Helpful Steps to Address a Sense of Feeling Overwhelmed: Part One De-cluttering


Feeling overwhelmed can strike us all at some point, when it comes to administrating a household.

Living in a household with real people and very real everyday daily busyness and activity results in messes.

It results in cycles of cleaning, sorting and putting away that sometimes do not flow exactly as systematically and routinely as they were intentionally set out to.


Sometimes it can seem that from the moment you open the front door, you can face a visual testimony of a sock, a shoe, a discarded sweatshirt, toys, books.... even a school bag, all haphazardly thrown aside at some point on to the floor or any other free surface.

Why does it seem to repeatedly occur, when everyone knows where these very things go, where they belong and should be put, once they are no longer required?


It can feel like you are repetitively reminding those it concerns to put x,y and even z on the designated hook, in the designated drawer or cupboard, in the designated room to no avail.



It can seem at times that somehow you have not yet figured out some effective means to create the same flow of routines, household organization that others seemingly have mastered somehow.

You may well often wonder: How do they do it? How do they manage it?

How often, do you honestly just feel overwhelmed?

Let's be real. Let's be honest. It can feel like there is always a lot of catching up to be catching up with.

A part of the home may well seem to perhaps not yet have a system of organization that is working best for that area.

It does take time.



Our homes are places where a specific group of people, linked by love, meet and greet each other. Our homes house are a unique small community of people who laugh and cry together, play out tussles and imaginative play, eat meals and fellowship together and make resulting messes.


Our houses, for all their occasional messes, however big or small they may be, are those unique special places we lovingly call home.


One step that can be most beneficial to addressing a sense of being overwhelmed and can help to make the administration and management of that very place everyone calls home perhaps a little more effective, is to take time to do some de-cluttering occasionally.

Having recently hosted a Kitchen Swap Party, which helped me focus on de-cluttering the Kitchen Area, I am now working towards do a more general de-clutter about our home.

As time and energy allows, the aim at present is to sort and purge those no longer required items that can be offered at a Letter 'B' themed Swap Party I am going to be hosting soon.



Such surplus, and no longer required items, as books, baby & boys' clothing, bathroom items, bedding, building blocks, BBQ items, even items that are now surplus that are coloured blue, brown, beige, black.... anything from in and around the home that starts with the letter 'B', can all be quietly purged and put aside for this next Swap Party with the letter 'B' theme, if it is time to part with them.

De-cluttering is a helpful step to take to address a sense of being overwhelmed.

A general sort and purge occasionally, which helps to de-clutter the home, is beneficial.

Having a cardboard box or two put aside to collect the items as they are purged, means it is very clear what is being removed.

Whether you choose to use a cardboard box, a surplus plastic bag or the like, it is good to determine from the start a place to put aside those items you have selected as you go about de-cluttering when time allows.

It is very clear then, that they are now put aside and no longer available to simply clutter their original storage place in the home.

You can decide to focus on de-cluttering just one specific area of the home per week, per month.... or do a more general de-clutter like I am choosing to presently do. Do whatever works best for you and your household.

Other household members can be actively involved also, in an occasional de-clutter about the home.

Children can be encouraged to go through their books and toys.

What now seems to be no longer needed and age inappropriate, could potentially through a Swap Party, a Garage Sale, a forthcoming School Fair Collection, a local Charity or being sold online, be passed on to other children who would now enjoy and make good use of them.



If one household member engages more than another in the household's upkeep of the garden and outdoor area, they might like to take some time to actively de-clutter the Garden Shed, the Garage Cupboards where tools, seed packets, BBQ equipment, etc are kept.

An occasional de-clutter that engages all household members encourages joint responsibility for maintaining the homes physical environment, plus the care and administration of it's resources.

De-cluttering is a good starting point for helping to address any sense of being overwhelmed that may occasionally arise. I highly recommend it.

Next in this small series titled Helpful Steps to Address a Sense of being Overwhelmed: Setting A Household Directive.

What is a Household Directive? What does it entail? How often can it be set? Who can be involved in creating it?

This next Post in this Blog series will share the idea of a Household Directive with you and how you might like to create one also.


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