How to Take Charge of Life Debt for the Overwhelmed Mom

Do you constantly feel like an overwhelmed mom with too much to do and no time to do it in? You may be swimming in life debt and not even know it!

What is Life Debt?

The definition of life debt that I’ve given it, is the process in which you are not able to keep up with things around your house that it accumulates and it reaches the point where you become an overwhelmed mom and do not feel like you cannot tackle it anymore.
This leads to frustration and feeling frozen and stuck because you have so much to do, less time do it in, and no idea where to start.

 

I compare life debt to being in financial debt. When you are in financial debt, you owe money and are continuously trying to pay for spending that has occurred in the past. The factors here are money and time. You need time to pay for the previous spending. If you can’t control your current spending, you will never be able to pay off what you owe.

When you are in life debt you are continuously trying to do tasks that were scheduled to be done in the past. You are borrowing today’s time to make up for something that didn’t happen yesterday. The factors here are tasks, time, and energy.

If we don’t complete what we needed to do yesterday, it piles on to today. Or tomorrow or whenever you can fit it back in. But it has to happen sometime.

The problem with life debt is that it includes everything happening in your life.

Financial debt comes down to money.

Life debt encompasses pretty much everything from big to small.

Big examples are big projects that you want to do around your house, decluttering, plans, redecorating, etc. These are almost always one and done. After you remodel or redecorate a space, you normally wouldn’t have to tackle that project again. Well, not any time soon, 😉

Small ones that add up are laundry, dishes, cleaning, toys. These are the hardest forms of life debt because they are continuous and never go away. Once you are behind, it feels like a lifetime to get back in the flow and top of these tasks.

When you get behind on laundry for example:

The piles to wash get bigger

Wash time takes longer

Dry time takes longer

Fold time takes longer and requires more energy

The time to put away takes longer and requires more energy

Motivation is definitely harder to find.

You need more energy and motivation to get it done..

When life debt starts to get out of control and overwhelm takes over:

Us as moms, get start feeling overwhelmed when we feel like there is no end to the chaos. No matter how hard we try, we can’t get ahead.

Let’s imagine if it’s not just laundry. What if it was laundry, dishes, mail, cleaning, on top of taking care of your family.

That’s when it starts to feel so overwhelming and suffocating because now there is just so much to do and everywhere you look there one more thing that you need to get to.

Adulting is hard. No one tells us how much work really goes into it. I think our parents save it because they want us to know how it is, when it’s our turn, right?!

When we grow up and get our own homes, we don’t realize exactly how much housework really entails. It is indeed “work”. When we fall behind, it takes double the energy and time to get caught up.

So how do we beat this?

Here are some quick tips on how to combat life debt:

1. Take 15 minutes set a timer and start putting stuff away, as much as you can.

If you have more time you can go ahead and do a little more, but start with 15 minutes. You can start with what is bugging you the most, or start from one end of the room and work your way around.

2. Think of how you have schedule all of your to-do’s. Are you scheduling based on someone else’s plan? Have you scheduled your routines based on what works for you?

For example, when it comes to cleaning, are you all or nothing type of person? Or do you like a little a time? For more info on this check out my post here on creating your perfect cleaning routine.

This makes a big difference to whether or not you will actually do the cleaning tasks. If you hate cleaning a little everyday, you will not stick to this plan no matter how much motivation you try to feed yourself.

If you are super busy with work 4 days a week and can barely get food on the table before collapsing in bed with exhaustion, you wouldn’t add in do a load of laundry from start to finish on those days because it would be physically draining.

3. Look for tools or people that can help you. Sometimes we just can’t do it all no matter how much we want to be able to. Enlist help if and when you need it. Check out how to create your cleaning caddy to help you with your cleaning routine.

In our house, we have a helper named Fred. He is our Roomba and he helps me clean the floor at night when we go to bed.

I typically make a mess in the kitchen when I’m cooking, the girls drop food particles on the floor after eating, but I like a clean floor. We walk barefoot in our house and I don’t want to step on anything let alone the girls and hurt our feet. So he is my designated helper and it’s always nice to see pretty vacuum lines whenever I come downstairs in the morning, I won’t lie!

What are some tools that can help you? Can you delegate any tasks to your family members?

 

Do you have any life debt? Try out some of these tips and let me know how it works for you!