6: Stop Letting the Small Stuff Steal Your Weekends

You know those little things you keep meaning to get to?

The drawer.
The pile.
The basket.
The closet.

The spaces that do not seem like a huge deal, but quietly sit in the back of your mind all week long.

This episode explores how small unfinished tasks can end up taking way more time, energy, and mental space than they should — and how they often follow us straight into the weekend.

It gets into the hidden weight of “I’ll get to it later,” what it looks like when a home feels calm on the surface but has clutter hiding in the drawers and closets, and why so many of those little spaces feel bigger than they really are.

It also looks at what can shift when those spaces are approached one at a time, with a clear filter for how each space is meant to feel and what it is meant to support.

A simple makeup drawer reset becomes a bigger conversation about guilt, wasted money, half-decisions, and the power of choosing simplicity on purpose.

Because this is not just about getting a drawer cleaned out.

It is about making space for what matters most — and not letting the small stuff steal your weekends.

What’s inside

• why unfinished tasks feel heavier the longer they sit
• how clutter can look “fine” on the outside but still create mental noise
• why so many small spaces get pushed to the weekend
• the surprising power of 5–15 minute resets
• how guilt and “just in case” thinking show up in decluttering
• using a values-based filter to decide what stays
• making more room for peace, presence, and connection

If this episode resonated with you and you’re ready to take the next step, grab the One Space Reset Kit. It’s a short guided reset to help you clear one space at a time — whether that’s a space in your home or one of the open loops we talked about today.

→ Grab the One Space Reset Kit here!

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the show so you don’t miss your Monday reset.

Connect with Jackie:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/makingthespacewithjackie
• Email: hello@jackiepicchi.com

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Disclaimer:

© 2026 Making the Space, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this podcast may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission.

This podcast is for educational and coaching purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, medical, or mental health care.

Transcript

0:00

You know those little things, you keep meaning to get to the drawer, the pile, the basket, the closet, the random space you look at all and think, I need a weekend to deal with that. And then the weekend comes and somehow those same small things end up taking way more of your time than you ever wanted them to. That's what I wanna talk about today. Hi, I am Jackie, a values-based decluttering coach, helping overwhelm moms make space for what matters most in their homes, their heads and their lives. And honestly, this is what I keep seeing over and over again. A lot of us are not overwhelmed by one big thing. We are overwhelmed by all the small things we haven't gotten to yet. Before we get into this, I wanna zoom out for a second because over the last few episodes we've been talking about this idea that decluttering is not just about your space, right? We talked about how it shows up in your head, in your schedule, in your routines and rhythms, and how this really isn't about getting everything perfectly organized. It's about making space for what actually matters. And I think sometimes we hear that and we think it means we need to do something big, like a full house reset, a whole house overhaul, a big weekend where we finally get everything together. But what I've been realizing and what I wanna talk about today is that a lot of what's taking up space in your life is actually coming from the smallest things, the things you keep meaning to get to. I've really been seeing this in my own home lately, because on the surface, everything looks pretty good, right? So if you walked in, you'd probably think that we're fairly organized. It's calm, it's inviting, and things are, for the most part put away. Unless you're coming midweek, that might be a totally different story. But if you walked in, the counters are mostly clear. The living room is usually reset every day. Nothing's feeling. Totally outta control. But then you could open a drawer. You might open my big closet where I store all the stuff, and you might look under the sink and be like, oh, whoa, wait. You get a little bit of a jump scare and you're like, oh, I'm just gonna close that and pretend I didn't see it. And I think a lot of us live there. We have things that look fine on the outside, but underneath there are all these little pockets. We just keep avoiding. It's the junk drawer where you got cords pouring out the sides, nothing actually fits anymore. It's the closet where things are just getting tossed in there. Maybe you have guests over and you're just shoving everything in the closet and you're like, I will deal with that another time. A basket of random stuff that doesn't really have a home, so everything just gets put back into the basket and moved around. It might be under that sink area that you try not to look at too closely and you just keep shoving stuff under there and it's not even always. Big messes, right? It's just unfinished things, half decisions, things without a place. Stuff you meant to deal with, but you actually didn't. And those are the spaces that quietly sit in the back of our mind all week long. You see them when you walk by. You open the drawer to grab something and you think, oh, I'll deal with that later. I'll do it this weekend. You walk past the basket and think, I'll go through that later. You notice the shelf, I should really clean that out. And then you just keep moving because in the moment it doesn't feel like a right now task. It feels like. I need more time for that. I need more energy. I should probably do that when I can focus. I'll just save that for the weekend. I need a better system. I need bins. I need something to complete that project. So you just leave it, but you don't actually leave it. You keep living around it. You keep seeing it, you keep thinking about it. You keep mentally tracking it. At least this is how it shows up for me, and it really starts to take up way more space in my head than it ever does on its own. And before you know it, all those small separate things, the drawer, the closet, the basket, the shelf, they stack up and later turns into Saturday, and now your weekend, it's spent catching up on all the little things you didn't have time for during the week. And that's honestly what pushed me to start this 30 day declutter challenge over on Instagram because I wanted to see what would happen if I stopped treating all of these little spaces like they needed more time. So for the month of April, in the spirit of spring cleaning and the desperate need to get all of these little nooks and crannies at my house organized, I thought it'd be fun to just show up every day with a jar. And I've written down. 30 very specific spaces in my home that needed my attention, and I'm just picking one out of a jar every day and oh my goodness, you guys, this experience already in just a few days has been so impactful. I don't wanna give you any spoilers over here, but I will say that these little spaces are really already making a huge difference. Like the sections that have come up randomly from the jar are the ones that I actually do see every day. These are drawers or spaces that my eyeballs do land on. So I've already walked past these completed projects now, and I almost have this like huge inner sigh of relief. And I think what's been most surprising is how fast some of these little projects actually are. Like truly, some of these are taking five, 10 minutes, maybe 15 at most. I mean, really it takes me longer to film and edit and create a reel to put on Instagram about the whole experience than it does the actual project. And these are the exact spaces that I had built up in my head over time. Like, it's gonna take forever. I need a whole plan. I gotta do that on the weekend. And then I start, it's like, wait. Oh, that's it. That's all it took. That was the thing that's been sitting in the back of my mind all week, and I think that's the biggest shift for me over time is not just that these spaces are doable, but how much space they were taking up in my mind for something that only needed a few minutes and every time I finish one these last couple of days, I have the same thought. Future me is going to be so glad I took care of this. Now. Because you know what this is all about, guys, I will say it over and over again, but this is about making the space for what actually matters. Okay, so a little bit of a spoil alert. I guess. I'll give you a real example from today. So today's challenge, I pulled the makeup drawer and this wasn't even one of those super overstuffed drawers or spaces. It looked, you know, pretty fine for the most part. When I opened it though, there were so many little decisions in there and honestly there was some guilt too, makeup that didn't match that I had invested in and I couldn't return, but I had spent money on it. I had multiples of the exact same lip liner, and I have no idea why. I must really love that color, but I'm not sure why I had three. Why do I have these things that needed to be thrown away, that were buried underneath everything else? And I think that's something that we don't talk about enough, right? Sometimes it's not just the clutter. It's guilt, it's wasted money. The quote unquote, I should use this, or quote unquote, I might need this, and all of that was just sitting right there. Every time I opened my drawer, it was the first thing I'd see in the morning. And as I was going through it, I kept coming back to like, what do I actually want this space to feel like? And for me it's simple. I want a simple makeup routine. I want products that feel clean and aligned with what I really care about. I do my makeup early in the day when I do choose to wear makeup. And that's a starting point for me. And I don't wanna open that drawer and feel overwhelmed or reminded of things I didn't use or things. Money on. I didn't want it to scream at me. I wanted to invite me in and now. It does. It is simple, it's clean, it's intentional, and every single item in there has a purpose. And I let go of the guilt, the overwhelm, and the just in case. And that's what I mean when I say this isn't just about the space. The drawer went from being something that was quietly draining me almost every single day to something that actually supports me. And that's the big shift. And honestly, that's what is making me so excited to keep going with this challenge because I'm only a few days in and I can already feel how much space this is creating for me, not just in my home, but in my head too. There's already less visual noise. Way less low level annoyance, less of that feeling of, ugh, I still need to get to that. And I think that's what's feeling so powerful about this. These are small projects, but they're opening up something way bigger. They're giving me back energy, attention, the little pieces of time that were already being eaten up by these little unfinished things. And I'm being really intentional as I go through these spaces about choosing a filter for each one. This is really the secret sauce here, right? Not just how do I clean this out and make it look prettier, but what do I actually want the space to feel like? What do I want it to support what matters here? Because once I know that the decisions get so much clearer. And I'm really curious to see what else opens up over the next 30 days. What other spaces start to feel lighter? What other decisions get easier and what other things? I just stop carrying around in the background all day because even in just a few days, it's already making so much more space. And that brings me back to the bigger reason. I care about this all in the first place. This is the part I'm so passionate about. This past weekend we went to have sunset dinner on the beach, and it was one of those moments you guys, where everything felt. So good. It was honestly one of those kind of on a whim decisions. There was a list of things in my mind that needed to be done, like get the grocery list going, make sure I've done the meal planning. I have that pile of mail that needs to be sorted. Let's get ready for school for the week I mean, there was a long list, right? But we decided to just go and do it. 'cause the weekends, I really love to protect and make sure that's our connection time. That's when we have. Fun and ease and space to just be, you know, after a busy week of work and school and all the activities. So we go to the beach, we were together. We were totally present. It was just instantly calming. The minute my feet touched the sand, I could just feel the calm overcome me. And I just sat down, not even on the beach chair, like I got on the beach blanket and my eyes were tearing up, honestly, and I just remember thinking, this is what it's about. This is what I want more space for, not spending my whole weekend trying to recover from the week and not using every bit of Saturday or Sunday to finally deal with everything. And I know for some of us, trust me, I've been there many times. Weekends really are the only time certain things can happen, and I totally get that. Sometimes that is the window you have and that's okay. But even then, I don't want the whole thing to feel like catch up mode. I don't want all of my rest, fun presence and connection to come after a giant list of things I've been carrying around all week in my head. I want more room inside my real life for moments like this. And honestly, I do think that's possible. Even if you feel like you're starting from scratch, even if your house feels like a lot right now, even if your schedule's really full or your weekends are the main time that you have, I still think we can start making that shift. Maybe not all at once. Maybe not perfectly, but we're not aiming for perfect, right? Let's be real, but little by little space by space and decision by decision, And I think that's exactly why this challenge feels so meaningful to me right now, because it's not just about getting through 30 spaces, although that is nice. It's about creating more room for moments just like that. i'm really excited to keep going with this, to keep pulling these little spaces from the jar. As silly as it sounds, it's actually very motivating and exciting, and I wanna keep choosing what I want each space to feel like, to keep noticing what opens up. Because even in just a few days, this is already creating so much more space. So if you're listening to this, you do not need a full weekend friend. Okay. Pick one space. Just one. The one that's been sitting in the back of your mind. All week. And you can set a timer, maybe 10, 15, 20 minutes tops and just see what happens. And if you wanna follow along with this challenge as I go, I'm sharing it over on Instagram. You can find me at making the Space with Jackie, and you can see the reels as I do one by one. I'd love to know the spaces that you're picking and what you notice when you actually start. And if you want a little more support with this, something you can put in your ears and actually walk through a space with, I've linked the one space reset in the show notes. This is your Monday reset. Let's make a little space this week for what actually matters. Have a great week everyone. A quick note before we close. This podcast is for education and inspiration. It's not a substitute for therapy or medical care. If you are needing mental health support, please reach out to a licensed provider in your area.