I have a trick to help you move past the emotional moments of decluttering. It’s going to sound a little weird but stay with me…. it’s decluttering with self-talk.

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar. You’ve committed to cleaning out your doom closet and you’re cruising along when suddenly you come across something that:

• Was given to you by someone you love
• Cost a lot of money
• Could potentially be useful sometime in the future

Suddenly you’re stuck. You know you don’t have room for this stuff. You know you haven’t used it (or probably even seen it!) in years. Before you realize what’s happening you’ve shoved a bunch of stuff back into the closet and decided you’re done decluttering. Ugh. Too hard.

Here’s the simplest way I know to break that cycle: Talk to yourself out loud. I know. It sounds ridiculous. But it really works.Because the second you say the thought out loud, something shifts. And there’s actual science behind why. Since I’m sure your eyes are still rolling I’m going to explain why this trick works so well to get you over those emotional hurdles. Let’s dig in.

Interrupting the spiral: talk back to yourself

When negative thoughts intrude on your logic, they move quickly and tend to put you in a downward spiral. As long as those thoughts are swirling in your mind there is no counter-argument happening to offset them. That’s where talking out loud comes in.

Research in cognitive psychology shows that putting thoughts into words (called verbalization or self-talk) helps regulate emotions and improves decision-making. You know how writing something down helps you remember it later? That’s because the act of writing sends a signal to your brain that the thing you wrote down is important.Talking to yourself works in a similar way – it triggers the  part of your brain that’s in charge of reasoning & fires it into gear. 

So now you have a counter argument.

You think: “I spent so much money on it, it’s wasteful to give it away”

Now say: “I haven’t used it in years and the money I spent is already gone”

I know it feels weird to argue with yourself but spoken words have power! Decluttering with self-talk is actually you coaching yourself.

Using self-talk it to do the next right thing

Another way decluttering with self-talk works – it helps you slow down so you can focus on the next right step. The negative thought has essentially frozen you in your tracks. To get yourself back into action mode, give yourself verbal instructions and encouragement. There has been lots of research on this with professional athletes. Giving an instruction out loud improves your focus. Encouragement reinforces the action. Let’s get back to that expensive thing that feels hard to declutter. Keep the steps small:

• “I’m letting this go now.”
• “I’m just going to put this in the donation box.”
• “I can keep going”

I recognize this read a bit like one of those ‘See Jane Run’ books we read in first grade. It sounds a little silly, but you get used to it with some practice.

Saying Your Name For The Win

As if you aren’t feeling weird enough at this point, let’s take it one step further! Saying your name as part of the verbalized argument or instruction makes it even more powerful! There is strength in your name, so use it! Here’s another example of how I use decluttering with self-talk on a daily basis to keep me on track.

I use the Two Minute Rule almost daily to keep my to-do list short and my visual clutter at bay. The rule says essentially that if something takes two minutes or less to action, just do it now instead of putting it off. I use it to put things away, take care of small actions like online reservations or paying a bill or even for reaching out to a friend with a question.

Over time, I’ve learned that saying ‘Carrie, two-minute rule’ when I notice something that applies is really effective in moving to action to get the thing done. It works like a trigger!Here’s a specific example. I retrieve the pile of mail from our box and am rifling through it when I come across the garbage bill. It only comes every other month and is the only one of our utility bills that still comes in the mail. Instead of setting it aside as a visual reminder to do it later, I say ‘Carrie, two-minute rule’ to remind myself to just take the two minutes to pay it now. Now it’s one less thing to do later and one less thing sitting on my kitchen counter!

Bossing up to your feelings

The practice of self-talk is well-researched and grounded in neuro-science. Using it in decluttering is win-win. Sure it feels weird at first, but the more you do it, the less weird it feels. Plus y’all, we’re in midlife now and I don’t know about you but I care a lot less about doing weird things!

The words spoken out loud are ultimately more powerful than the feelings swirling in your head. Use them to get yourself past the emotional obstacles of decluttering and build momentum as you go instead of stalling out. You’ll be amazed at what an effective coach you can be to yourself!

The post Decluttering With Self Talk: The Awkward Trick That Works appeared first on Method Seattle.

I am always trying to avoid loss of momentum. In almost anything I’m doing: a client project, training for an event, writing a book, potty training my puppy! The reason I’m scared of losing momentum is because it is such a powerful tool. So much better than motivation. Momentum means you are building on top of success. It means you feel good about what you’ve accomplished and are excited to keep going. It feels empowering and propels you forward. It’s the secret sauce of habit formation. Decluttering momentum is key when you are in midlife.

So what do you do when life gets in the way of that precious momentum? It can happen with anything you are working to achieve but you are especially vulnerable when you decades of stuff you’re trying to declutter. You get sick. You go on vacation. Work gets crazy. Suddenly there isn’t time to declutter and when the time opens up again your motivation is nowhere to be found. This feeling sucks, frankly. And it happens to a lot of people! Us midlifers have a lot to declutter and it’s very easy to fall off the momentum wagon because we aren’t talking about a week-long (or even month-long) project.

This blog is about what to do when you’ve lost your decluttering momentum and procrastination has taken its place. I have a 3 step process to get you back on track, baby! Let’s dig in.

Step 1: Give Yourself Grace

When you lose decluttering momentum, there is often a tendency to self-flagellate.

“I was doing so well”

“I guess I’m just a quitter”

“I knew this project was too big”

Stewing in those stories works against re-starting because your brain begins to take on the identity of someone who is not going to finish what you started, instead of the identity of the person who made it this far.

So if you find yourself stewing, check the facts and give yourself some grace. The fact is you stopped. And another fact is you can start again. Just because you stopped doesn’t make you a ‘quitter’; remove the drama from the soundtrack in your head.

Another fact: shit happens. Stop the self-blame game – you are merely navigating the perils of being a human. Be gentle with yourself, the way you would with another person who was feeling discouraged. Giving yourself grace will help you eventually get back on the horse. I had to use this advice on myself this week as I was reminded that the road to a potty-trained dog never did run smooth.

Step 2: Revisit Your ’Why’

Before losing your decluttering momentum, you surely had a reason why you started this decluttering odyssey in the first place. Perhaps you realized the toll your clutter was taking on your mental health. Maybe there was a room in your home you wanted to repurpose. Or you no longer wanted to be burdened by the mountain of stuff you inherited from your parents.

Whatever your reason, it should serve as your beacon and your touch-stone. Reminding yourself of your purpose helps you to get back into a growth mindset vs. a defeatist shame-spiral. And if you didn’t really have a clear purpose to begin with? Well, now is the time to get clear on the reasons why you are decluttering in the first place. Those reasons provide a  vision of how a clutter-free home will look and feel. Those feelings are what you draw on when you go to hit the Re-Start button!

Step 3: Shrink The Re-Start

If you’ve been following along here for awhile, you’ve heard me extoll the virtues of starting small. To gain decluttering muscle we begin with small spaces, short efforts and small wins. We build on those wins by moving on to bigger spaces and longer sessions.

It may be that you were knee-deep in one of those bigger spaces when you lost your decluttering momentum. Now the thought of picking up where you left off is distasteful to say the least. But here’s the thing, you don’t have to pick up where you left off!

In fact, you can go back to the basics and start small. I guarantee you can find an unintimidating space in your home that could use some decluttering. It could be as simple as dumping out your handbag or cleaning out the glove compartment in your car. Anything that is small enough to reduce the intimidation factor down to zero works fine. You can even pick a space you’ve already decluttered! That ensures it will have a zero intimidation factor!  Remember, you are re-engaging with your project by first building back the decluttering muscle you lost.

If the thought of starting again feels overwhelming, that is an indication that the place you are starting is too big.

The chances are good that your muscle memory will bounce back. Before you know it you’ll be able to attack that basement and momentum will again be yours. Stopping and starting is just a part of life. Especially midlife, when we are all talking about years and years of clutter buildup. The sooner you move from decision to action, the sooner you’ll enjoy the many benefits of momentum!

The post Lost Your Decluttering Momentum? Try This 3-Step Reset appeared first on Method Seattle.

For many of us in midlife, decluttering feels risky. All of the things we’ve accumulated over the years represent connections to previous seasons of life, people we love and also a colossal decluttering effort. It’s not hard to understand why people put it off, even as they look around at their home and think ‘I have way too much stuff.’ The risks of decluttering just seem too big to make it worthwhile.

But here’s the thing about risks – if they are calculated they don’t have to be so high-stakes. And in fact the rewards of decluttering are always greater than the risks, even if it doesn’t feel that way at the beginning of your journey.Let’s take a closer look at three of the biggest risks you associate with decluttering. Instead of letting the feeling of risk keep you from taking action we’re going to check the facts behind those feelings. We’ll also look at how the rewards of decluttering offset those risks and give you something to goal towards. Even just a bit of risk vs. reward analysis can help you out of inertia and into action – so let’s dig in!

Risk #1: Discomfort

One of the biggest risks of decluttering has everything to do with feelings. Could be your feelings, could be someone else’s feelings. Could be painful memories, could be happy times past. The anticipation of surfacing uncomfortable feelings is what stops so many people from going through their stuff. They know there is a lot they don’t need to keep. But they fear discomfort so they stay away.

So let’s check the facts. First of all, your feelings are not facts. They are thoughts and you don’t have to let them rule your decisions. You can invite them in, let them wash over you and then graciously escort them out. Feeling guilty about letting go of your grandmother’s quilt? Let the guilt have its moment and move on. Does it feel illegal to toss that piece of macaroni art because your kid made it? Believe me, no one is going to come arrest you (and P.S. you were a wonderful parent.) Do the letters your ex-husband wrote you in college bring up all the negative feelings associated with your divorce? Okay – feel that negativity for a minute and then use it to banish the letters. Why would you keep something that makes you feel bad?

Here’s another fact. What you’ll find as you keep going is that a lot of the feelings you thought would be big and scary fail to materialize. That’s because while the fear of discomfort was looming your brain continued to layer on a bunch of assumptions. Turns out your high school yearbooks don’t hold the same power over you that once did. Or you have no compunction to read all the papers you wrote in college. Saving the 30+ years of birthday cards inscribed ‘Love, Grandma’ doesn’t actually seem worth the space they take up. Your brain is wired to protect you, but sometimes it goes a little too far and you have to reel it in!

Risk #2: Regret

Of all the risks of decluttering, this one is the most insidious. And the one blown most out of proportion. It’s the fear of regretting your decision to let go. ‘What if I need it someday?’ ‘What if I forget about this memory?’ And my personal bugaboo ‘What if I can fit into it again?’

Here’s the deal, folks. The facts on this one point to the chances you will regret the decision to declutter as being extremely small. It’s kind of like avoiding the ocean because you are afraid of being attacked by a shark. It doesn’t feel like a small chance it could happen but the facts just don’t play out. And in the meantime you’ve deprived yourself of a lovely experience.

If you keep a bunch of stuff because you are afraid of the small chance you will miss it, you’re missing out on the freedom you feel when it’s gone. I’ve watched this theory play out time after time in my Professional Organizing business. You don’t miss it when it’s gone!

Risk #3: A Huge Mess

Yes, the risks of decluttering include making a big mess that leaves you in a worse place than you were in when you started. And the risk may feel especially high to anyone who has experienced this scenario in the past: You bust out of the gate with a ton of motivation and pull everything out of (the closet, the basement, the doom room) – only to run out of gas after an hour. You go on to live with the huge mess you created and now your house feels even more cluttered than it did to begin with.

The reason this happens to so many people is because they shoot out of the starting gate without a plan. A plan reduces this risk tenfold. And for those of you rolling your eyes at me right now, the plan doesn’t have to be that detailed. It could merely include breaking up the space you are decluttering into smaller pieces. Or it could be a time box of 30 minutes only. It could apportion 10 of those minutes for cleanup. A plan doesn’t have to be a complicated thing, it can be as simple as little forethought before you begin. (Incidentally, if you are light on planning skills you may want to check out the  Beginner’s Decluttering Blueprint available for purchase in my shop, it mostly takes care of the planning part for you.)

So the risk of a big mess is easily thwarted with a bit of effort. And now you can get excited about the rewards of decluttering.

The Rewards

See how smart and calculated the risks you’re taking actually are? And they come with big rewards. The rewards of decluttering are many and varied. Some are of the physical variety, more visual and physical space in your home, the ability to find things you need, etc. The even bigger ones are in the feelings department, though. All that discomfort you were trying to avoid? Well, once you make progress decluttering the uncomfortable feelings you had been dreading become totally overpowered by positive feelings of empowerment, confidence, freedom and clarity.

I don’t have a psychology degree but in my opinion the confidence and empowerment come from the improved ability to make decisions. Because that’s what you’ve mostly been doing for years, putting off decisions. Once you start pushing through the discomfort, fear and overwhelm to make a decision, the next one becomes a little easier. And from there it’s like a snowball rolling downhill. Freedom and clarity are the outcomes, and they feel so good I guarantee clutter won’t ever be an issue for you again!

The post The Risks of Decluttering (And Why They’re Worth Taking in Midlife) appeared first on Method Seattle.

Have you ever dreaded doing something and put it off for months, only to have it take just a few minutes when you finally forced yourself to take care of it? What is going on there? Why do we all do this?  Why is it so hard to get started decluttering?!

I am not a psychologist or expert on the brain. But I know from experience and working with many, many clients over the years that anticipation can really mess with us when it comes to getting stuff done. And the reason I come upon this so often is because decluttering is something that many people dread, so they keep kicking it down the road.

Here’s the thing. Our greatest fears lurk in anticipation. While we nurse them they grow bigger and bigger, and farther away from reality. But I really want you to be able to begin peeling back the many layers of clutter that have built up in your home over the last 20-30 years. So I’m dropping 3 strategies to get you to the decluttering start line.

Strategy #1: Shorten the distance between decision and action

The first strategy to get started decluttering is to nip anticipation in the bud. Before it has time to gather strength and blossom into procrastination. How do you do that? By shortening the amount of time between decision and action.

For example, when you make the decision to clean out your closet – commit to  a time on your calendar. You know there are shoes you haven’t put on in years and jeans that don’t fit and probably some stuff you never wore that still has price tags attached. It sounds pretty bad in your head, so you think ‘I’ll get to it at some point.’ Stop right there! Actually commit to a date. Make sure the date is not too far away.

Why? Because the less time you have to ruminate on the shoes and the jeans and the money you’ve ‘wasted’, the less intimidating the act of decluttering that stuff will be. It’s always worse in your head. And the longer it’s in your thoughts the worse it grows.When you move quickly to action, you skip all that drama and it’s just another thing you can cross off your to-do list.

Strategy #2: Use a timer to negotiate with your brain

Here’s another way to get started decluttering. Have you ever heard a coach say ‘you can do anything for (insert short time commitment) minutes’? I hear it all the time, and that’s because it’s true! When you put a time limit on something you aren’t looking forward to it’s like a little negotiation with your brain. When you know that no matter what happens, this thing you don’t want to do is going to be over soon – it’s a signal to your brain that it’s safe to proceed.

I have this timer (pictured) that is like a little magic box. It works like any other timer. But for some reason my brain responds to it so I use it a lot when I ‘have to’ do something. Could be decluttering my freezer, could be practicing piano, could be swapping my closet for Spring. If the job seems too big and scary in my head – I put a time limit on it and it ceases to be scary. Because I can do anything for 15 minutes!

Back to our closet example – if anticipation has got you feeling overwhelmed, pick a single category and set a timer. When the timer goes off, you are allowed to stop – no matter how far you got. Often, you will find that you are fine to keep going after your time is up (I almost always am!) But the timer got you to the start line, which was the biggest obstacle in your path.

Strategy #3: Create a positive association

Okay you’ve put the closet declutter on your calendar and you’ve set your timer, great! But ugh it still feels hard to get started decluttering. That’s where this last strategy comes in. It’s time to add something attractive to the mix. Instead of dreading your closet declutter – why not give it some party vibes? Crank up some tunes for starters. (For my own closet, I prefer dance music – better for try-on parties!)

Another positive element to make this ‘chore’ feel more attractive to your brain is something yummy to drink. Could be a latte, some kombucha or even champagne if that’s your vibe! Sipping while working, it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s helping you get to the finish line.

My last suggestion for adding positive elements to create positive neural pathways is selecting a reward for yourself when you finish. And since we are hanging out in your closet right now, a perfect reward is a new purchase!

These small acts play a big role in associating the act of decluttering with positive feelings. When you plan for them ahead of time, it makes it easier to get yourself to the start line and more fun while you’re working.

Time To Get Started!

Are you feeling any of these strategies? Feel free to test any of them out, or go for all 3 and watch what happens! The point is that decluttering doesn’t have to be this horrible chore that you dread. If you can neutralize the big scary anticipation monster in your head, you will not only get yourself to the start line, you fly past it and then you can let momentum take over! (P.S. I used your closet as an example in this blog. If your closet is on your list of places to declutter you may want to check out my Bedroom & Closet Room Guide 😉)

The post Get Started Decluttering: 3 Simple Shifts to Beat Procrastination appeared first on Method Seattle.

As the holiday season winds down I find it helpful to jot down some diary notes regarding what worked, what didn’t and how I can make things better (for me!) next year. This practice is ingrained in me from 30 years in retail, where our Holiday season was so important because of its oversized impact on our results for the year.

Now, however, my midlife holiday diary serves Future Me. I love the holidays so much and so it’s important to me that I actually enjoy them. The lesson it took me many years to learn is that more is not better when it comes to December.The more I can declutter from this month, the more energy I have to enjoy everything it has to give. With that filter in mind, I took a few minutes to reflect on what worked for me this December, and what didn’t. Those few minutes will save me hours of energy and anxiety as the 2026 holiday season approaches. Here’s what I learned, perhaps there are some parallels to your own midlife holiday experience!

Lesson 1: The Big Edits Worked

You may remember from an earlier blog that there were 2 big edits I made to my holiday this year. The first was scrapping my born-in-COVID tradition of baking 10 varieties of cookies during the month and gifting them to friends and family. The second was altering and simplifying the menu for Christmas Dinner.

The first midlife holiday diary entry is to note that both edits were a HUGE win. Until I eliminated both, I did not realize the amount of pressure, energy and stress that cookies and a fancy dinner (who knew?) were costing me! My biggest epiphany was that is wasn’t the actual time it took to make the cookies or the Christmas dinner that was stressing me out – it was the anticipation of how much time that was impacting my ability to have fun doing any of the other holiday things (including sitting by my Christmas tree doing nothing!) By editing both activities I freed my mind up to enjoy everything else – and boy did I. I got so many comments from my friends and family about how much more relaxed I seemed this year. Well, apparently that’s what happens when you declutter the things that aren’t serving you!

Lesson 2: Slow December is not a time to be productive

Every year in December my in-home client work slows way down, which is great. This year was no different. I targeted the week of the 15th to finally finish the Digital Photo Organizing Guide I’d been promising for months. With no in-home sessions that should have been no problem, right? Wrong! What I learned (painfully) this year is that the weeks prior to Christmas (and the week after) are not conducive to productivity. I guess I have the midlife adult version of what my kids used to suffer from every December – I used to call it Christmas Crazy. In those weeks my brain is apparently capable of only short spurts of productivity, not in-depth, focused-brain work. Spoiler Alert, I did not finish the Guide (look for it this month!) It mostly cost me some self-flagellation and time I could have spent relaxing. Midlife holiday diary Lesson for next year – don’t plan any massive projects in December, you won’t get far!

Lesson 3: Family Time Can Just Be Time

Having all 3 of our kids home is always a treat that I look forward to at Christmas. And for some reason, across many years I felt the need to schedule something specific to do as a family. Past activities included The Nutcracker, Zoo Lights and an overnight stay in Leavenworth. Each year there would appear some fly in the ointment: (jet lag, COVID, sibling squabbles, rain, etc., etc., etc.) Then I’d get pissed that I spent money and energy planning said activity and everyone wasn’t having a ‘perfect’ time. So this year? I planned nothing. Our Forced Family Fun activity was an hour hike with Gus followed by breakfast out so we could be out of the way on house-cleaning day. And guess what? It was great. And it cost nothing (well, the hike was nothing, and the breakfast was cheap!)

The lesson is that I do not need to plan an ‘extravaganza’ of a holiday activity for us to have a good time. Turns out, we just need each other’s company.

Midlife Holiday Diary: Lessons Learned

I invite you to take a few minutes of your own to reflect and jot down some notes. I am going to use this blog as my holiday diary. I’ll go back to read it as the 2026 holiday season approaches. Prioritizing my own need to enjoy the holidays is still kind of new to me, but I’m learning! And the diary helps to cement the important lessons. Happy New Year!

The post Midlife Holiday Diary: What Worked, What Didn’t appeared first on Method Seattle.

Why is it that every January we feel the need to start the year off right away with the pressure of New Year’s Resolutions? It is well-documented that most people have either given up on or lost track of their resolutions by March, and then 9 months go by until it’s time to put the pressure back on again. In my opinion, New Year’s Resolutions need a re-brand. We need to de-pressurize the experience and shift the focus away from Big Hairy Goals and toward the small things we can do to achieve them.

By far the number one challenge people have with decluttering in midlife is being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff they have accumulated over the past several decades. And thus, while they may have a resolution to declutter their whole home, they rarely get very far before burning out. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. The midlife decluttering journey often begins with too much pressure and not enough strategy.

In looking back at my own accomplishments this past year – I’ve noticed that my wins came, not from looking up at my Big Hairy Goals, but from keeping my focus down on doing the small things consistently. When I did that, I reached my goals by default. The same mindset can transform your midlife decluttering journey—it’s about showing up consistently, not perfectly.

I credit this approach with my 3 biggest accomplishments in 2025. One was a resolution, one was an opportunity and one was an unplanned loss that I had to come back from. If you are someone who is feeling overwhelmed by the thought of decluttering, read on! In these stories you should find much to apply to your own situation.

The Half Marathon

My resolution coming into 2025 was to run a Half Marathon. Two of my friends from high school committed to do the event with me. I should preface by saying that I’m not someone who has always loved running. In fact, for most of my life I avoided it. I never imagined myself running long distances and the 13+ miles for this race did not feel doable when I signed up.

So, instead of thinking about scary total distance and how it felt impossible, I began slowly adding distance to the runs I was already doing. I did it in small increments so it was barely noticeable. Then when I got to the actual race, it just felt like one of the long runs I’d been doing.

It was like magic!

The Book

Back in January of this year an editor reached out and asked if I’d ever considered writing a book. So exciting! I said ‘yes please’ and felt confident that with my weekly blog habit a book would be no problem. Except that writing a book is a LOT of work – and when my editor gave me a word-count range I felt totally overwhelmed. How was I possibly going to write that much!

It was not productive to worry about how I was ever going to write 30K words, so instead I focused on plotting out time blocks to write, over and above what I already blocked out to write my blog.Once I was actually writing, it just kind of flowed out of me (as we know, I can go on for hours about decluttering!) Bit by little bit, I reached the 30K milestone without any of the drama I’d envisioned at the beginning. Yes, it was hard at times, but what I learned is that I can do hard things! That lesson is key to your own midlife decluttering journey—progress builds as you move forward, word by word, drawer by drawer.

The Scam

Back in July (just as I was completing that Half Marathon!) I fell for a scam in which I thought I had been invited on a big celebrity podcast. Because I’d been a guest on multiple podcasts over the last 6 months I was a perfect target for this scammer. The details of the scam are too many to go into here but the upshot is that I lost my entire Facebook following of 250K people. Poof – gone. What I felt was complete panic – ‘How am I ever going to get them all back?’ It felt impossible because I’d spent so long building up to that big number.

What I didn’t realize was how much social media muscle I’d built over the time I was growing that big following. So when I had to begin from scratch, I wasn’t starting at ground zero. I knew how to reach people, I knew the biggest decluttering issues they face. I knew the kind of coaching they were looking for. So that’s what I gave them. And while it took a minute for the flywheel to start spinning – four months later I have 115K followers and counting and know I’ll be back up to that 250K in no time. Because I focused on the small efforts instead of the big number. And that’s exactly what works on the midlife decluttering journey, too—resilience, patience, and showing up again.

Decluttering Your Home

So what does all this have to do with decluttering your home? Because we are in midlife we have had a lot of years to accumulate stuff. For that reason the thought of decluttering your home may feel overwhelming, which is why you haven’t started. My recommendation is to start small, build your decluttering muscle, take your time and put your focus on the next area on your list instead of the whole house. Even those small efforts at the beginning are going to have a positive impact on your home and your mindset, preparing you for the bigger stuff later on. And before you know it, you’ll have a beautifully decluttered home that is a joy to spend time in. Plus, you’ll have space to enjoy the things that matter most.

If this sounds good but you’d like additional support in the form of a structured roadmap, check out my Beginner’s Decluttering Blueprint – it’s for sale in my shop and has all the tips and tricks to make the process as painless and efficient as possible! 

Happy New Year and Happy Decluttering!

The post Forget Resolutions—Start Your Midlife Decluttering Journey with Tiny Wins appeared first on Method Seattle.

I’m hosting 30 for fondue Christmas Eve and kids have arrived home and even though I decluttered the crap out of my holiday it still feels a bit hectic. So, instead of regularly scheduled content I bring you the Best of the Blog for 2025. These were the most popular of the whole year, according to my analytics. Before giving you the list and links, I wanted to thank all of you. For following me, for sharing your stories, your questions and your frustrations around the hot midlife topic of decluttering. I take all of that and write about it each week – many of my blogs come from direct questions, experiences with clients or what I encounter in my own life. We are all in the same boat, y’all – and there’s comfort in that!

Anyway – here are the five blogs that rose to the top in 2025…

Decluttering Your Decision Fatigue

February 11, 2025

One of the biggest bugaboos of decluttering – this best of the blog offers strategies to avoid decision fatigue so you can use your mental energy as efficiently as possible and actually finish the job!

Declutter With Your Parents Now, Without the Stress

May 18, 2025

If I write a second book (first we have to see how this initial effort goes!) this will be the topic. I wrote this one before I helped my dad move but everything in it holds up. Part of midlife is navigating the journey of aging with our parents – no wonder this blog hit a nerve.

What To Do With All Those Old Family Photos

May 26, 2025

Another hot topic – the photos! All The photos! They feel illegal to get rid of, so what to do with them? This blog is full of tips on that subject.

Midlife Clutter: 3 Reasons It’s Time To Ditch the Storage Unit

September 26, 2025

Storage Units can be so scary. But we have too many of them and they are mostly filled with stuff we don’t use. In this best of the blog entry I make a case for getting rid of your storage unit. Let me know if I was able to persuade you!

Detaching From The Outcome: The Decluttering Skill No One Talks About

November 8, 2025

This is a skill from Dialectical Behavior Therapy that works for all kinds of things, including decluttering (I use it in parenting all the time!) It struck a chord with so many of you – so here it is again in case you missed it.

I hope you enjoy the Best of the Blog! I have lots of good stuff coming in the New Year – stay tuned! But for this week, I gotta go grate about 8lbs of cheese.Happy Holidays everyone!!!

The post Best of the Blog 2025: Midlife Decluttering Posts You Loved Most appeared first on Method Seattle.

Thanksgiving weekend is over and it’s time to declutter your holiday before the volume knob turns all the way up over the next 3 weeks! What does that look like? Well, I have a few suggestions of things you can do to simplify your holiday and increase your ability to enjoy the beauty of the season as it was originally intended.

These suggestions come primarily from my own life experience and that of my friends, family and clients. In midlife we are better positioned to identify what is truly important and what we’ve been keeping around via reflex. If you devote a minimal amount of effort to make a few small shifts, the resulting effect on your holiday state of mind can be exponential. Welcome to this month’s Mixed Bag – let’s dig in!

Declutter Your Holiday Cards

Let’s begin with an easy edit. Those holiday cards you’ve been holding on to for decades are likely taking up quite a bit of space in your home. There are two kinds of holiday cards I am referring to:

• The cards you receive from friends and family 
• The leftover cards that you send each year of your own family

I recognize that these both feel illegal to get rid of. Why is that exactly? Because they contain images of people we love and tossing their sweet faces in the recycle bin seems callous and rude! But here’s the thing – it’s not. Those cards aren’t the actual people, they are just images.

If you would like to preserve the images of your friends’ kids growing up over time, may I suggest digitizing the cards instead of keeping the physical copies. That way you get the best of both worlds; you preserve the past and declutter at the same time!

I went through this process myself a few years ago. Back in the day, I pasted all of the holiday cards we received into an album. When I ran out of space in the album, I moved on to a shoe box. When the box filled up, I grabbed a second shoe box. And so on, and so on, and so on! Oh, and I had 2 drawers in my office filled with the ‘extras’ of the family cards I sent out over the years. These cards that I had been keeping around were now taking up a material amount of space in my home and there was no end in sight (as Christmas continues to come year after year!) It was time to prioritize my space instead of the mountains of cards that I never looked at. So into the recycle bin they all went. I haven’t missed them!

Declutter Your Holiday Decorations

The next Declutter Your Holiday assignment is your holiday decor. You are pulling everything out now (if you haven’t already), which is often the hardest part of the process. While you have everything out in the open, take the opportunity to separate the following categories:

• Anything Broken
• Anything you don’t care for
• Anything you didn’t put out last year (or the year before, or the year before)

Now, the broken stuff can go straight into the trash. And the rest can go into the donation bag/box. Put that box in the back of your car and the next time you are doing errands, swing by your favorite donation drive-thru and drop it off. Done and dusted!

This year I focused on an ornament purge. We have WAY too many ornaments and so many of them are left after the tree is full. As we were decorating, I pulled aside ornaments that our dog had damaged and the ‘rejects’ that haven’t made it to the tree in multiple years. Also, there were several that I bought years ago in a frantic moment when I thought I needed more shiny ball ornaments. The only ones Target had that day were striped and so ugly, but I bought them anyway?  There is no reason to keep them – so they went into the donation box. I’m going to do the same exercise when we take things down, because I know my kids hung  a few that were supposed to be in the donation pile. (Diary note for next year, do my purge before they get into the ornament boxes!)

Declutter Your Holiday Traditions

Last but not least – let’s do a quick declutter of your holiday traditions. I’m sure you have at least one that isn’t serving you. Is there an event you’ve ‘always’ gone to that seems like a chore? An activity you put in a lot of effort to keep up that no one else seems to appreciate? A gathering that includes a bunch of folks who bring you down instead of lift you up?

Everyone has something they can edit. I’m not advocating you wipe out your entire holiday agenda, just make a few cuts here and there so you have more time to relax and enjoy the activities that are important enough to keep.

Here are two fresh examples from my holiday season. In 2020 we were in the throes of the pandemic and Christmas was cancelled. I LOVE Christmas and wanted to offset my sadness with a holiday-related activity. So I decided to make 10 different varieties of holiday cookies, box them up and deliver them to all of my family and friends. This helped me feel festive and connected to my people. It was a lot of work, but there was a lot I couldn’t do so I was grateful to focus on baking. My people gave the cookies rave reviews so I continued the tradition the next year and each December since 2020. The difference is that the other holiday traditions that fell off the calendar 5 years ago are now back on. And like I said, those cookies took a lot of work! Last year I found myself dreading the cookie-making instead of enjoying it. It caused me stress instead of joy. So this year I’m not doing it!

Example number 2: Christmas Dinner. We host a huge fondue party on Christmas Eve. It’s my favorite part of the holiday season and I love to do it. We also host a much smaller family gathering for Christmas dinner the next day. I’ve taken great pains to make a fabulous meal, inclusive of multiple dishes that feel special and traditional. The problem is, now that I’m in midlife I’m pretty tired after the fondue party. While the rest of my family is lounging around, enjoying their Christmas Day, I’m striking the set from the night before, re-scaping the table for the family party and slaving away in the kitchen in hours before they arrive. I’m exhausted and not very much fun when they arrive.

So – I’m decluttering the complicated meal this year. I’m going to make a lasagna the week before and stick it in the freezer. Then all I’ll have to do is pull it out and stick it in the oven. I’ll get several hours of my Christmas Day time back – and that feels like heaven. 

You’ve Got This!

Each year I find one or two holiday things that need decluttering. And when I edit them, it feeds my holiday spirit anew. I encourage you to try it! Remember, you can start small – maybe just the cards this year. Even a small shift can make a big difference in your ability to enjoy this special season!

The post Declutter Your Holiday: Simple Midlife Shifts for a More Joyful Season appeared first on Method Seattle.

I’m writing this the morning after the Dodgers won their 2nd World Series in a row. I have to say, it’s been a rough 12 hours (and that includes sleeping!) I won’t go into the many reasons why I’m sad (I’m a die-hard Giants fan, the richest team is winning, I can’t stand Blake Snell, etc.) But it’s times like this that I need to call on specific strategies to get me out of the mental slump. These boosting strategies are not just for baseball fans – they can come in very handy when you are decluttering, too. Oh and maybe your main focus right now is merely getting through the upcoming holiday season with your nerves intact. In that spirit, I’ve decided to use this month’s Mixed Bag to share them. Take what you need and leave the rest – welcome to the November Mixed Bag!

Boosting Strategy No. 1: Give Yourself a Hug

Well, not a physical hug (though I guess you could if it works for you!) What I mean is a figurative hug. Something that makes you feel warm and loved when the going is rough. There are multiple ways to accomplish this. 

One of my favorite boosting strategies is watching a favorite movie I’ve seen a million times, one where the characters feel like old friends. Or if you don’t have a list of your own, you could pick from one of mine below:

Something To Talk About

You’ve Got Mail

First Wives Club

The Way Way Back

Dan in Real Life

And if you have a stressful family holiday in your future, I recommend Home For The Holidays.

Another comforting way to give yourself a hug is through music. If you’re glumly going through mundane chores like folding laundry, cleaning or paying bills, a good playlist can help boost your mood. I’ve created this one on Spotify – you are welcome to use it (looking at you, Blue Jays fans.) Music is powerful, so tapping into its magic is really effective. Which is why I always recommend it as a backdrop for decluttering!

And lastly, if you just need a quick boost – I discovered a book this year called The Comfort Book. It has helped me through many a blue day. Curl up on the couch with this puppy for a few minutes and I guarantee you will feel at least marginally better!

Boosting Strategy No. 2: Say It Out Loud

This boosting strategy requires a bit of context. When you are feeling weighed down by emotions that are preventing you from doing what you need to do – talk to yourself. Yes, you read that right. I know it sounds weird, but hear me out.

Talking to yourself out loud sends a signal to the part of your brain that controls reason and fires it up. So arguing with an uncomfortable feeling or telling yourself what you’re going to do next literally helps you do the thing that’s hard to do. Here’s a decluttering example:

You’re considering decluttering something you haven’t used in years but you spent a lot of money on it back in the day. As you are thinking about the ‘lost’ money you remind yourself (out loud) – ‘Carrie, the money was gone when you spent it 10 years ago and keeping this thing is not going to bring it back.’

I also like to use it as a productivity booster when I’m not feeling motivated. I will literally tell myself what to do next: ‘I am now going to go over to the piano and practice for 30 minutes.’ And as a bonus, once you’ve used this booster a few times you are actually forging new neural pathways in your brain, which make it easier the next time you have to do a hard thing!

Boosting Strategy No. 3: A Countdown

I am a planner at heart, which means I’m always looking ahead. One of the boosting strategies I love to employ when I need to get my ass in gear is to give myself a countdown of how many days I have left before I need to get something done. It’s a booster that spurs me to action, and action is where the magic happens. Here are a few examples of how I’m using this booster for the holiday season ahead.

• 53 days until I play 3 Christmas carols on the piano while my friends and family sing along
• 24 days to refresh & prep my guest spaces before houseguests arrive
• 33 days left to make reservations and buy tickets for my weekend in NYC with my daughter

When I write these down it gives me comfort (because I have time) and also spurs me to get going (because I don’t have that much time!)

If you’ve had a decluttering project on your list for this year that is still stubbornly sitting in draft form, let me give you a countdown. You have 60 days left in 2025 to get it done! Granted, there are some pretty busy days in there but if you break the project down into smaller pieces that’s plenty of time to get it done!

We all need boosting strategies to help get us out of the mental valleys we experience from time to time. The holiday season (or a World Series loss!) can be a pretty deep valley – hoping you can use one or all of these strategies to give yourself a boost!

The post November Mixed Bag: 3 Boosting Strategies to Lift Your Mood and Motivation This Season appeared first on Method Seattle.

If you’ve been thinking about finally decluttering your home you may have a vision in your head about how it will go. This mental image may include emptied closets, bags of donations and piles of stuff that you don’t know what to do with. The image is likely the reason you haven’t actually started decluttering. Here’s the thing – once you’ve hit midlife we are talking about decades of clutter buildup. You can’t just get it done in one big blitz. In fact, it’s the concept of a big blitz that is so intimidating in the first place.

In order to truly rid your home of all the deadwood you need to break up the project into decluttering phases. A phased approach gives you the best chance of finishing the job and keeping your sanity. You can self-guide through these phases. Once you understand how they work you’ll be able to identify when one phase is ending and the next is beginning. There are three phases in total – let’s walk through them.

Phase 1: Build Muscle

The first of the decluttering phases is the one people usually skip. When you skip the building muscle phase you end up flaming out quickly. And once you’ve flamed out it’s really hard to get back on the horse.

Building decluttering muscle is essentially practicing. Just like any other skill, you get better at it with repetition. And when you’re new to something it’s important to start your reps on the bunny slope instead of a black diamond mogul field. What does the bunny slope look like for you? Small Spaces – like a single cabinet or a nightstand. Short efforts – 15-20 minutes. No emotional attachments – junk drawer, bathroom. That’s it, essentially. You’re going to spend time decluttering in the most painless way possible. This will help you build confidence and momentum. Small wins feel good and the results will empower you to keep going.

After many of these small, painless efforts you’ll feel inspired to attack larger spaces and whole rooms. You’ll be able to handle sessions of an hour and more. Those are signals that you’re ready for Phase 2.

Phase 2: The Deep Dive

The Deep Dive is the most intense of the decluttering phases. This is where you’re hitting the big, nasty projects like the stacks of bins in your garage or the closet full of memories. The Deep Dive takes longer, is more draining and the decisions are harder. That’s why it is so critical to build up muscle first – before you tackle the difficult bit.

I recommend breaking up your deep dive into smaller pieces spread out over time. Your clutter has waited this long for you to set it free – there should be no hurry to try and get through all of it at once. And while this is definitely the most challenging phase, it is also the most rewarding. The feelings you have feared for so long turn out to be way worse in your head than they are in real life. You’ll keep the things that still matter to you but you’ll discover that a lot of what you saved doesn’t. You will feel lighter, cleaner and full of energy as the old buildup slowly exits the premises.

Phase 3: Clutter Prevention

Something amazing happens as you move through the first two decluttering phases. You gain a keen awareness for what qualifies as clutter. That awareness leads to a desire to protect the decluttered state of your home, which is now a lovely and relaxing place to spend time. Which means that you are now hyper-aware of what comes into your home and whether it will be worthy of occupying space there.

There are some good clutter-prevention strategies you can employ in this phase, things like one-in-one-out and the 2 Minute Rule. But honestly – you’ve now spent enough time decluttering that you’ll probably do these things instinctively. You’ll know that you won’t ever use all the freebies in that gift bag. You’ll recognize when you’re tending towards impulse-buying and hold off. You’ll have the wisdom to know that keeping something you don’t value doesn’t equal respect.

When you move successively through the decluttering phases in the proper order they feel natural and less stressful than that image you’ve had in your head for so long. I’ve found in many cases that people end up actually enjoying the process of decluttering because they have become proficient at it and they know how good the outcome feels. As it turns out, the phased approach is the winner every time! If these phases make sense to you but you want a bit more structure and guidance as you navigate your own decluttering journey, my Beginner’s Decluttering Blueprint is the bestie resource you need – you can shop it here.

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