The Gift of Starting

You look around in your home and see that every room in your house needs attention.  One thing affects the next thing, affects the next thing and so on.  You have the feeling of giving up on the idea of organizing before you even start and the spiral goes down from there.  
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.  Getting started can be the hardest part of the whole project.  
The first thing to notice is how you are feeling in that moment and to do something that will start you moving upward instead of downward.  It may be to take a walk outside and just get out of the house with the intention to look at it again when you get back. 

When you feel overwhelmed, usually you are looking at the whole project with an expectation and possibly judgement as to how it should be, rather than how it is. The expectation that we should be able to handle something all in one go, that has built up over time is unrealistic.   

If starting is the hardest part of a big project, think of one simple thing you feel you can do.  

I recently experienced this myself with my yard.  The tree in front needed to be trimmed.  Branches were hanging down so low that they would brush my car when I pulled in the driveway.  The belt on my lawnmower had just broken and it would take 2.5 weeks until it could be fixed. A slat in the fence needed to be repaired.  The thistle weeds were getting higher and higher and my front lawn was taking over.  I was feeling completely overwhelmed. 

I realized that I was looking at the whole yard and everything that needed to be done at once. 
I asked myself "What is one thing I could do right now that would start me moving in a different direction"?  It was to start pulling weeds. I didn't need a tool for that and it was something I could start on right now.  When I finished pulling the weeds, I got an idea about another tool I had that I could use to trim the tree myself.  I trimmed the tree and found I had energy to bundle the branches.  The next thing I knew my neighbor came over with his lawn mower and mowed my front yard.  It was the momentum that was created by just starting somewhere that began things moving. I was blown away when I came home the next day to find my neighbor had mowed my back yard as well as a surprise act of kindness. What a wonderful gift that was for my neighbor to mow my yard and buy me time to get my lawnmower fixed.  The initial gift that was given was the gift I gave myself by starting.

Your starting point may be to reach out to a professional organizer.  Anything you do that starts things moving in a different direction is where you start.  ​