Tackling Overwhelm

Something I hear regularly from my clients is “I just don't know where to start” or “I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it, so I put it off.”
Getting started can be the hardest part, and hiring a professional organiser to come into your home is one way to smash through that barrier.
I always encourage my clients to make progress between our sessions if possible, and the main piece of advice I always give is to start small.

Break it down

Tackling the whole house or even a whole room is a huge amount of decision making to throw at your brain at the same time. Instead, break it down until you reach a level which is manageable for you. This might be “just the wardrobe” “just the top shelf” or “just this pair of shoes.”
Keep zooming in until you are able to think clearly. This will be different for everybody and can change from day to day depending on the items you are looking at or your energy that day.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Remember that what we're doing when we declutter and organise is making decisions: what will stay and what will go, where will we keep things, how will we store them. This takes brain power! This is why it might feel more exhausting than expected.
When making these decisions it can be really helpful to include someone else in the process – either a professional or a friend – who can help you to see things from a new perspective.

Chain of progress

You may find at some points you become stuck in a “chain of progress.” This is where there are several steps or blockers to go through before you can achieve your goal. Something like “I want to clear my kitchen table so that I can eat there, but it’s currently where I keep my plants because the shelf they used to sit on needs fixing, and I have the bit of wood to fix it but it needs cutting down and I don’t have the right tool.”
This kind of chain usually leads back to a fiddly task which we might have been putting off. Following the chain back to the beginning and addressing that task is a great way to get things moving.
What’s stopping you from completing that initial task? Do you need more information or external help? In the case above, the next step might be “borrow tool.” By prioritising this first step the whole chain can then follow, and the next thing you know you’ll be sitting at your kitchen table with a bowl of noodles wondering why it took so long to get here!

Even if you make one decision a day you're still making progress. Keep going.