I didn’t expect organizing and packing my belongings to feel like burnout.
We’re subletting rooms in the house while traveling this summer, and the prep for that is to pack all my stuff away. It started to wear on me to figure out what to do with each one of hundreds or thousands of items. Printer ink that we don’t have a printer for. A dog toy (we don’t have a dog). Or is it a massage ball? Pens. Markers. A paper clip. Last year’s tax forms.
I found myself sitting on the carpet, surrounded by a pile of clutter, staring aimlessly, not able to continue. Because there were too many things, I found myself not able to do any of them.
The interesting thing, to me, was that the packing also made me feel like it was difficult to communicate on those days, as well. One of my symptoms of burnout is that it’s hard to send messages or reply to people, particularly online but I also avoid conversations and in-person gatherings also. Talking feels like a challenge.
