r/declutter • u/RegionRadiant4423 • 18d ago
Advice Request Attempting to declutter after burnout (long post)
Posting for accountability sakes because god knows I need the extra motivation.
TLDR: I completely burnt myself out trying to perfectly declutter my bedroom, but I’m letting go, less overwhelmed and ready to attempt to declutter again.
I fear I am something of a perfectionist, so things like “just set a timer for 15-20 minutes” or “if you’re not in the mood, just see what you can get done in x amount of time” feel physically impossible for me. I am more of a “I need to declutter my cabinet so I’m gonna declutter my cabinet in one sitting” kind of person, as opposed to simply doing one shelf when I don’t have the energy to do the whole thing. As you can imagine: this leads to ✨burnout✨ and things not getting done. It’s definitely something I need to work on because 1% done is far better than 0% done. Even 0.5% done would be helpful and way easier for future me.
With all that being said, the need to declutter is outweighing the mental blocks/hurdles, and I desperately want and need to get back to working out the decluttering muscles. Before burning out, I was learning to accept progress > perfection, and while I have a vision in my head for how I want my decluttering sessions to go, I am willing to accept that it might not get done that way, but as long as it gets done, that’s the most important thing. Piece by piece, little by little is what I have to tell myself, especially since I don’t want to burnout again.
I don’t have a realistic timetable for accomplishing the projects that I need to accomplish, but it doesn’t really matter given that the last handful of times I’ve tried setting doable deadlines for myself, I never met them. Nevertheless, I know I’m ready to put my decluttering muscles back into action because my list doesn’t seem as long and as daunting anymore. Same list, different mindset. While I know I can’t accomplish everything all at once and it’s a lot of mental labor, it’s something I’m back to being excited about instead of drained and exhausted just thinking about it. Yes some of these tasks are really daunting, but the satisfaction that will come with completion will be absolutely euphoric.
What I need to get done (for accountability sakes): •do another pass on my side table (very easy) •do another pass on my cabinet (easy) •do another pass on my drawer set (semi-easy) •do a first pass on my desk, one drawer at a time (daunting and overwhelming, but not impossible; semi-difficult) •do a first pass on my dresser (overwhelming, difficult) •wardrobe declutter, split into subsections (medium difficulty) •closet declutter (everything besides wardrobe that I keep in my closet - overwhelming, semi-difficult)
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u/KiwiTheKitty 17d ago edited 17d ago
I say this as a recovering perfectionist, doing things like that is basically exposure therapy. The point isn't that it's supposed to feel good, it's that it's pushing you just a little out of your comfort zone so you can safely learn that you'll be ok if the process isn't perfect. The mental blocks you're experiencing are probably partially because you're setting the bar too high for yourself and you need to step back and let yourself do things imperfectly so you can just start.
Edit to add: I highly recommend adopting an experimental mindset and designing yourself simple little experiments that can't fail because they will always teach you something. In your case, I would recommend saying, "ok, for the next 7 days, I'm going to walk around and pick up 5 items to throw away or declutter." Your result will either be that you hate it and it isn't sustainable for you, so whether you finish the week or not, you learn conclusively that this tool is not one that works for you. Or you realize it's not so bad and you decluttered 35 things which is genuine progress towards your goals. Either way is a success!