You have sat with your head in your hands and worried about the clutter, the chaos and the mess. To say nothing of the overwhelm, stress and constant drain on your energy. Now it's time to begin the process of working through the things you have around you and to actually let some of them go. I feel your pain, really I do.
Grab your journal and take the time to note how you are feeling right now. Limit this to thirty mins or however long it takes you to enjoy a coffee with your pen and notebook!
Be honest about how you feel approaching the project of removing this junk and clutter from your home. If you are scared then write about this to yourself. What is most worrying for you? Are there some aspects making you feel nervous or jittery? Stick with a pre chosen time limit for the journalling activity and use this to get your thoughts and feelings down on paper. We don't want you to be so absorbed in your notes that you never get around to the work of discarding!
Picture your starting point. After journalling about the emotional place you are in as you begin the declutter, I am going to ask you to do one thing that will take just minutes out of your day, but which will have a powerful benefit. Grab your cell phone and take pictures of every single room in the house. Stand at each doorway and take a picture of the room in front of you. Then go to an opposite side or corner of the room and take some other pictures looking back towards the doorway. As you build your photo album of the room, make sure you have an image of each area captured and stored on your phone. Do this with your living area, dining space, sleeping area. But also do the bathrooms and the kitchen. Take photos of your kitchen with every cupboard open. Take a picture of that random dumping ground under the sink. Open your bathroom cabinets and capture an image of the contents. I dare you!
If you have a garage or a basement where you store your 'stuff', make sure to gather images of each of these areas so you are fully aware of what you are dealing with. For many people this is a harrowing process because it gives you the evidence of how out of control you have become with the operation of your home as a space where you gather, hoard, store and accumulate quite so much. I promise you though, that some time from now you will look at the before and after pictures and feel such a sense of pride and accomplishment, you will be wanting to show everyone the results you have achieved and the completely different space you have created through your own effort, dedication and focus.
With the picture album recorded, you can now start with a section of your home that you can manage to deal with in one go. Here I don't mean a whole room though. You need to be realistic and also kind to yourself. You want an early win so that you will come back and do more. This can be a drawer in a desk, a shelf in your living room or that area under the sink in your kitchen. This victory will give you the motivation to stay with the process tomorrow and the next day.
As you prepare to declutter your home of the items that no longer serve you, take the time to get mentally ready for the emotional effort this will require from you. In letting go of things which have been in your home for months and often for several years, or which have been moved from house to house and never used, it is up to you to be able to look at each item and decide on why you are going to keep it or whether you will move through the process of releasing it from your care.