The first article was title, “How to organize your clutter.” My first thought was, “Why teach someone how to organize clutter?”
First let’s take a look at what the word “clutter” means. The definition in the dictionary is, “to make a place untidy or overfilled with objects; a condition of disorderliness or overcrowding.”
The two words that resonated with me when looking at the definition were “overfilled” and “overcrowding.” People are filling up their homes with items they no longer use, which ends up becoming clutter. When things start to feel overwhelming, they feel the need to organize this excess.
It’s actually quite easy to organize items that have now become clutter; putting books in order by the author’s last name, boxing up magazines according to year, and stacking plastic bowls by size.
But does it make sense to organize things you no longer need? You can have nicely labeled bins filled with clutter, but why do this? You take time categorizing it, shopping for bins, boxing it up, labeling it and finding a place to stack it. Why do this for things that have lost their meaningfulness?
You end up spending a lot time rearranging the clutter throughout your home on a regular basis. Weekends are spent organizing clutter only to repeat the process at a later date because all you’re doing is shuffling items from space to space instead of making good decisions on what you really need to keep.
If you’re spending too much time organizing the clutter in your home it’s time to break this habit.
With every item in your home ask yourself, “Do I really use this item or am I just in the habit of keeping it?” Before you bring something new into your home ask yourself, “Is this worth the time I will spend dealing with it?” In other words, “do I want to spend my free time dealing with items I won’t use or doing something more enjoyable and significant with my time?”
Stop organizing clutter even if you have plenty of space in your home to store it. Set guidelines for what you need to keep and let go of the rest. Surrounding yourself with only the items you use and love will free up time to spend with loved ones.
The second article I read was titled, “Ship your clutter to us and we’ll store it for you.” If storing clutter in your own home doesn’t make sense why would you pay to ship it and incur a monthly fee to store it? If you can live without it on a regular basis, do you truly need it?
Excess items rarely make you happier. Once your basic needs are met, additional items lose their “happy” value as they become just another thing lying around your home. Stop wasting your time and money organizing clutter.
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