Decluttering isn’t just about sorting items; it’s about making decisions. And those choices can be exhausting. In this episode, we explore why decision fatigue shows up when we’re organizing, how it impacts our ability to make progress, and what strategies help protect our energy so we can move forward with clarity and confidence.
In this episode we talk about:
- Why so many small choices during decluttering (keep, toss, donate, repair) drain us.
- The common traps of decision fatigue—keeping everything or letting go too impulsively.
- Practical strategies to pace decisions, set boundaries, and avoid burnout.
Mentioned in this episode:
- The role of “pre-made categories” like Donate, Sell, Repair, Trash, Ask a Friend/Family.
- Daily decision quotas as a simple way to avoid overwhelm.
- Compassionate boundaries: giving yourself or a loved one permission to pause and revisit decisions later.
Review full show notes and resources at https://theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast
Review Transcript:
Hey friends. Welcome back to Organized and Cherish. Today we're diving into something that doesn't get talked about nearly enough, in my opinion when it comes to decluttering. Now, I have talked about the subject matter about, give or take, about five or six episodes. So you may have heard me talk about the subject at length, but I realized that we've never gone back to the 1 0 1 of decision fatigue.
Why is it so widely talked about nowadays? It, it wasn't as much before, but then it kind of became this pop word, pop phrase, but it's a very real one. And then I realized, oh, wait a minute. I haven't talked about it in an entire episode. So let's just get back to some of the basics, which are very important in organizing, decluttering and downsizing.
It will be one of your greatest tools when you understand it. And you learn how to work with it. So if you've ever sat down in front of a pile of clothes or papers or inherited items and or you have a loved one that has faced this and felt totally drained after just a few choices, this episode is for you.
It doesn't mean you're lazy. We do not judge on this podcast. We do not give you any guilt trips about it. If this is you, you're not unmotivated. No worries. It's a very real effect and very normal. So we're going to talk about it, normalize it, and what can we do about it so that when you are faced with decision fatigue.
You are not stuck there. You can get out of it and hopefully on your own, but if you do need to get a little bit of help, at least you can articulate what you're feeling if this is you. Okay, so let's get to it.
Welcome to the Organized and Cherished podcast. With the organized flamingo. I am your host Stephanie, your compassionate and efficient professional organizer. Whether you are part of the sandwich generation helping a loved one declutter, or just trying to simplify life, this is the place for you.
Together we will tackle those overwhelming piles of stuff, uncover purpose in what we keep, and let go with dignity and care, because it's not just about throwing everything away. It's about. Affecting memories and simplifying life. Sound like a plan. Let's jump in and get organized. So what exactly is decision fatigue?
So decision fatigue. As described in the Webster Dictionary, it's the mental exhaustion that we feel after making too many choices and when we're decluttering, the choices really seem endless, right? Like you can probably, uh, have figured that out as soon as I said the word decision fatigue if you weren't familiar, but you can put one in one and put it all together.
It's really just that exhausting phase and feeling. When you are now coming to terms that you have a lot of things to pick from, a lot of choices and in this definition and how we here, you know, professional organizers work with it is when you have too many choices. Which is also marketing 1 0 1.
Marketing marketers know this, so they try to give you choices, but not too many choices because then you will be overwhelmed and you will leave and or abandon the cart. So it is also, it's psychological like Psychology 1 0 1, marketing 1 0 1 organizers are faced with this all the time. So it is something that happens to many of us, if not most of us.
In decluttering and organizing, it can manifest and look like the questions when you ask yourself, well, should I keep it or should I toss it? Should I donate it or should I sell it? Should I replace it? Should I repair it? Should I store it or should I display it? We actually have entire episodes to all of these questions, um, but that is like the 1 0 1.
Like, what, what do I do when I'm based with this? And then you freeze and then you don't do anything about it. Because each of these tiny questions eats away at your energy reserves. And unlike brushing your teeth or driving to work, which are on autopilot, decluttering is full of that emotional weight.
You're not just deciding about a shirt, you're deciding if you'll ever fit into, again, it represents money spent, or it may connect to a memory. So those layers make the choices really heavy. Which again has you stopping and giving yourself those second and third doubts, and then just putting everything away and just saying, you know what?
I will address it later. So that is what decision fatigue is at the core and how it can come out when you are organizing decluttering and downsizing. Now, why does it matter when you are faced with this moment that decision fatigue? I mean, can you get past it and how important is it? Your organizing journey and project for yourself or a loved one?
Well, the danger of decision fatigue is that once our brain gets tired, we default to one of two extremes. We either keep everything because letting go feels really hard or too hard. We then also can toss things impulsively just to get it over with, and sometimes that regret will come later. So neither of these options actually serves us long term.
I talk about this at length, so if you're, you've been around here for a hot minute, you know how I feel about this, that when you go to the other extreme, like minimalism, like, you know what? I read this, put in whatever book of the week, book of the month that has organizing trends in it. I read it, my friend recommended it.
I saw it on social media. And yeah, I'm ready. I'm going all the way to whatever that is. You know, either deciding to throw everything away and become a minimalist or keeping everything because I am now going to be a flipper or resell and become a reseller. Like you are just going all the way to the extremes, and that's obviously not healthy and or helpful for you at all long term.
So you'll either keep it. Because letting go feels really hard. You'll keep it because you think you'll need it later. You have a new career path, especially for all of you in neuro like Neurodivergence who really have this as your gift. It doesn't allow you to move forward in your organizing journey, right?
So the fatigue will just make you stop. Or on the other other hand, you will then let go of things impulsively, and then what ends up happening is you will regret it and or repeat that behavior again because you never really addressed what the actual cause of that was. So that's why recognizing decision fatigue is so powerful.
It's not about willpower, it's about pacing yourselves and setting up systems that reduce the number of choices that you have to make. So that's why we are focusing on figuring out why it matters and some strategies to pace those decisions. So da, how do we handle it? Here are some strategies that I love to use with people and as a kind reminder, these strategies or tips that I always give you on the podcast are very general.
So unless you give me a very specific example, or maybe you come and visit us at our monthly organized and cherish calls. Then we know we have those once a month on the third, uh, Wednesday of the month at 11:00 AM Eastern time, and we just chitchat about, you know, where you're at in your organizing journey, and then I can just kind of get you started or give you inspiration how to restart again.
So anyway, these, so these tips are always very general. Whenever I work with someone and or you gimme an example, I try to give you, um, general tips and then if you would like me to tailor it to your specific instance. And of course, we can always work together. You can come to one of our free chit chats on Zoom, organize and cherish chats, or just send me an email and I will help you out with this set up time limit.
Instead of tackling an entire area like your garage or something, let's put that as an example. Give yourself about 20 to 30 minutes with a timer. And then when it goes off stop, a lot of people really like the Pomodoro method. We, uh, recommend that very well just because the increments seem to be short enough for your attention span to be challenged, but in a good way, like inspired.
But not so long that you get bored and you can start building habits like so you build upon one task over the next or the next. You take a small break, let your brain recoup, but not so much of a break that you forget that you're in this project and then you can come back to it again, and it builds upon the habits.
That you are creating. So I really like the Pomodora method, but you can try any type of timer that works for you, but that seems to work really well with decision fatigue. So give yourself that amount of time to make a decision and you'll be surprised at how much you can do without burning out. So I, what I would recommend with timers as well as to ask yourself one question at a time.
Now we have our own decision resources, like Decision Tree resources that you can find over on our resources page. Just go to our website and then go to resources. But you now with ai, especially if you are an AI user or tech smart technology user, go ahead and ask one question at a time and give yourself a limit.
Of whatever that timeframe is to answer the question. Or if you're going through your closet garage and you're trying to make decisions, uh, have it give you a set of questions that you're answering, print them out and then, you know, bring them to your project so that you can address each question at a time and start there.
So the time limit is really important. Hi, cherish friends. Life can get overwhelming, especially when you're juggling caregiving, clutter and everything in between. That's why I created the Organized and Cherish weekly email. That goes out every Wednesday straight to your inbox to help you keep the momentum inspiration going with tips and reminders of our upcoming events.
All you have to do is head on over to organize and cherish.com and sign up for the email newsletter. It's free and you can sub subscribe whenever you'd like. It's my way of helping you simplify your life and respecting memories along the way. Now back to our show. Pre-Make Your Categories. So this, this one requires a little bit more planning, but this one goes out to those of you who already know that you have these categories.
Like I, I know I want to donate some stuff, or probably will be just based on what I know I have. I know I want to try to sell some stuff and get some money back. I'd like to definitely throw stump stuff away because I know some of it just is not working, but actually some of you don't believe you have trash to deal with right now, and that's okay.
So if that's not a category, by the way, work with what you've got, but just trash. You always will find some kind of trash, even if it's literal. Not like your stuff is trash, but literal trash. So always have that bin available to you. If you're looking to repair some of your stuff, um, so you know, and the categories can continue on.
You can have a whole set of them. Another one is like ask a friend or family. So have your categories ready ahead of time, like your bins, your baskets, your areas ahead of time before you start so that when you start your project in your decluttering mode, or just let me figure out and organize this area mode, you will have the space.
Bins and baskets ready to go and make themselves on their way out, like, like, like little trains, like they are on their way out. Um, there's actually a client that, that I'm working with right now, and her categories are called on their way out. She doesn't know where or when, but they're on their way out.
So have those categories ready. If you're working with an organizer or, or a body double or a friend, ask them for perspective. If, if you're stuck, ask your favorite Gemini chatty G chat box to give you some examples, um, based on what your ultimate goals are. But this way you don't reinvent the categories every time.
I see that a lot with decision fatigue, where you start the project and you can't finish it all at once. There's just so much stuff. Plus you're not used to taking on these really big projects, so you get overwhelmed physically and mentally. So then you step away, and then when you come back, eh, you don't remember where you left off.
So this is almost like a bookmark for your project, and the structure of itself makes it much easier to make these decisions. So pre-make your categories and have a little bookmark for your project. Batching similar items is also a very, just in general for organizing as a whole, a very good idea. Um, so rather than, than deciding on random items as you find them, group them with, like as you go, so in, if you're not ready to pre-make those categories.
If you can identify groups, groupings of each other, you know, start grouping them by what you're seeing. You have the most of, I think a lot of people get stuck in. Well, okay, so let's, I'm gonna give you an example of a clothing item. If you have a dress that's polka dots and it's red, it can fit three categories, maybe, probably many more.
But three that we can immediately think of is, it's, it's a dress. It's a dress, or, and, or like a red, like a nice dress. It is a patterned dress because of the polka dots and if you like Disney, mini mouse dressing up, any of that, it could be like cosplay, dress up dress. So that right there is three categories and what people face is in the moment.
If that decision, well, which category did I put it in? And then they get overwhelmed because it's just, it just feels overwhelming. If you have more of one grouping, like if you have. More dresses than Halloween costumes, then you, this might be a really good candidate to go into your dresses because you have more of them and you wear more of them.
If your Halloween costumes, cosplay for one-off occasions is small, then you probably are only using that category once in a full moon, which means you can go rent it, borrow it, buy when you need, as opposed to keeping it for that one upon a time. That's just batching similar items by their usage, like how much you're using them or how many you have can make the decision part go a lot quicker.
The last quick tip that I have for you is to limit the daily quotas. So this is a big one. Uh, this is, I probably should have put this as my number one tip, but I'm leaving it for the best. Best for last. Decide how many decisions you want to make and build upon them as you go. So if this decision fatigue topic is relatable to you, and this is why you haven't made progress, because you can't decide, start with one decision today.
Double it tomorrow. Double it tomorrow. Now, if you have plenty of time, like you have a couple years. A year or so just to, to start making big, big progress. Like you're not moving tomorrow or anything like that, but you, you are ready to start that process. Um, then you can go like one decision today by sequence, but tomorrow two and in order, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, right?
And so on and so forth. If you are on a timeline, then doubling is a good idea. Like today, I'm gonna make one decision over that closet tomorrow too. The next day, four. 6, 8, 10, so on and so forth. Um, and you can create whatever pattern works for you until you get to your desired decision number. And this keeps you from pushing until you're mentally tired.
It gives you practice, which we talk about a lot at the organized flamingo. That habits and organizing decluttering requires you to build upon it like you just weren't born to declutter. That's not how we were born. You do have to practice that muscle that a part of your brain, um, physically and mentally.
So this is a really good way to exercise that. Okay, so those are just some of the quick tips that I have for you, but a really important part that I want to note is all about boundaries in comparison, because boundaries earned just about time or categories, they're also about permission. And it's okay to pause and revisit something later.
So decision fatigue can come out in different ways and it can be the roadblock to progress, but sometimes it's a warning sign, like a little yellow flag, sometimes even a red flag, like something is off. And it could be that emotionally you are not ready and that is okay. It could mean that you are savvy enough.
To know that maybe some of this stuff is worth something and worth exploring other options. After all, it's your stuff and you have a hunch. Maybe that creative part of you, maybe that financial, economical, finance savvy person part of you knows that this could be worth your time. This could be worth something.
So let's explore that. And so there's that yellow flag. So it's okay to keep an item in a maybe box for a set time. It's okay to say, I don't have the energy to make this choice right now. That doesn't mean you're falling. Behind or failing at your project, and it means that you're respecting your energy and making sustainable progress instead of burning out, which is really important for long term organizing and sustainable ways of keeping yourself organized and tidy in feeling comfortable in your own space.
Very, very important. You need to trust yourself, so if you're helping a loved one, it also applies. Because they may hit that decision fatigue faster than you expect. So remember this, if you've ever been in this situation, just put yourself in their shoes, right? But if you haven't and you're a very decisive person, like you are a chop chop, I'm ready.
Like when I'm ready to tackle something, I'm ready and I can make a decision very quickly. Wonderful. But step in with compassion and remember that not everyone is that way or is ready to face and be that person. So offer breaks. Don't push them. Don't push yourself past the capacity and don't get to that breaking point.
So boundaries super important. They are a little flag waving mechanism in your body, in your mind saying, Hey, this might not be the good, good time, because I know. That many of you are under a time crunch or life crunch, meaning you're ready to make a decision about downsizing or moving out or, or making like a big leap in your life, a big change in your life, because I know that you are trying to make progress.
I do want to remind you that. Limits and boundaries are very important. So I know I said and and it's true that it might just not be a good time, but I do want you to come revisit very soon, okay? Do not procrastinate. We actually have an entire episode, two episodes about procrastination and not to mistake.
That you are just needing a moment. You just don't want to reach your capacity or past it where you're burned out, and then you don't do anything at all. So we want to avoid that, but I don't want you to confuse that with procrastination and trying to make decisions just because you're just not, you're just not ready.
But I want you to challenge yourself just a little bit and make sure that, that you're not stuck in between those two extremes. Okay. Don't forget that decluttering is not just about your stuff, it's also about managing decisions. So that's my reminder for you after this episode. Aside from all the tips and everything else, if you pace yourself, you pre-plan some of those categories and set boundaries, you will be able to protect your energy and make better choices long term.
That's how you build momentum without regret. So until next time when you feel drained halfway through a pile, remember it's not you. It could be decision fatigue. So step away, regroup, and come back with some fresh energy and perspective. Okay? Alright. Until next week, happy organizing. Thank you for listening to the Organized and Cherish podcast with the Organized Flamingo.
If you enjoy today's episode, I'd be so grateful if you left a rating and review on your favorite podcast player. It helps others discover our show. For full show notes, resources, and more organizing inspiration, visit www.theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast. Until next time, happy organizing.