Cluttered Space, Cluttered Mind: Tackling Decision Fatigue | EP 60 | The Decluttering Club Podcast

June 26, 2024

If making decisions feels hard and exhausting, you may be suffering from decision fatigue. Listen to episode 60 for the surprising link between clutter and decision fatigue and what to do about it.


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About the author 

Sarah Mueller

  • Thank you so much for this podcast!! I am overwhelmed with so much sentimental things, it is so hard! My husband is ready to throw me out! lol I will remember I will feel so much better when I can see progress! Baby steps! but have to step it up much quicker!! Thanks again and love all your podcasts! Brenda 🙂

  • Haha! thanks for the shout out 🙂 all is true. My panic attacks dissipated as I decluttered more and more. Two months in is when I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Been pretty stable ever since. Rarely any anxiety or panic episodes since.

  • Really makes sense, I have been cleaning up my environment since last November 2023 and it’s the paper work that causes me the most stress, and procrastination. When I complete something it’s such a relief. I have a major project and I have started by taking all the piles off my bedroom floor and putting them in 2 drawers in my legal file cabinet. I also did an inventory on what I filed and where to find it. I have about 10 years worth of bank and other receipts to get through and it’s still overwhelming. I have a little wooden sign in my bathroom that says “It only seems impossible until it’s done”, that keeps me moving forward. I am waiting for an appointment for ADHD, at age 78, my report cards tell my childhood story. Structure when i worked, masked the real issues, even though I tend to be organized, things have been out of control since 2015. The past 2 years have been the worst, my husband was in a wheelchair and home his last 8 months plus 8 months in a Care home then died Dec. 2022. I am still behind on normal banking statements for 3 banks. I am keeping up the latest one, though not the way I used to do them, in register booklets. I can do 5 hours of heavy yard work (not boring) and at times do 5 hours of filing and paperwork. I did the filing over a weekend, with breaks. I am highly capable. Also, have had a friend in hospital I was visiting for a week, plus 2 sons I share a home with. I still do the majority of household chores, 1 helps the other no. Enough already (ADHD, oversharing, interrupting when someone talks, getting interrupted and not back to the task). I have been doing Zoom and research for 18 months, which helps my awareness. I refuse to label myself and do get exercise. Routines are my downfall, especially meals, never at the same time for any food.
    Thank you for your helpful articles and pep talks, lol! Loretta from Canada (west coast). Our weather has been terrible and only a few warmer days, still having to turn the furnace on, never before in May and some days in June. We had up to 100 F, a week ago, now it’s 60 F and rain. I need sun to ride my bike and haven’t gotten back to the Senior’s centre to exercise since mid April when I did the 4 income tax returns, then began yard work, walking and biking. I am very active for my age and no weight problems ever, don’t smoke, nor drink, cut out all baked goods in January. It’s the clutter that’s keeping me stuck and not moving forward. I need a home to buy of my own, not pay someone else’s mortgage. I sold in 2010, looked after my husband from then (he was walking and talking except the last 14 months, lost his voice last 4 months, though understood every word and aware with Dementia for 12 years (to last night). All this and my sons have issues. Lost 3 uncles since December. I have been trying to put my needs first, need a holiday way overdue, last was 2011. Life gets in the way. I commend you for looking after your 4 sons and spouse and all of us women, lol!

  • The struggle is real! Thank you for adding some insight. I know the process gets harder when taking on big decluttering projects. I naturally thought that the decision process would get easier as you do it more, but the fatigue is REAL, and I have to remember to take breaks! Thank you for validating that I’m still moving forward, even if I have to take “recovery” time.

  • Thank you so much for this episode! I now understand my feelings and the difficulty I have trying to move forward. I also think I understand why I’ve been feeling lighter and freer the last couple days! What an enlightenment!! I can’t thank you enough! 💐

  • Sarah has helped me so much in my decluttering journey. My bookshelves have white space, my husband is decluttering his clothes, and my memory has improved as the clutter goes down. Judy Kenyon

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