I often look around my apartment and feel like there are a lot of things out of place. I have been force to admit that a lot of things don’t have a set place, a spot, a home in our home. A library book will up on the table and stay there for two weeks, the vitamins are now permanently stored on the book shelf, and my workout gear belongs with the plants in the living room.
It’s not too big of an issue, but it’s far from ideal. I do want to get rid of stuff, make more space for the things I use every day or every week – and find them a proper place. But the idea of everything I would need to do to make it happen is overwhelming. After putting this off for more than a year since moving into our current apartment, I have finally found a way to declutter that works for me.
After some trials, experiments, a lot of giving up and starting again, here is what works for me: do as little as I can. It’s not how much I do in one day but the consistency of making small progress that will make a real difference.
I force myself to start as simple as I can. And I mean really really simple. Thinking about all the steps of one project is what makes the process overwhelming. So I break it down to one step a day.
Let’s say I want to sell something, my first step is to decide what I want to get rid of. Step 1: define which item to sell. That’s it. I am not even thinking about the next step yet. If I do, I’ll think about putting up an ad online, having to answer people’s questions, find a time that will work to meet … and that’s when my brain gives up. One simple step at a time. I do step 1 then move on for the day. I’ll worry about step 2 on the next day. The next day (or whenever I want to tackle that project again) I’ll start working on to step 2: usually make sure I have the item in a convenient place in the apartment and take some pictures. And then I stop. Again. Simple and pretty straightforward. “What is the smallest action I can do today to make progress?” that’s what I’ll do today.
And that works for me! Sure, it doesn’t work if I’m in a hurry to finalize something. But for big tasks like decluttering I am actually making small but incremental progress and can start seeing the difference after a few weeks.
Even better, because I went through the small steps a few time, I start feeling more confident I can sometimes do two steps on the same day. Crazy, I know. But I won’t feel guilty if I only do one. I focus on small but consistent progress.
Any progress is progress.
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