How To Declutter Your Home When You Feel Guilty and VERY Overwhelmed

Today’s Decluttering Club Topic: How to declutter your home and throw clutter things away WITHOUT feeling guilty, sad and overwhelmed… and, most importantly –

WHY decluttering is so hard for YOU.

If decluttering and getting rid of your stuff makes you feel BAD, keep reading… we have a LOT to talk about.

Do you feel guilty getting rid of stuff?

Most people I talk to feel GREAT when they go through the process of decluttering their home – BUT…

I’ve also talked with many people who struggle with feeling BAD and seriously overwhelmed when they throw things away.

They feel immense GUILT just thinking about throwing things away.

It can be an overwhelming, sometimes emotionally paralyzing, cycle that keeps us from clearing out the clutter and living in a cluttered mess situation.

Decluttering Guilt

Decluttering guilt is a very real thing – if you’re never felt it, then it will not make sense to YOU how someone can feel BAD throwing things away.

Decluttering should feel good, right???

But what if it does NOT feel good and instead, feels really REALLY BAD?

11 Common Signs

Do YOU Have Decluttering Guilt? Here are 11 common signs and situations caused by Decluttering Guilt:

1. You feel SO guilty throwing things away (read Susan’s story below)
2. You feel anxiety when thinking about getting rid of your stuff
3. You feel immense regret when you declutter
4. Throwing stuff away makes you sad(maybe even depressed?)
5. Childhood memories of your things thrown away without your consent make you overly protective of your stuff NOW
6. You worry about trashing the environment more than trashing your own space
7. You worry that you are a hoarder or packrat
8. You can’t throw things away because they might be useful “someday”
9. You don’t know what to do with stuff you don’t want BUT can’t throw it away
10. You want to throw everything away and start over (but feel guilty about it)
11. You don’t know WHY you feel guilty throwing away stuffed animals-that is a classic sign of Decluttering Guilt

Guilt, anxiety, depressed, regret, worry… those are real feelings associated with Decluttering Guilt – do YOU feel that way?

Yes, it’s a pretty serious and sad situation to be in, but you CAN get past those barriers to decluttering.

Of course you have the desire to throw things away, so let’s talk how to overcome the guilt and bad feelings to finally let all that STUFF go.

You CAN part with stuff WITHOUT feeling badly about doing it.

Let’s dive in to HOW to declutter and dejunk your belongings when you really struggle with feeling BAD about trashing items that are “still usable” or “could be useful for someone who might fix it”.

Throwing those things away feels like a waste of money – which leads to guilt.

I get that.

But there’s yet another, often untalked about reason for that guilt…

I’ve also met people who tend to give “feelings” towards things.

As in, they struggle getting rid of stuffed animals or even a broken table because they don’t like anyTHING to feel unwanted.

For example, Susan.

Susan’s Story

Susan was in her early 30’s when I first met her and entering into a new and exciting chapter in her life.

She and her boyfriend were moving in together.

Both were moving out of their current apartments into a brand new apartment of their own to start their new life together.

Susan had lived alone in her current apartment for about 10 years – and she had a LOT of stuff.

She wasn’t necessarily a hoarder, but she had piles and piles of clutter and too much stuff everywhere.

She knew she HAD to dejunk and declutter her belongings, but she had one huge roadblock.

Susan told me:

Sometimes all I can think about when trying to declutter my space is how sad and guilty I’ll feel if I throw anything away. While *I* don’t really WANT all this stuff anymore, I hate feeling wasteful and unappreciative and, oddly, I don’t want the stuff to feel unwanted.

She had this deep-rooted belief on some level that keeping that thing (or MULTIPLE things) will make the THING feel happy – but in reality, all those things were cluttering her home and making Susan, a real PERSON, feel guilty and miserable.

Plus, Susan was also trying to be more environmentally conscious so she felt GUILT just at the thought of HER stuff adding to her local dump or landfill.

It’s quite a dilemma –

Throwing things away made Susan feel sad, depressed and guilty,

AND

Keeping things also made Susan feel sad, depressed and guilty…

And extremely **OVERWHELMED**

So, now what?

How To Declutter Without Guilt

Susan’s situation was really weighing her down.

It was SO bad that she felt guilty ABOUT feeling guilty.

How could she ever simplify LIFE when all these feelings and THINGS were in her way?

It was time for her to learn how to STOP that decluttering guilt – and I had some tips to help her move forward.

3 Tips To Let It Go

Here are 3 things I told Susan to help her get past her decluttering guilt:

1. Is your HOME a Dump?

I hear that you feel guilty adding to the trash situation in this world, and I respect that, but here’s the thing…

You’re treating your HOME as a dump.

You’re making your home a place full of piles of unwanted things.

2. THINGS don’t have feelings – PEOPLE do.

I strongly urged Susan to talk with someone about this.

Here’s why…

It sounded to me as if Susan was projecting her own deep-rooted feelings onto inanimate items.

She didn’t want the thing to feel unwanted because perhaps she was made to feel unwanted at some point or during some event in her life.

Throwing things away wasn’t as much about how the thing “felt” when she threw it away, it seemed to be more about how Susan felt deep inside.

3. New Beginnings

Susan was VERY excited about moving in with her boyfriend, but the thought of cluttering their new home and their new life with all her STUFF gave Susan the biggest guilt complex of all – and yes, a good dose of embarrassment too.

I asked Susan to close her eyes and envision what their new home together would look like.

Would it START full of unwanted STUFF that cluttered their hearts and minds while blocking a healthy future together?

Or,

Could this new beginning of a new life WITH someone she loved deeply start with lots of room and space to build a life together?

Now, let me make something clear –

Decluttering her belongings was not something I encouraged Susan to do for HIM (ie, her boyfriend) – it was something I wanted her to give to HERSELF.

Yes, getting rid of stuff IS a gift you give to yourself.

If your heart, mind and SOUL are cluttered and suffocated by all your things, HOW can you have room in your heart, mind and soul for any joy in your life, let alone sharing life with someone else?

It was quite a moment for Susan when I told her that she was treating her home like a dump.

She told me that it was like her eyes were finally opened and she SAW that she was, in fact, doing just that.

That one moment of realization gave Susan that first major spark of motivation to change how SHE felt about her clutter and piles of stuff that she didn’t even use… or want.

Yes, Susan put HER feelings first (and that was pivotal – in fact, it was life-changing).

Letting Go Of STUFF

Now that Susan’s mindset was better suited to getting rid of her stuff, it was time to talk about where to START.

The first thing I recommended Susan do, was to start decluttering in one corner, cabinet, drawer or closet and take everything out – only put back the things she actually used daily, weekly, monthly or seasonally.

If you can’t remember using it, odds are good that YOU don’t need it.

If it’s obvious trash, throw it away – as in, throw it in a garbage bag and, once the bag is full, get the bag OUT of your home and into a trashcan.

You want to start with a small space and work quickly.

Why start small?

Starting small is a VERY important decluttering tip virtually all decluttering professionals will tell anyone feeling overwhelmed.

Starting small really improves your odds that you will FINISH that space and NOT get overwhelmed by the whole project (ie, the whole apartment).

If you struggle with an item, put it down in a separate pile – don’t stress over it, just move on (I’ll tell you what to do with the items in the pile next).

Go through every item in that space you’re working on and ONLY that space you’re working on.

Only put back the items you honestly remember using recently. Not, “Well, I kinda used it 3 years ago” or “I MIGHT use it someday” – only what you actually USE.

Now, here’s how to go through that pile of STUFF you don’t know if you should keep or get rid of.

Should I Keep It Or Trash It?

I strongly recommended this video with excellent decluttering tips for helping you know when it’s time to get rid of an item.

Pay close attention to all the “excuses” we humans use as reasons to keep things we do NOT need.

 Buried in Treasures: Help for Compulsive Acquiring, Saving, and HoardingShow Me This The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered LifeShow Me This From Clutter to Clarity: Clean Up Your Mindset to Clear Out Your ClutterShow Me This

If, after watching the video above, you still can’t decide whether you can let an item go or still feel extreme guilt, put those items in a box and put the box away to the side and let it sit for awhile – then move on to the next space.

Guilt-Free Decluttering

Amazing things started happening for Susan.

With her new mindset about decluttering, Susan was able to get started AND completely finish decluttering small spaces in her apartment.

She found that she felt MUCH better being in those new UNcluttered spaces than she did when she was in her other, still cluttered spaces.

Best of all – Her relationship with STUFF was changed.

She told me:

“I told my stuff – ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ and broke up with it. Ending that relationship with things cleared my mind to where I felt ready to truly enjoy my relationship with myself and with my boyfriend and genuinely felt excited about the new, clutter-free, life I was moving towards.”

She also told me that as she completed small spaces in her home, it got easier and easier to get rid of things and throw them away.

And those boxes of items she didn’t know what to do with?

“Those boxes are all gone. I started to feel so good having less stuff and felt MUCH less guilt about throwing things away. I realized I truly did not need, or WANT, those boxes items so… I threw them all away… and it felt GREAT!”

The “old” Susan had stuffed her home with things, never able to throw things away because she felt guilty – and this situation cluttered everything about her life and stopped her from being able to enjoy her life and her exciting future.

The “new” Susan did the work – she did decide to talk with someone about those “unwanted” feelings and get to the root of it which made her will and ability to get rid of stuff AND keep it clutter-free so much stronger.

I’m very proud of her – what an accomplishment!

She told me that when it came time to move into the new place with her boyfriend, she took MAYBE one-third of things that at one time filled her old apartment to the brink of over-flowing with STUFF.

“I needed to make the change and I am grateful that I did. It is a relief to live without all the clutter. Thank you SO much!”
– Susan

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