Too Overwhelmed to Start? Declutter with Me!

so I would say there's some messes that are kind of debilitating like you just really honestly don't know where to start it's too overwhelming it's probably gonna take a long time so what we do is we just keep putting them off right and so how do you break down a big task into little pieces so that it's actually really manageable pretty easy to do and as end you'll end up saying why did I do this a really long time ago okay so I'm gonna show you my desk it's my old desk and it's just been the catch-all for the last like four months literally and so we're going to tackle it today I'm going to show you step-by-step how to break it down so it's very manageable and all that weird random stuff that you don't know what to do with I'll show you what we're gonna do with it [Music] so I actually made this whole video on a like really low resolution so please excuse the kind of weird formatting but Tom walked in and he was like wow this looks awesome so I still wanted to use it so it's just gonna look a little different than normal but they won't always look like this well I am doing from the minimal mom we love helping you tackle messes like this any kind of mess any area of your house that is cluttered that you just like one of close the door and totally forget about it we love sharing tips and tricks so that we can tackle these areas get them under control and yes even say like why didn't I do that so much long ago like it wasn't actually that bad and we have this habit of building these spaces up in our head where it's like it's gonna take forever there's so many things on there I don't know what to do with and so then we just don't do it right and the problem is is they just keep getting bigger and worse and all of that so this is my old desk we moved it over here when we started our remodeling project and I it for a little while while it was in here and now we've since moved our computers back out there I've set up a new paper clutter system which I'll show you in another video and so this got abandoned but it's a flat surface so what happens it just collects stuff right and so I want to show you today kind of like what's on here but also talk about how we can break down a big gross task like this into really manageable pieces because it doesn't have to be that hard and it doesn't have to take a long time and I I just I know how all this like random stuff accumulates right like there we were growing seeds in this window here this is a tag from one of the new windows Tom put in books Legos ribbon a utility knife Mother's Day card receipts I mean it it's the same kind of random stuff that ends up on your flat surfaces do I have to imagine it's important to have the tools and that you need whenever you tackle a project like this so I have a garbage bag it's on the floor I have a garbage bag and I also have a bin the first stuff that I mean that needs to get relocated out of here so there's two different ways you could go at it you could relocate stuff as you go so as you come across stuff go put it away right away I tend to get distracted like I go to puts Minh in the kitchen I get distracted in the kitchen and I don't come back so I like to make a pile or use a bin of stuff that goes out of the room and then do all of that at the end so I have a little bit here that I'm going to use and so I think one of the very first steps that helps is just to think like what about this project is so daunting to me why do I keep putting it off and for me it's because I know this is where all of our receipts have been going that we try to keep track of for business expenses and I'm frustrated with myself because I was doing a really great job at the beginning of the year tracking them all keeping them filed and organized but then once like everything went crazy and the kids came home from school and all of that all of my systems just kind of seemed to go out the window with tracking our receipts and so they just started getting piled up so I know there's a bunch of receipts on here and I feel like a failure now because I was like this is the year I'm gonna stay on top of them so that's kind of bugging me I mind hanging over my head but I also know that this is the spot that any deferred decision in our house like that I just didn't know what to do or I was just going to deal with it later has ended up here as well and so I think I can just be kind of helpful to like think through like okay why am I putting this off and to be like you know what it's probably not as big or hard of a task as I'm making it out to be by continuing to put it up so one acknowledge like what is it that feels so daunting about this task and then the next step is to set a time limit so it could be two minutes it could be five minutes sometimes fifteen minutes it was way too long so I'm gonna work on it for I'm just coming into five minutes and the only thing I'm gonna do I'm not gonna jump in by dealing with all the receipts the only thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna sort like items with like items so I'm gonna put all the receipts together I'm gonna put all the random stuff that doesn't go in this room there's like toys and so I'm gonna have piles of like stuff and then from there if I want to start dealing with those piles I will otherwise if the five minutes is up then I'm just gonna stop so I'm gonna set a timer I'm gonna get going with that so it's always amazing to me how like I found a one small corner of this desk right like and it took like three minutes and but I'm I feel like okay I'm in the groove now like I can do this right and it's like it's just getting that ball going and getting started is always the hardest part isn't it okay so let's talk about random stuff for a minute because I think for most of us it's the random stuff that gets us it's homeless we don't know what to do with it and like this is like a whole bin of random stuff right now and what I want to encourage you is that most often and all of my declutter and experience we don't actually miss the random stuff if when you're going through a space like this and you're like oh totally did not know that was here like this whole bin could have fallen off of the face of the earth and I would not have noticed ever come looking for it like I did not know this stuff was here and so I need to weigh that dippin differently than like my tax receipts right those are important this not important very easily replaceable and it's just it's like it really is not important stuff so when we get to this kind of like random like kind of stuff don't be afraid to throw it away just throw it away it's okay we're really not gonna miss it but I also like in the beginning if you're more at the beginning of your decluttering journey if you don't have a ton of experience under your belt then we don't have as much confidence in our decision-making now that I'm six years in like I could throw away most of this stuff on this desk and no I'm not gonna miss it besides like my important paperwork but in the beginning you aren't always ensuring you don't have as much confidence that's totally fair and so I like to have a box I I try to make it like not too big and I put on here 20 20 random steps so I think it's important to put the year on it because it's amazing how quickly time goes and if I need to put some stuff in it where I'm like I honestly don't know if I'm gonna need it I would rather have a small box that I'm putting that kind of stuff into then for my progress so totally stall out because I don't know what to do with that kind of stuff and so in the beginning I think it's okay to create some bins like this absolutely like random electronic stuff maybe it's your spouse's stuff or someone else in your house you just don't know but put a date on it so that in six months or a year from now if I go back to this and we have not pulled anything out I am emptying it into the garbage can right like I will quarantine it for a few months on it a couple more space my house but then beyond that then it's done it's over so true isn't it all right so I am about 10 minutes in maybe and I have like a good chunk of the desk cleared off I have a couple piles here of stuff and so if I stopped right now I would still feel fairly accomplished right like it looks neater it's not quite so overwhelming and if then if I want to come and pick up where I left off again in tomorrow or whatever I would feel like I have a really good start on it but I'm gonna keep going today ever find things like this at your ass but another stuff that's important once we have our piles made is to realize is there stuff that's homeless and that the reason it keeps floating around or gets shuffled around is because it actually it doesn't have a spot so I have some books they're gonna go out on our bookshelf because now we have a bookshelf this is all paperwork that needs to get filed so that all has a home so so far I'm doing pretty good that everything here has a home but if not then it can be a good time to evaluate okay do I need a place for books or do I not need these books anymore right and so it kind of be like yeah I want to get this stuff should I find a home for it or not but it's a really important step to find a home for homeless stuff because that's what stops this cycle of stuff always accumulating and becoming hotspots is when it has a home my other motto is when in doubt throw it out and then I have a couple other things over here so you might recognize this is the wallpaper that ended up showing up after I was done stenciling the wall so I actually have a shipping label to send this back so I need to deal with that and you know a lot of times we come across stuff like this was a piece of artwork we had over here but now we don't have a spot for it and it's kind of been getting shuffled around and so I'm really learning just to like I'm gonna donate this now and pass it on I hope someone's really excited when they find it at the thrift store because I just I don't want to store this kind of stuff anymore because it goes in our basement it gets forgotten about it goes in a closet under a bed and I forget about it and so why not let somebody else take it and use it and enjoy it but really if we're not using it now I just I try to pass it on now so I don't have to store so much stuff and keep and keep track of so much inventory I think is the biggest thing like one less thing off my plate and honestly once this is gone I'm never gonna think about it again like I won't I won't think about never think about this I forgot it was over here till I just came over here now so again it's like out of sight out of mind if I forgot about it once I'm for sure gonna forget about it again alright so I want to show you where we're at real quick and I am already feeling like why did I put this off so long I was like oh I was so busy with you know other kids home and trying to do all their school stuff online that this I'm like 20 minutes in I think so alright so I'll show you where we're at right now I have the floor all cleaned up again and then I have my stacks of stuff here that I have to deal with otherwise I mean that's it and then here's my stuff to re-home and the garbage bag so far alright so my last step now is to deal with these couple piles and this is normally where I would fall off in the past and not just finish drawing and I know it's so silly like this pile of stuff that I need to file I think I know it's gonna take like five minutes like it really isn't gonna take a long time but why do we do that to ourselves where we just push it off and then then it gets messed up and I have to come back to it and like oh yeah what was I doing what is this stuff and so I'm gonna take a few minutes I have my file box here and I'm just gonna throw everything in where it needs to go real quick and I've talked about this in my paper clutter in my filing system videos but I try to make very broad categories for filing so that it doesn't take a long time to file and then it actually makes it easier to find anything that we're looking for but I always remember 95% of the paper you file you'll never go back and visit and so big broad categories are totally fine it's better for it to get off of a desk or vacant piles into an actual file folder in Category then to stretch too much about the categories you're making or if you're putting it in the right spot so big broad categories with the year on makes it really easy to find stuff if I would need it but most often we don't actually need it oh and I forgot to mention how we're gonna keep this from happening again is we're actually gonna disassemble this desk and not use it anymore since we don't need it in this space now that we have our built in desk areas which have actually been working really awesome I like that the counter is kind of like a community space and so I don't let it get cluttered up because I don't really gets my space and so that's actually been working really well that I just don't have a desk so we're gonna move this out of here this whole room it's kind of a makeover but that'll probably have to wait til fall so I'm not I'm not adding any more projects right now all right so that wasn't really like a super glamorous project right but it's an amazing how these things hang over our head and then we just everytime I see I'm like oh I need to deal with that I need to do that I need to do that right and so to just take a few minutes to get started even if you don't finish it the same day you start just to get the ball rolling just to get things even just organized and tidied up a little bit makes it feel like a more manageable project and then just kind of being aware like okay what things are homeless what things do I like keep moving from room to room because it doesn't actually have a spot I think that's why one of the things that has made our house so that we can pick it up really quickly is just everything having a spot but it also means that we just can't keep as much stuff right because for everything to fit and have a spot you can't have as much stuff to have two spots whenever I can especially in a small house and so that's definitely made a huge difference but you can do it just start out by sorting like things with like things that's all you got to do it all right well I hope this was helpful I hope you subscribe if you haven't done so already and we'll definitely look forward to visiting it with you again soon

Channel: The Minimal Mom

Views: 294,144

Rating: 4.9638476 out of 5

Keywords: minimalism, family minimalism, minimalist, the minimal mom, the minimalist mom, minimalist home, simple living, decluttering, how to declutter, decluttering and organizing, decluttering minimalism, declutter with me

Id: FC_QB-v3OOE

Length: 13min 38sec (818 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 30 2020