Inside: Use these tips for decluttering with health challenges to help you start making more progress.
Have you been feeling overwhelmed by the state of your space? Are you sick and tired of being overwhelmed by uncontrolled clutter?
All you need to do is roll up your sleeves and get to work… right?
That’s easier said than done when you’re dealing with health challenges.
Whether those challenges are physical or mental – or in some cases, both – they make the task of decluttering significantly more difficult to accomplish.
But while decluttering with health challenges is hard, it doesn’t have to be impossible.
By approaching the task in a way that works for you, you’ll find that you’re able to clear the clutter out of your space, even if you’re facing limitations that make that task more challenging than it should be.
Why does decluttering with health challenges feel so hard?
Many of us face health challenges that add an extra layer of complexity to many of our everyday tasks.
Dealing with physical limitations, fighting chronic pain, or managing conditions that impact your mindset and ability to focus can be difficult, to put it lightly.
When you’re facing physical limitations or dealing with ever-present pain, simple tasks can be much harder to accomplish – if not literally impossible.
Mobility limitations can make it challenging to access all the spots that need attention in your home, and chronic pain can significantly limit the amount of time and energy you can afford to spend on the task at hand.
Mental health challenges can pose just as many complications to the decluttering process. ADD can make it difficult, if not impossible, to stay focused on the task at hand for any meaningful length of time.
Anxiety can leave you so overwhelmed that you can’t even figure out where to begin the decluttering process.
And depression can make it difficult to even get out of bed and complete the most basic of tasks; the idea of rolling up your sleeves and spending hours sorting through old stuff can be completely outside the realm of possibility.
But there’s good news – you don’t have to suffer at the mercy of your clutter because you’re dealing with health challenges.
There are ways to adapt, overcome, and ultimately accomplish your goal of decluttering your space. You might just need to take a different approach to make it happen.
Decluttering with Health Challenges: 4 Tips To Help You Cut Through Clutter and Organize Your Space
Tired of living with all of that clutter? Ready to make a change and clear it out? Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you navigate the decluttering process.
1. Take it slow.
While some people prefer the marathon-style approach of working for hours and decluttering everything at once, that might not work for you – and that’s completely fine.
It’s totally OK to acknowledge any limitations you might be facing and adjust accordingly. You may not be able to totally overhaul your space in a single weekend.
You might need to take weeks, months, or even years to accomplish your goals. Taking a slower approach to decluttering is absolutely acceptable. Adjusting your expectations is going to be part of the process.
After all, decluttering isn’t a competition. The last thing you want to do is leave yourself physically injured or mentally overwhelmed and exhausted.
Even if you’re limited to tackling your clutter in five-minute stretches, you can absolutely make good progress in that amount of time. And when you add up all of those little decluttering sessions, at the end you’re going to find you accomplished your goal.
Don’t compare your progress with anyone else’s. It’s important to remember that this is your own journey. It’s ok if it doesn’t look like anyone else’s and if you need a longer timeline.
2. Set realistic goals as you go.
The idea of tackling all of your clutter at once might be completely overwhelming. That’s why it’s smart to break the task down and set some realistic goals for yourself.
By celebrating little wins along the way, you’ll be able to recognize the progress you’ve made and continue building momentum for the rest of the task at hand.
Instead of aiming to declutter your whole home, focus on a single room at first, and then think even smaller.
Want to declutter your kitchen? Great. Focus on one drawer at a time.
Want to declutter your closet? Perfect. Focus on one type of clothing at a time.
Narrowing your focus to a very small area or category will help you to make progress without feeling so overwhelmed. How do you eat an elephant? One bit at a time.
Give yourself grace and be patient. Progress is progress, no matter how small. All of the little steps eventually add up to big progress.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
While most of us feel like we need to declutter our space all by ourselves, for some, this isn’t realistic. There’s nothing wrong with asking for a little help.
If you can afford it, you can hire professional decluttering services to come in and help you sort through your stuff to determine what stays and what goes.
Trained professionals can help you make hard choices around what you should and shouldn’t keep, get rid of trash and items to donate, and help you to come up with systems and solutions that’ll help keep your home clutter-free for years to come.
And if hiring a pro isn’t in your plans, that’s OK! Often, friends or family members can be more than willing to roll up their sleeves and spend some time helping you make decisions or removing large or heavy items for you.
Not only does the additional help make it easier to get through the task at hand, but you’ll also have more fun doing it when you’re in good company.
4. Find solutions that will work for you long-term.
Decluttering is a two-part project. First, you’ll get rid of all the existing clutter in your space. Then, you’ll want to create an organizational system for the stuff that remains, and figure out how to keep it from descending into cluttered chaos like it was.
Instead of rushing through this part of the process, it’s critical to pause and really put some thought into what’s going to work for you long-term.
By putting some thought into why certain spaces were so cluttered, you can come up with solutions that can mitigate those issues and set you up for success. That might mean not using a particular closet for storage that you can’t reach without assistance.
It could look like hanging storage solutions on walls – something visible that you can’t easily ignore or forget. Maybe it means filling drawers with organizers to make it easy to find and grab whatever you need, or exploring custom solutions best suited to support your particular situation.
As you might imagine, this looks a little different for everyone, depending on your space as well as your personal needs and limitations.
And if you live with others? It’s also important to get them on board and ensure they’re willing and able to support whatever solutions you put into place.
Involve them in your decision-making process to get their buy-in, and it’ll be easier to ensure you can keep clutter at bay for the weeks and months to come.
Creating decluttering habits in your home will help you to maintain your space so that you can enjoy your simplified home where you can more easily relax.
Final thoughts on decluttering with health challenges
While decluttering while dealing with either physical or mental health challenges can certainly be more difficult, using these tactics can help.
Focus on what you can do and make progress one small step at a time. With consistent effort, you can reach your goals.
Have patience with yourself in the process and know that there’s nothing wrong with going at a slower pace and adapting as needed.
What tips and tricks have helped you declutter your space while facing health challenges? Comment here and let me know!
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Downsizing and declutterring are great, but old age and injuries and complications add another view. Accidents and surgeries change our clothing sizes and produce restrictions on our clothing needs, sometimes for over a year, sometimes forever. And sometimes we will be able to wear these clothes again, but maybe not for several years. So don’t get rid of everything, because shopping for replacements might not be physically possible or financially possible. And our life could be very different and limited.
Moving to a smaller residence might make us have less to care for, but if you end up using a wheel chair or walker is the layout and size big enough to use these items? Can you even get in and out of your home? Tiny houses are appealing but can you really sleep in a loft if you can’t climb stairs? Is the bathroom large enough for your walker or wheelchair and maybe another person in with you to help you?
And if you had to use a wheelchair or walker due to an accident or surgery, if you declutter it when you don’t need it when you heal, but the older you get the bigger likelihood it is that you will need it again. If you declutter it, you will be rebuying it, at a higher price.
Don’t forget too that most retirees or handicap people have available home care through the state. Many of these kind people are willing to help you declutter and organize a little at a time, and take your excess items to places they can be used. But keeping your home clean and organized will make you feel more safe, comfortable, and peaceful especially when do not have the ability to go outside or anywhere, sometimes even a Doctor trip is your only time you get outside your house.
This is from someone who’s been there too many times!
“Available home care through the state”? What country are you in??? Obviously not the US 🤷🏼♀️ I’ve never even heard of such a thing!
Not live in care. But many Medicare plans will get you access to home health caregivers who can help you bathe, check your vitals and even help with a little lite cleaning a couple of days a week. Some states Medicaid can provide that also.
Thank you so much for your comment. you have described my situation exactly. I’m in constant pain and my mobility is a disaster. Standing to do dishes often requires that I take a couple breaks as I can only stand a couple minutes at a time. Even if I can manage to box things, I can’t get them down 15 stairs, into my car and off to where? I need help but do not know where to find it. It’s overwhelming.
Hi Kate, I have mobility issues too. I can carry a light bag downstairs if I’m careful (I use a cane) so I bag things instead of boxing. Also, there are second hand shops that are glad to pick up any goods you want to donate. I highly recommend a rolling stool (I prefer saddle shaped ones) for use in the kitchen. Amazon can deliver it to your home. They have some that are lower priced. I hope this helps.
My mom has been using paper bowls, plates, as well as Meals on Wheels, shelf stable and frozen meals.
Thank you for highlighting the challenges of maintaining a household with health conditions. Between ADD and anxiety, cleaning and organizing around the house is a daily struggle and doesn’t align with how I want my home environment to be. What started as a few pieces of clothing on the bedroom floor has grown into a huge mountain of clothes. As I get more and more overwhelmed with the scale of the project, the mountain gets bigger and even more insurmountable. As you suggested in the article, I broke up the task into incredibly small steps. What I added is that I perform the steps at the same time every day to create a routine. Most importantly, I don’t allow myself to do more than just that one step per day, even if I feel up for doing more. If the step is “Hang up five items of clothing in the closet,” I do that and walk away. The benefit of this is that I walk away not only having completed a step, but also feeling energized, more capable, and less anxious about doing it again the next day. Now I get to watch the clothes mountain shrink everyday, and feel so much better knowing I’m doing something about it.
The comments summarize what a friend of mine is going through.
I just want to pass along a hint I saw in a comment on the Flylady website:
Take “Before” and “After” pictures! I wanted to do this, but then couldn’t find my camera, before realizing there’s a camera on my cellphone! (duh)
It’s really amazing how very helpful this is.
Also, sometimes 5 minutes is way too long. It’s amazing what even 30 seconds can do. 😀
Home health care is available through local Senior Service organizations. There are requirements such as age, and financial limitations but if you are over financial limits, you can hire independently. An assessment by trained case managers will determine if you qualify for government assistance. Hope this helps.
In November, I was told I had four to six months to live. I figured I was going to start feeling sick really soon, so I did the equivalent of Swedish death cleaning, especially as I did get more ill, as I lost a lot of weight, so I gave away almost all of my clothes. Remember, I was only working with a four to six month time frame. In testing, due to a genome testing company I volunteered to work with to maybe help others, in January, they let me know I was misdiagnosed, and while I still had cancer, it was treatable and I would be around for, possibly, many years. I did lose a lot of weight during this time and now I have no clothes. So, my moral of the story is don’t rush into it.