How do I organize my home when I don’t have the energy?
Decluttering and organizing! It sounds wonderful, imagining what your home will look like when everything is in order. But you just don’t have the energy to do it.
I definitely get it. This is me too. My energy is much more limited than it used to be. I sometimes don’t sleep well, other responsibilities overwhelm me and tire me out, and sometimes I just have no motivation!
But that’s why decluttering and organizing and so important. Once your home is more orderly, everything will run more smoothly and you’ll have more time for relaxing and doing other things you really want to do. And your daily work will take much less time and therefore less energy. So it’s worth the effort. But how to do it when your energy is limited? Here are some ideas to help:
Start small. Start with just spending just 7 minutes a day decluttering. You could even break it up into two shorter sessions of 3 and 4 minutes each. Set a timer and tackle an area that’s been bothering you. Also, every night before bed spend 5 minutes straightening up. This is just a light pickup to tidy things up a bit. It may not make a big difference at first, but little by little you’ll see progress.
Go with your natural rhythms. Do you have more energy at certain times of the day? In the morning? After lunch? In the evening? Take advantage of a few minutes when you have a little more energy to declutter and pick up. Some days you may not feel like doing even that, but try to pick up or declutter at least one thing each day so you’ll keep up your routine and won’t lose momentum.
“Bank it” when you do have more energy. If you have days where you have more energy, use your time to do things that will help on days you don’t. Cook double or triple when you’re making a meal and freeze the extras for another night when you don’t feel like cooking. Throw in two loads of laundry so you can have another day be laundry-free. If you start your 7-minute decluttering and are on a roll, go ahead and declutter a few more things while you’re at it.
Keep up with dishes and laundry. These aren’t decluttering and organizing tasks, but they need to be done to keep your home under control. Try to keep them as simple as possible. Take shortcuts if they simplify your life in the kitchen: use paper plates and plastic silverware, use pre-cut vegetables, buy a rotisserie chicken, make frozen vegetables in the microwave. Stay on top of the dishes by immediately putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher or washing them by hand. It’s overwhelming when they start to pile up in your sink or on your counter, so keeping up keeps your momentum going. For laundry, try to throw in one load a day and complete it that same day (including folding and putting away). Enlist the help of other members in your household. Ask them to help with cooking or dishes, or have them fold and put away their clothes.
Don’t be a perfectionist. Do what you can. Set the timer and do as much as you can, and be happy with “good enough.” Give yourself permission to just do what’s sufficient, or even tolerable! (If anyone questions or criticizes you, tell them that I gave you permission to do a so-so job.) If you can’t declutter everything on the top of your dresser, just declutter what you can and put the rest in neat piles for now. It won’t look perfect, but it will look better. You can accomplish more if you don’t get picky and waste time on small details that don’t matter. Be happy with what you can do with the time and energy you have, and keep building on your success.
It’s true that this won’t happen overnight. But if you continue to work every day, even if it’s just a few minutes, you’ll make progress. Start slowly and keep going. Don’t compare yourself to others, compare yourself to you and see how far you’ve come. Most of all, don’t give up! Setbacks will happen, so just pick yourself up and move on from there. You’ll be glad you made the effort when your home is more organized and you feel more relaxed and can breathe easier.