270: Beat the Summer Slump: Quick Declutter Inspiration to Spark Action

Beating the Summer Slump: A Back-to-School Starter List + My Favorite Videos Right Now

Summer is awesome — the long days, the loose schedule, the freedom. But sometimes you hit the summer slump anyway. It’s too hot outside, the kids are bored, and in the back of your mind, everything that has to happen before school starts is quietly creeping in and disturbing your peace.

So if you’re having trouble mustering anything that feels remotely productive, let’s fix that two ways: a list to capture what’s nagging at you, and a stack of videos to spark you into action when the mood strikes.

Before you watch anything, build your spark list

Open your notes app right now (unless you’re driving) and start dumping every back-of-mind task onto a list. Getting it out of your head stops the slow-building spiral of “everything is about to come crashing down.” Title it whatever you want — School Prep works fine.

The point of this list isn’t to do it all today. It’s so that when you watch an inspiring video later and feel a spark of motivation, you’re not stuck thinking I don’t know what to do with this energy. You glance at the list, pick anything, and dive in.

To get you started, here’s a first pass at what belongs on it:

• Print the school calendar and get every date into your (probably brand-new) planner
• Check each kid’s current shoe size and jot it down — if they’re growing fast, plan to recheck closer to the start of school
• Check the status of everyone’s clothing, starting with your oldest — clear out hand-me-downs to pass down the line, and bag up whatever’s left from your youngest to donate
• Go through lunch boxes and backpacks that got dropped and forgotten on the last day of school (yes, including whatever’s rotting in the bottom) — while you’re in there, pull out any barely-used school supplies and stockpile them so you can shop your own stash before buying more

Keep this list on your phone and keep adding to it whenever something else surfaces.

My summer inspiration playlist

It’s a little surprising, but some great organizing and decluttering content has been dropping this summer, even though podcast and video output usually slows down this time of year. Here’s what’s been inspiring me lately — full links are in the show notes:

• Dawn at The Minimal Mom — “I Studied Every Mess in My House, and Here’s What I Learned.” She sorts her home’s clutter into homeless, habitless, or hopeless, and walks through how to handle each category.
• Callie at The Practical Mom — “Organizational Content Is Getting Delusional.” A great look at the difference between performative organizing (so much of what we see on social media) and organizing that’s actually practical.
• Cass at Clutterbug — “I Decluttered My Home and Fixed My Life in Three Days.” Less about the decluttering itself and more about the power of closing loops — for your home and your head.
• Bonus, unwatched by me so far — “There Are Four Types of Messy People, Which One Are You?” A deeper dive building on the classic clutterbug types. I’ll be watching this one today.
• Dana K. White at Slob Comes Clean — “How to Value Space Over Stuff.” She takes summers off from her podcast (I applaud that) but keeps dropping videos. This one’s on my list for a mindset shift.
• Christy Doing Things (that’s Kristi, spelled k-r-i-s-t-i) — “Seven ‘Normal’ Habits That Are Actually Survival Mode — Decluttering Helped Me See Them All.” She has a PhD in psychology and brings real insight into the mindset behind why our homes end up the way they do. Her newest, “I Wish Someone Told Me This Before I Started Decluttering,” is also on my watch list for today.

Your practical, actionable step

Build the list first, then pick a video. When it sparks an idea, don’t let it evaporate — glance down at your list, choose the item that matches the energy you’ve got, and go.

And if you’ve got a creator I should know about, or a video that changed something for you, send it my way — I’d love to share it with the rest of this audience. You can comment right on the podcast page at joylovinghome.com/podcast, or just email me directly.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.