Like most homes I have far too many things. I have junk and clutter hiding around every closet it seems and it has been getting worse since we last moved to a bigger house almost a year ago. So for the last few days I've been on a war with my house getting rid of clutter.
The reason for this sudden change was I just got sick of all the stuff taking up my time. Then I realized it was costing me to actually keep this junk/clutter. I have to move it, clean around it, worry about it, avoid it and then pay my insurance company money to insure it while I make up my mind. All this time for clutter and junk? What have I been thinking?!?
To start we started with our closet upstairs I purged the excess clothes and then moved onto the bathroom and got rid of all of those small bottle of lotion and shampoo we seem to collect for no reason. Then I hit up my study which I have been avoiding. I finally filed the last six months of phone bills and then my wife got a much needed second file cabinet for all her daycare business files. I'm not done yet, but I already feeling about 300% better going back to work next week with a much cleaner study. I can finally stop feeling guilty every time I sit down in the room about not getting to my 'to file' pile.
So next time you start avoiding some clutter I suggest you don't avoid it and just get it over with. You will feel better and be saving yourself some time down the road and perhaps a bit of money by not having to pay someone else to clean up your junk.
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4 comments:
CD
House clutter is the bane of my existence. We simply have too much stuff.
Every so often we watch Clean Sweep and get up the energy to tackle the HCWHA (Household Crap We Have Acquired).
My problem is that my wife thinks we should have a garage sale. I think we should just donate it to get rid of it. But ever the frugal one, my wife is insisting on a garage sale.
So last week, my in-laws took the kids for 4 hours while we tackled the garage, cleared a bunch of stuff into sell, donate, throwaway piles.
I looked at the Garage Sale pile and said "wow, we might even pay for our Disney world tickets with all this" to which my wife replied "How much do you think is here" "$1000" say I. "you're kidding yourself, this is only $200 max." came the reply.
At that point, I lost it and suggested that the work involved in hosting a garage sale, letting complete strangers scavenge our junk AND the work of loading up the stuff we didn't sell anyways was not worth $200, IMHO.
:-)
Regardless, at least the clutter seems to be dwindling. I just hope my wife doesn't see the cleared floor space and think we can get more stuff.
Q
Q,
Getting rid of clutter is really useful so far. I've noticed my stress level is way down. I didn't even do half of what I wanted while I was off last week, yet with getting rid of the junk I still feel great.
CD
Moving into a condo was the best thing I could have ever done to eliminate clutter.
You become ruthless -- do we need this? Really? When's the last time you even used this?
More and more, my life is becoming a quest to move my priorities to two things: memories.experiences, and a small collection of objects that I truly value.
I will confess to having a hard time parting with books, but besides that, I'm getting more minimalist every day
I am constantly battling with this issue, and am happiest when I succeed in making a noticeable difference. I think that you are right on target with the stress level comment: clutter's biggest cost is psychological.
But the other costs count as well. You could move into a smaller house or avoid having to move up to a bigger house. That will save you a bundle!
MD:)
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