The other day I was talking with a friend who said decluttering sounded great, but she had no idea where to begin. She said that the task felt so daunting, she couldn’t seem to get started. She couldn’t even come up with a room or a drawer that didn’t feel overwhelming.

So I suggested that she remove the pressure from herself by making the task concrete, small, and almost too easy to fail. Instead of thinking about the prospect of decluttering her entire house, I encouraged her to engage in Ultra-Simple Decluttering: today find one item to get rid of.

When I asked if she could find one thing, she said, “Of course! I can see one from here.” I responded, “Good! Get rid of it.” I pointed out that if she got rid of one thing each day, at the end of the year she would have 365 less things to worry about.

She didn’t need to tackle her whole house, a whole room, or even an entire drawer. She could simply find one thing to get rid of each day as she was going about her normal routine. Simple, doable, and a good way to make progress over time.

I think we all fall into this pattern of thinking at times: we see this huge task and it feels overwhelming. But if we break it into small chunks, it feels manageable enough to transition from standstill to motion and we can begin.

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the idea of simplifying? What have you done to make it feel more manageable to you?