Episode 395 – Don’t Fade by February – Keep Your Decluttering Momentum High

Ingrid: January often brings a powerful burst of motivation. Fresh starts, big plans, and that feeling that anything is possible. as everyday life settles back in the honeymoon period ends and your motivation to declutter can quietly slip away. If you've noticed your energy dipping, you are absolutely not alone. today's episode, we chat through why this slump is so normal, why it's not a sign of failure, and how to gently guide yourself back into steady, sustainable momentum.

Ingrid: Hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid.

Lesley: And I am Lesley. Now, if you are here for the very first time today, or you've been listening in for ages, we want to say a huge thank you we have a little favour to ask.

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Well, Lesley, is February really such a boring month? I mean, it's the shortest month of the year, but it does always feel a bit mad, doesn't it? Well, January the second, half of January might even be worse, but in February, it's kind of like, it's not, it's still cold. It's not spring yet. We're kind of hanging on for dear life with our decluttering momentum. Then we kind of kind of berate ourselves, don't we? When we haven't done it, and we were like, all guns blazing in January. Woo-hoo. This is gonna be the year. And then we look around in February going, oh wow, nothing's really changed yet, or, I made a good start, but where's my momentum gone? Disappeared.

Lesley: Exactly. I think it's more about how you start January, isn't it? And obviously we try really, really, really hard at the Declutter hub to say, don't go crazy and just kind of take it easy. This is like a whole year project for most people, and not something that can be done in a few weeks. We need to do something differently to the way that we've always done it.

So if we've always got this pattern of starting strong in January.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: you know, we've just been through a major challenge with thousands and thousands of people and so we, we also try to kickstart people into January bit, but one of the messages within our reset your home challenge is definitely. This is not done in a week or two.

This is gonna take you quite some time, so you need to break it down. But it's completely normal to have a slum. We all have that fresh energy, don't we? In January we give plenty of time to decluttering 'cause we're not really, for most people, we're not doing much else in January. Like you say, the weather's a bit rubbish

It's the same in February as well. And so I think, but we can be forgiven. It's completely normal that there's a slump at the end of January. Struck February isn't there in Ingrid, but I think really today is about going okay. That's the thing. You're not alone. Other people have it too. How do we jump back on the wagon and get ourselves going again on the decluttering train?

Ingrid: Yeah, definitely. And I think it really,

Lesley: I think

Ingrid: acknowledging, I think is,

Lesley: I think,

Ingrid: first part of that. Like you said,

Lesley: like you said, Lesley,

Ingrid: okay, right. We are third

Lesley: we

Ingrid: now, started

Lesley: started

Ingrid: I was all, you know, I had everything, up and running and I was on a thing and now. But don't start with, well, okay.

All is lost. That's it. That's my only attempt for this year. Now, I'm, I'm not, I'm not good at decluttering. Never be good at it. Don't know what all these people are talking about. I'm a lost cause. Absolutely not. Hold your horses. Take a breath and go, hold on a minute. What went well in January? Where did I make the difference?

What did I do Good kind of okay. And then let's have a, have a really realistic look at okay, where, where, where did I start to kind of go off trail a little bit, what happened How can I get back on the plan? We sometimes have to do a little detour, right? Because life throws curve balls in our way.

Stuff happens. We go on a completely like off track and now we need to go, hold on a minute. I was doing really good. was making progress forwards, whether that's one thing that I was decluttering per day or or a a whole back full. It's never about the amount, it's about the thought that goes behind it how do I get back on track with this and. I can do it, but slowly and surely, not frantic, not hours on end at the time, not wearing myself out. And maybe when you hear me saying this, you're going, oh, that was it. I had so much energy and buzz around it. I wore myself out. That's where actually I should have put the hand brake on a little bit and gone.

Hold on a minute. Listen, Ingrid keep telling me to slow down and I did not listen. I actually need to go slower and Sure, surely. But how do I, I need to go slower. I need to go. Sure. I can't think of, I can't say now, Lesley. Sure. Slowly

Lesley: More surely more slow, I dunno what you're trying to say. Slowly and surely, slowly and more, surely, slowly, but with more surety. Like could, you said many, many, many things, but we know what you mean. So we're all good? We're all good. I think, you know, you, you raise a really valid point really. And this is one of the things that we do in our membership, the Inner Hub, isn't it?

We really. Work on decluttering not being a linear process and the success of your decluttering journey will take into account the fact that a year has got so many peaks and troughs in it, because that's natural. Like things happen. There's times that we're busy, there's times that we're on holiday.

There's times that we can't declutter, that we don't wanna declutter, that we've got other priorities, and we need to make sure our decluttering journey follows that pattern and doesn't. Fail because of the ebbs and flows, which are completely normal, they will continue to happen for the rest of your life.

We will have peaks and troughs, ebbs and flows, whatever you want to call them. And the success of a decluttering journey is all about managing that process. And so, and this is one of them, right? January, of course we need to jump on the bandwagon of motivation. Of course, we need to have, you know, make plans.

And go, you know what? This is my time. There's nothing wrong with having New Year Energy. There's nothing wrong with resolutions and plans and taking a time to look at having a fresh start and you know, really jumping on that bandwagon, bandwagon of other people being excited for change. What better time of year is there than January for that?

But it's about keeping that going. But I think we are. Relying on the same thing that we've always had. We're relying a little bit on willpower. What often happens is there's not just decluttering that some people's agenda, there's other things as well. You know, we're looking at the way we work, trying to bring balance in.

We're looking at meal planning. We're looking at maybe health. We're looking at food, we're looking at exercise, all of those things. And so we're trying to do all of the things and so. And we just don't have capacity to make all those changes at once. And I think the emotional initial buzz wears off as normal routines and ebbs and flows and responsibilities start to return.

So January, relying very much on willpower, I think. And that's temporary. We need to try and get something more. Sustainable. We need habits. We need structure, we need changes to mindset. We can't do a decluttering journey based on adrenaline and willpower alone. Can we? So, it's an interesting one and I think that what we see quite a lot is that.

some of those things, you know, in the reset your home challenge, we talked a lot about emotional emotion, space decluttering, which is our thing, and we talked about emotional barriers and they're fresh in people's minds and they're like, yes, the light bulb moments went on. People are like, that's absolutely me.

But it's a habit that we've got into over decades sometimes. And they're hard habits to break, aren't they? So old habits quietly slide back in and this is the the time of year that that absolutely happens.

Ingrid: Yeah. And I think also what we see a lot is that people then feel, guilty about, oh, you see, I, I, I, I, I did it for like two or three weeks and now I can't do it. And then we feel guilty about it. And when we haven't done any decluttering for like a week and a half, we immediately think, right, that's me.

Done. I can't do it. Well. We have to, we we're changing our mindset as well along the way. And it's like you said, Lesley, it's that mindset shift. It's that habit changing that doesn't happen overnight. It's years and years and years of how you've always been doing things. And you know, our favorite quote, if you always do what you always done, you will always get what you've always gotten. So if you are in a pattern of. Once you've not done any decluttering for a week, you're immediately berate yourself and saying, oh, failed. Didn't do it. Can't do it. And now, and then that guilt immediately sets in of, well, you know, and I can't even, you know, look at my decluttering. Just take a breath for a minute here.

Take a breath. Just because you've had a busy week at work, you've not completely failed at everything that you set out to do this year. You just had a little bit of a curve ball thrown your way, and by being super hard on yourself, you're not helping yourself. You just need to go. Okay? Right. Just because I didn't do any decluttering for this week doesn't mean I'm a lost cause. Doesn't mean that I failed, doesn't mean that I'm rubbish at everything. It just means I've had a busy week at work. Okay, hold on. Let me just look at the next couple of days and see how that's looking for me. Let's take a step back. Regroup. Then gonna go, okay, what are my non-negotiables? Where's, where can I do 15 or 20 minutes of a little bit of decluttering instead of going Right when when's the whole calendar clear?

And I can do hours and hours? That didn't work. Remember? So we need to break that down.

Lesley: I think you're so right, Ingrid, is that it? It starts with you and your own mindset. You've got to make a change to that first, which is allowing yourself grace for things to go.

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Lesley: Against you then almost, or things not to go your way and then to go, this is normal, that acceptance that this is normal. And the way that you respond to that is, is the real breakthrough, the real thing.

That's gonna mean that your momentum is going to continue for the rest of 2026. And so. That's, you've gotta get that right. You've gotta allow yourself that kindness, that grace, that ability to understand that it's not a linear journey, that understand understanding of ebbs and flows and peaks and drafts and curve balls and all of that.

And only when you've got that firmly in your mind, can you then go, what do I need to do practically? And you need to go back to basics, like you say, and break it down. And so there's two things at play that are gonna really affect your momentum, isn't it? And it's that first one, and so many people. When we're talking about decluttering, really think about the action side of it.

But really we want to think about the thinking side of it. You know, we talk it in our, our reset your home book where, you know, we have whole chapters on the thinking and the doing. The, you know, every chapter has got a thinking section and a doing, and the thinking section is always first, because it's important to understand your mind and what barriers are.

Causing you to stall when you're decluttering journey. And then, and only then when you've worked those out, can you then move into the action side of it. So it's really, really important to get that bit right. So I think that, you know, one other thing that I wanted to mention as well is that. If we have embraced a community for our decluttering, which we wholeheartedly stand behind, as you know, we've got wonderful communities, our podcast listeners, our Facebook group.

We've had a wonderful community going through the Reset Your Home Challenge, all now sitting nicely in our Facebook group, supporting each other. But if you are one of those people that has fallen in your opinion, fallen off the bandwagon a little bit, then you can be forgiven for looking at what other people are doing and going, why can they do it?

And I can't. So it's this comparison trap and seeing other people continuing in your opinion, to be successful or posting about their success can really knock your own confidence. 'cause that's another kind of, you know, it's another hit to you, isn't it? You think? I can't do it, and they can. And so, but we, again, we have to go back to mindset and understand that not everybody, people have different homes, different lives, different jobs, different time that they can devote to decluttering different situations, different energy levels.

All of those things are really, really important. So somebody else's success is not you. You know, we all have different ways of doing things and we can all get there. Honestly, in our membership, we have people who can get the whole job done within three, four months time. They can go from a very cluttered house to de a decluttered house in four months, and they're going for it at full pelt, and they can absolutely get it done.

And there were other people who are still there four or five years later that are still making huge progress, but are just chipping away, chipping away constantly at that mindset, that clutter and just getting there. Everyone is different, you know, and we need to recognize that there are hairs and tortoises.

Both are equally valid, but there's no point in comp if you are a tortoise, there's no point in comparing yourself to a hair. 'cause all that's gonna do is take you into a negative, tailspin, isn't it?

Ingrid: Yeah. So let's,

take a break now,

Lesley: Lesley

Ingrid: after break I think we need to really talk about, okay, so, right, you've fallen off the decluttering train, but how are you going to back on it? So, back in a moment.

Well, hello listeners. Welcome back. We are talking about how sometimes February can feel a bit like, oh, and I've not done anything and I've stopped and I was so doing so well. So let's not talk about, okay, if you feel that you've had a setback after your initial buzz of motivation and success from. From January.

Now February feels a bit like, Ooh, I've not done well, but I really, really wanted, get that momentum back. I wanna get that positive feeling. How can people do that? And I think the first thing we need to talk about is people's goal, right? The big picture goal that they have.

Lesley: Yeah. Really important for any decluttering journey at any point of the year or of your life actually, is to understand what your why is. Without that, you, you are rarely gonna have success. You need, what's the point? Like what? Why do you want to declutter your house? How is that gonna make a difference to you?

You need to establish. What that looks like and what the benefits of decluttering are going to be to you personally, and that's gonna be the thing that drives you forward. And so big picture goals could be things like, you know that you want to save money, that you eventually want to downsize and you're struggling because of the weight of the clutter in your home at the moment.

It could be that you want to invite people into your home that have not been around for a while. It could be that you want to pursue a new hobby and you can't do that 'cause you've not got space to do that. There are many, many versions of big, big picture goals. Those are just a few, but it is a big picture.

So it's not like I wanna declutter my kitchen. That's not a big picture goal. The big picture goal is why you want to declutter your kitchen. Maybe because you want to embrace a new style of cooking or whatever that might be. So really drill down and get completely solidified those big picture goals.

You know, maybe that wasn't something that you did in January. It certainly was something that we talked about in the reset Your Home challenge. But it might be that that's slipped off your radar and you've forgotten that big picture goal. We need to get that firmly back in mind, 'cause that is gonna be the thing that motivates you forward.

Every single day, getting closer to your big picture goal is what hugely makes a difference, isn't it? Ingrid?

Ingrid: Yeah, for sure, for sure. I think it's really important to have that picture goal, big picture goal in mind, because that's kind of, then you know what you are working towards. You know that the steps you're taking and you can constantly ask yourself, is the decluttering that I'm doing helping me towards my big picture goal? And then, then it becomes much easier to go. Okay. not, what do I need to change? Or if yes, wow. Yes, I'm on the right track here. Because decluttering is all about breaking it down into small, manageable chunks. You cannot declutter eight hours a day. For six weekends in a row. It's very, very rare that people can do that. You have to actually really break it down and go, okay, now I know what my big picture goal is. How do I see myself getting there? What needs to happen in this house to make sure that I reach that end goal? And we always think about the hardest room, the fullest room, the worst room, but we need to take a step back and go, but I forgot that I have to build up my decluttering muscle over time. I forgot that. I don't really know how to do decluttering that well yet. So let me start in, in easier rooms, in rooms that I can break down easier. Can you maybe start in your kitchen, in your bathroom, in your linen cupboard and go. that seems like easier areas to start with, and they've got smaller cupboards, smaller areas, and I'm just gonna do that little one thing today.

Today I'm gonna look at, I don't know, the shampoos and conditioners in my bathroom, or I'm gonna look at my bedding today and just see if I can find the, the matching pillows with the matching duvet sets. And then. you know, start somewhere small, manageable, 10 minutes, 50 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour, whatever you think. break it down and that will go, oh, actually I did that. This feels really good. And it suddenly of you feeling negative about it, you're gonna start to think, look. That was really fantastic. I'm really proud of myself. I showed

Lesley: I showed,

Ingrid: I didn't wanna do it, but I did

Lesley: but I.

Ingrid: and now I feel happy that I've accomplished something and that I no longer have random.

Plastic containers with different lids that I can never find to match when I wanna put some of my, pasta bolognese in my freezer, and I can't find a container that matches. It's the little things, honestly, that when you build them up over time, they make a massive difference.

Lesley: I mean, I think that's why the 40 days, 40 items challenge is so successful. Really, we're slap bang in the middle of it at the moment, Ingrid, and you know, you can concentrate on one thing a day and it does typically expand out. So if anybody's not not getting involved at the moment in the 40 days, 40 items challenge, you can still get involved.

You can do your version of the 40 days, 40 items challenge whenever you want. Do you know? And if we're talking about breaking things down, Ingrid, then we're doing the perfect thing at the moment in our communities, aren't we? With the 40 days, 40 items challenge?

That's the perfect example of breaking things down. And the reason why we do it as well, because we know we've had that big momentum in January. Some people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Can't cope with that. Let's break it right down to something that you can do and go for this one item a day idea. Now, for many people, they are focusing on one item a day, but once you start, sometimes you can't help yourself but expand out.

You might find one Tupperware container, for example, that Ingrid just mentioned, and you might decide that you wanna do your whole Tupperware drawer as a result of that. And so what you're doing is lots and lots of different areas, but you're not. Committing to something huge, you're committing to something small.

Success will look like one thing. If you do more than that, then it's huge success. And that's what this is all about. So, you know, we started a couple of days ago, so check out, you know, Facebook group, the Facebook page, the YouTube, it's on there. Instagram, it's on there. 40 days, 40 items. Challenge and follow along.

We give you one item every day that Ingrid and Id clutter and we talk about why, which is really important. We're talking about emotional connection to clutter. It's not just getting rid of things for the sake of it. It's getting rid of his, getting rid of something. And Ingrid and I will explain why often we have an emotional barrier with that item.

So do check out the 40 days, 40 items challenge. 'cause that's really going to help.

Ingrid: Yes,

Lesley: Yes.

Ingrid: think as well what you see then is that you start to get into that, you know, that habit of doing one thing a day or maybe snowballing into two or three things, and it starts to build up and you start to create that, that habit that you do something daily. And then you can also start to think, okay, now I need to start looking at my.

daily resets as well, because I can do this daily. So what else do I need to do daily to make sure that things start to become easier for me? We had a lovely comment from, one of our members recently who said, gosh, I, I'm due to my health. I can't, you know, I've really struggled with my health.

It's really hard for me to do decluttering. you know, doing a little bit every day really makes a difference. And because my kitchen counter is now cleaner, it's much easier to

Lesley: Much,

Ingrid: and it's much easier

Lesley: much easier.

Ingrid: up. And now the, I do the washing up every day as a day a part of my daily resets. Boy, it makes a massive difference. So those tiny little your, maybe in your mind, micro things, really amount to. Over time, bigger changes and positive changes.

Lesley: Exactly. I think, you know, it is time to. Really look at February and go, right, okay, you know, we, we could start in January and some people might be still going on that thing and, but let's look at, at February being a fresh start. But don't be perfectionist with this. That's really important because perfectionism gets you nowhere.

you know, and people always, when we talk about perfectionism in the realms of declutter and people are like, perfection is my house. Absolutely chaotic, but it is perfectionism waiting for the right moment to do all of these things that holds people back. So that's a form of perfectionism that we see all the time with decluttering, perfectionism, in terms of waiting for the right moment and the right kind of, you know, for everything to align so that you're decluttering.

project can be perfect. That's not what it's all about. It's about doing these little changes. And that's really gonna stop me from procrastinating over decluttering, because it's not as big. As you think it is, you know, we always think of the hardest things. We always think of the big volumes. We look at the house as a whole and we need to start breaking it down.

Also, you know, lean on community. You know, we've just spoken about community as well. You know, there's 40 days, 40 items challenge. We're doing that within a big community and there's something very powerful about that. We don't need to like go all in if that's not your bag and you're like, Ugh, I just don't like that kind of thing, that's perfectly fine.

But there's something very empowering about seeing what other people are doing, even if it's just to give you a little bit of inspiration. So do look at what other people are posting. Lean on that community because decluttering can be a very lonesome thing to do, can't it? Ingrid? It takes time. You feel very lonely.

You feel like you are the only person who's suffering with. And actually you're not so lean on the community, and we have the most wonderful community here in the Declutter Hub to help you along. Everybody's super supportive and we have the kindest group we think on Facebook, so lean into that community.

Ingrid: Yeah, definitely. So we want you to feel proud of

Lesley: Proud of.

Ingrid: We want you to be kind to yourself. We want you to celebrate your wins and don't think about all the stuff you haven't done, but we want you to think about, you know what? I had a tough day, but I did that one thing for myself and I know it's gonna help my future me. Enjoying my house more. And that's what it's all about. This is not about fast and frantic and, and get a skip and throw it all out. No, this is about making sustainable changes that help you and the people around you enjoy your home more and what's not to like about that. So don't feel the, the main message is just because you might have fallen off the decluttering, train for the last couple of weeks.

Not all is lost. You just were doing a little detour all by yourself. Now come back in the group, come back in the community, join us for the 40 days, 40 items challenge. Do a little bit every day, 5, 10, 15 minutes, just a little bit, and go, wow, yes, this feels fantastic. I want to do some more of that, and I can see where I'm going with this.

I have that big picture goal firmly in front of me, and that's where I'm working towards.

Lesley: I'm feeling all, I'm feeling like January energy in February. Ingrid

Ingrid: I know,

Lesley: yeah, we can do this together.

Ingrid: I

Lesley: Like conquer the world

Ingrid: together.

Lesley: one piece of clutter at a time. You know what I mean? I'm feeling, yeah, so that's what it's all about, isn't it? You know, sometimes you just need that little bit of a boost and so all is not lost.

We've got the whole 20 26, 20 26 to play with and we wanna make sure more than anything else that we don't. End 2026, the way we ended 2025. We want to make that physical progress and so really, really important. So no fade in February for us. Ingrid, we are going full pulse ahead, aren't we?

Ingrid: We are, we are. So we hope to see you in the 40 days, 40 items challenge. Come and join our lovely gang. And, you don't even have to sign up. You can just go onto our Facebook group and see all the videos there, or go to our YouTube channel, our other socials. All the information is there. Share what you are decluttering, what one thing a day you're finding.

Maybe you are inspired by the items we are decluttering. Maybe you're inspired by the, items that other people are decluttering. But anyway, you know, and even if you don't do one thing one day. Again, you just come and join us the next day for the next item. It is all good. So we would love to know, you fall?

Did you fall off a little bit? Were you like, yeah, I was all guns blazing in January, but I feel re-energized. Leave us a comment because we would love to know if we've inspired you to kind of pick it back up and, if you're gonna join us. So that is it for this week's episode and we will see you. Again next week.

As always.