092. Why Decluttering Sprints Work for Busy Moms (and “A Little at a Time” Doesn’t)

Decluttering Sprints help busy moms get real results fast. Learn why “a little at a time” creates a heavy mental load , and how clear start-and-finish projects finally stick.

If you’ve ever told yourself you’ll “just do a little at a time,” and then months went by with nothing really changing, this episode is for you. I'm explaining why slow, open-ended decluttering projects often drain busy moms’ energy, and why decluttering Sprints create real momentum, closure, and confidence.

You’ll learn why clutter isn’t just about stuff, but unfinished decisions, how “almost done” projects quietly increase mental load, and why giving your organizing efforts a clear start and finish can finally help things stick without turning decluttering into a part-time job.

🐌 Why “a little at a time” sounds gentle but often keeps you stuck

🧠 How unfinished projects create mental load and open loops

☀️ Why working mom brains thrive on clear starts and clear finishes

✨ What decluttering Sprints give you that slow projects don’t

✅ How containment creates momentum, confidence, and calm

Decluttering doesn’t have to hover in the background of your life. Follow the podcast so you don’t miss weekly organizing tips for Beautiful Living!

#DeclutteringTips #WorkingMoms #OrganizingThatWorks #MentalLoad #BeautifulLiving

👉👉 I'm giving a FREE class, 3 Simple Steps to Declutter Your Kitchen In Just A Weekend! There are 3 class times available on January 19th or 20th. Sign up at https://fireflybridge.com/class.

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Transcript

I don’t know if you’ve been listening to the podcast long enough to remember the story of me organizing my junk drawer in our New Jersey house years ago.
It was when I first decided to really and truly methodically organize my house, and what better place to start than our kitchen junk drawer!
I’d read and listened and watched what the experts said. One day at a time, little by little. So yeah! I figured I’d do my junk drawer one day, then little by little my entire kitchen would get done, then the whole house!
What I didn’t count on was getting stuck. Right after Day 1. I mean, within a week, the junk drawer was back to being full of junk, and I didn’t get it! Why could all those other people get organized little by little and I couldn’t?
I mean, I’m educated, I was an engineer, this was my junk drawer. What was happening that I couldn’t manage this?
So look, if you’ve ever told yourself, “I’ll just do a little bit at a time,” and then weeks or months went by and nothing really changed, well this episode is for you.
Because the problem isn’t that you lack discipline or follow-through, like mine wasn’t. I got my junk drawer organized that day, That wasn’t the issue.
The issue is that “a little at a time” sounds gentle. But for busy moms, it often keeps us stuck.
Today, we’re talking about why decluttering Sprints work so well for working moms, and why slow, open-ended organizing projects can quietly drain your energy instead of restoring it.

Welcome to Organizing for Beautiful Living with me, Zee Siman, The Choosy Organizer.
This podcast is for women who are done organizing everything and ready to be choosy—about what matters, what’s enough, and what can wait.
Because Beautiful Living starts with a little less stress and a lot more intention.
Ready to get beautifully organized?
Let’s make it happen.
Last week, we talked about why the kitchen carries so much weight for working moms, and how a cluttered kitchen just isn’t only inconvenient. No, it’s exhausting.
Today, we’re building on that by talking about how change actually happens for busy women in real life, not in theory.
So organizing a little at a time sounds responsible, doesn’t it?
It sounds sustainable, balanced and you’re not pushing yourself too hard.
But when you look at how this plays out in real life, a little at a time often means that you don’t have a clear start, or a clear finish, and no real sense of progress.
So the project just lingers.
You end up with half-decluttered cabinets, and stacks waiting for decisions.
And that means that every day when you walk into your kitchen you’ve got a mental note nagging at you that says, I really need to get back to that.
And that mental note takes up space in your brain.
So, this is where Work to Live Well really matters.
Your home projects should support your life. They shouldn’t hover in the background, draining your energy.
Because that’s what mental notes do, you guys, they nag at you and drain your energy.
Why? Because clutter isn’t just about stuff. It’s about unfinished decisions.
Every time you walk past something that’s unresolved, your brain registers it as an open loop. And open loops are tiring.
So when you try to declutter slowly, without boundaries, what you often end up with is less mess and fewer decisions you have to make in the moment because you’re working just a small area, so fewer items, right? But you end up with more mental load over time.
That’s why you can “work on organizing” and still feel unsettled and unfinished forever.
Now a decluttering Sprint is different because it creates containment.
A sprint has defined start, a defined end, and a clear focus.
Your working mom brain loves this because when you know, “This starts Saturday morning and ends Sunday evening,” your nervous system can relax.
You’re not wondering, uh, when will I get back to this? Did I forget something? Where did I stop last time I touched this cabinet? Is this ever going to be done?
You’re fully present on the task of decluttering because you know it’s temporary.
This is Thrive Daily in action.
You’re not doing less decluttering forever, but you’re choosing when to do something fully, and then being done.
Now I’m not going to claim that Sprints are for everyone. But I will tell you that the working moms I’ve worked with over the years, they’re not interested in decluttering something every week for the rest of their lives. They want to get organized, and be done, and live their lives.
I mean, I see this all the time with clients.
The same women who manage deadlines and deliverables at work try to organize their homes in leftover minutes right?
And then they wonder why it doesn’t stick.
Think about it. At work, you don’t say, “I’ll just kind of work on this project whenever I have a spare five minutes.”
You block time. You focus. You create closure.
But at home, we expect transformation in our spaces without structure.
That’s not fair to you or your energy.
At the same time, you’re probably not interested in creating a project timeline with resource allocation for decluttering your kitchen! 

I certainly didn’t! I didn’t want more checklists, more calendars, more trackers.

I had my hands full when I was at home with the kids and all their activities and their homework. I just wanted my house organized and done!
So, I realized I had to shift how I was thinking about this whole decluttering thing, and I’m sharing this with you now.
You don’t need more time. You don’t need more motivation.
You need a better container for your effort.
That’s what a decluttering Sprint gives you. It gives you momentum instead of friction.
It gives you completion instead of chronic “almost dones.”
And it gives you confidence instead of self-doubt.
When I stopped doing these mini you know one-day decluttering projects, like just my junk drawer, in the hopes that it would stay organized while over the next however many months I would work on the rest of my house, and instead I did a Sprint and decluttered my entire kitchen in a weekend, that’s when the progress happened. 

That’s when I could see that I loved living with less, that my kitchen felt calmer, freer, and cleaner. And that motivated me to continue with the rest of my house.

Now, it wasn’t easy to do that first Sprint, but after a couple of Sprints in other parts of my house, I became comfortable with them. Decluttering is really a skill that you get better at the more you practice. So once I did a few Sprints, they didn’t feel like a huge production anymore. 

I could just declare to myself that hey this weekend is a Sprint weekend, and I’d get it done.

You know, lots of moms I know have told me that they really want to get organized, but not only is it overwhelming to get started, but it honestly gets boring. I mean, they’d much rather be having fun with the family or going out with friends than digging into a pantry shelf looking at expiration dates.

So Sprints are ideal for these moms because decluttering shouldn’t be a whole production. It doesn’t have to be, once you know how to approach it.
And I want you to just think about this for a moment.
Where in your home have you been working on it for far too long?
What would it feel like to give that project a clear beginning and a clear end?
Just notice what comes up. There’s no action for you to take yet, ok? 
In the next episode, we’re going to talk about the question that usually comes next:
“Okay, but can I really declutter my kitchen in one weekend?”
And we’re going to talk about that honestly, without hype, and without pressure.
So make sure you’re following the podcast so you don’t miss that conversation, all right?
Until then, have a beautifully organized week. I’m Zee, and I’ll see you on the next episode.