#178| Declutter Challenge Day 1: Setting Intentions & Micro-Decluttering: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Does clutter feel like it’s not just in your home, but also in your mind, calendar, and inbox?

If you’re an overwhelmed working woman, clutter may be stealing more than just physical space—it’s quietly draining your energy, time, and sense of control. This episode kicks off the Declutter Challenge, starting with a simple yet powerful micro-declutter to lighten your load immediately.

By tuning in, you’ll discover:

• Why clutter impacts your mood, stress, and productivity far beyond a messy closet.
• How to identify the spot where clutter feels heaviest in your life right now.
• A step-by-step micro declutter method you can complete in just five minutes for instant relief.

Press play now to learn how one tiny declutter can help you feel calmer, lighter, and more in control today.

(Not signed up for the Challenge? Click the link below and join in!)

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Ep #129: Why Your To-Do List Feels Endless— And How the Sunday Basket® Can Reduce Overwhelm

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Chapters

• 2:33 Understanding the Real Cost of Clutter
• 4:30 Where Does Clutter Feel the Heaviest?
• 6:26 The Micro-Declutter

Transcript

Michelle Gauthier: 0:00

Clutter doesn't just take up space. It takes your time and your energy and your peace of mind. You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less. I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach. On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences, and in each episode you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life.

Michelle Gauthier: 0:36

Hey friend, welcome to day one of the declutter challenge. I'm so glad you're here.

Michelle Gauthier: 0:41

Over the next five days, we're going to clear clutter from your space, your schedule, your digital life and even your brain, taking little steps every day so you can feel lighter and calmer and more in control. And I just think it's fun that a bunch of people have signed up and if you haven't yet, you still have time to do that, because then you know you're doing it alongside all of the internet people who are also listening to this podcast. When you listen today, you'll learn why clutter is a problem. I know there's some real obvious reasons, but I'm going to tell you more about that. I'm going to ask you a few questions to consider for your intention for the decluttering for this week, and I'm going to explain how to do a micro declutter. Doesn't calling it that make it sound so cute and fun Like, oh, just a little micro declutter? If you have not officially joined the challenge, you can still do it. The link is in the show notes and when you join you'll get automatic access to a beautiful workbook with each day's summary and journal questions and the instructions for what to do for that day. You'll get a link to submit questions and wins to me, so you can either submit them via email or via a voice note. I'm going to be sharing some of those on the podcast.

Michelle Gauthier: 1:53

Every time you reply back with a question or a win, you get entered to win a prize. I have some really great prizes, including a label maker, which I had to get for myself, you know, just to test it out, and I've been labeling everything. My kids might or might not appreciate that. I'm also giving away a coaching session with me and a Sunday Basket. If you don't know what the Sunday Basket is, there's an episode on that. It's a system used for organizing paperwork etc. And I had the woman who invented it and owns the company on and it was a great episode. So you can go back and listen to that if you want to, but if you want to win that, do the declutter challenge. Okay.

Michelle Gauthier: 2:33

So let's talk about why clutter is a problem. So I think it's a problem just the stuff, like if you think about stuff on the floor or piles on the counter. That's just annoying and it's inefficient to have stuff everywhere. But also if you think about the impacts, like the trickle down effects of clutter. For example, if you have a messy closet, it makes your mornings way more stressful. You probably have clothes in there that don't fit you anymore or that are out of style and you wouldn't wear anymore, and it takes way longer to get dressed than it should. And walking into a messy closet at least it makes me feel like my whole life is out of control. Or think about when your inbox is super full. It just automatically gives you that feeling of being behind. Or an overflowing calendar. When I used to look at mine when I had my corporate job and I'd be like triple booked during some of the hours, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm trapped, I cannot, I don't know what I can do with this, and all that gives you a cluttered mind, which probably makes you feel anxious and or overwhelmed and or stressed. So clutter doesn't just take up space, it takes your time and your energy and your peace of mind. And you know, on this podcast we are all about creating ways, easy ways, to feel less overwhelmed and less stress, and so decluttering is one of those ways. I don't want it to be like a huge home makeover. If you get inspired to do that by doing this declutter challenge, that's great, but this week is really just about taking small, doable actions that create space and relief, physically and mentally, and by the end of the week you'll have some real wins, even if the wins are small and momentum, and you can make a great plan to keep going on that. One thing I recommend that you do is reach out to a friend and see if a friend wants to do this challenge with you or maybe you know a friend who has already signed up with this and help hold each other accountable. It's so much more fun to do things.

Michelle Gauthier: 4:30

So let's dig in with today's specific topic. The question that I want you to ask yourself, and if you've got the workbook. This is in your workbook, and then there are several more additional questions in there to consider. But what I want you to think about today is where does clutter feel the heaviest in your life right now? Is it in your home? Is it in your inbox? Is it in your calendar? Is it your mind? If it is in your house, where is it specifically? I don't know about you, but I can literally feel clutter Like I'm sitting in my office right now and I can close my eyes and I can picture the spots in my house that feel cluttered to me. There's that hallway closet. There is the basement storage room which, by the way, I just cleaned out last winter, but it's somehow has stuff back in it again and I can literally feel the pressure of that clutter, and those are both in places that I rarely look and don't need to go to often. So when you think about where in your life is there clutter that's weighing on your mind, jot that down and think about what the effect is of that clutter.

Michelle Gauthier: 5:37

Just one small example for me I do a lot of interviews for the podcast and I sometimes do them far in advance of when they actually are out. So I just had a bunch of interviews on my computer backed up but on my computer and I didn't know when they were supposed to be scheduled and I need to do some work before I can send them over to Kari to do editing. So I just spent about an hour and I scheduled all of them and I put them on our podcast calendar and I noted where I still need to record an intro or where it was done and I just felt so much better knowing that they were all reviewed and taken care of. So just think about that, for you Could be something in your house, could be something digital, like I just talked about, and then consider also how that clutter makes you feel today and how you'd like to feel by the end of this week. All right, today's action.

Michelle Gauthier: 6:28

I think this is a fun one, the cute little micro declutter. So let's get into your first one. Today I want you to spend like five or ten minutes clearing one tiny area. Don't overthink it. Here's some ideas just to get you started. You could do your wallet, your bathroom counter, your car cup holders or your glove box, the top of your nightstand, the door of your refrigerator, where all the expired sauces live, if you are in my house, one pocket of your backpack or your work bag, the top of your refrigerator where all the expired sauces live, if you are in my house, one pocket of your backpack or your work bag, the top of your desk, your phone's home screen, a drunk drawer, your makeup bag you get the idea. Just pick one of those areas, set a timer for five minutes and if you're not finished after five minutes and you want to do five more, amazing and just go for it.

Michelle Gauthier: 7:14

So remember, the steps for decluttering are always the same. It's take everything out, sort them into piles of, keep, give away, throw away or recycle. Give away the giveaways, throw away the throwaways and neatly put the rest back into wherever you took them out of in the first place. After you finish, just notice how you feel. What I notice is, let's just say, I clean out my purse, which I actually need to do. Maybe that will be my micro declutter for the day, but when I do, I find myself looking in it all the time. Or if I clean out a cabinet, I'll just like open it and look in there and be impressed with myself. So how does it make you feel when you've done just that one small declutter, and are there other people in your house who could do a small declutter too? Kids actually thrive in organized environments. Even though my kids always resist it. When they do it they feel so much better.

Michelle Gauthier: 8:06

Okay, now, don't forget, I want to hear from you so you can either reply to the daily email you get from me. If you've signed up for the challenge, you will have gotten an email from me this morning and you're going to get one every morning, so you can reply back and you can tell me any of the answers that I asked today. Where is the clutter feeling so heavy for you? How does it make you feel? How do you want to feel by the end of the week?

Michelle Gauthier: 8:30

You can show me a win. I love when people send me pictures of your decluttered wallet or fridge door or junk drawer or whatever you clean out. You can just tell me about your win any of those things. If you send me a message, a voice memo, there's a chance that I'm going to share it on the podcast tomorrow. So if you want to get a shout out for your wins, or if you have a question that you think other people might also want the answer to, which is probably the case.

Michelle Gauthier: 8:58

If question that you think other people might also want the answer to, which is probably the case, if you have a question, somebody else probably does too, so be sure to send me a message and when you do, you'll be entered to win one of our prizes. All right, that's it for day one. Enjoy your micro declutter and get ready for tomorrow when we talk about simplifying a slightly bigger space in your home. Thank you for listening to the Over working woman podcast. If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier. com. See you next week.