simplify the decision-making process while you are decluttering. So, what I really want you to take away from this episode is that decluttering is literally decision-making. That's all it is. Keep this in mind, going forward and you will get really good at making powerful decluttering decisions and deciding what to let go of.
But if you feel like you're struggling to make decluttering decisions and you have no idea where to start, make sure to stay tuned and subscribe to the Take Charge of Your Home Show because in the next few weeks, we have something brand new coming out that will give you all the ideas and simplify the entire decluttering process.
I'll chat with you soon. Bye.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Take Charge of Your Home Show. Go ahead and take a few moments to celebrate yourself for being here, doing this work, and really learning how to create a calm, relaxing home. Don't forget to check out the show notes and feel free to leave a rating and a review so I can know what you want to hear more about because you and your journey are what make this show a reality. I'll see you next time.
