Forget Resolutions—Start Your Midlife Decluttering Journey with Tiny Wins

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!