Some Musing on Clutter and Decluttering

Last night I was in a stranger's garage going through two tables full of books (I'm a bookseller, in case you didn't read my profile). The seller was selling them for 50 cents each, as he was moving soon for Peru. We were actually at his cousin's home, as he himself didn't have the room at his own place to store all his stuff.

As I went through his books, he admitted that these actually weren't really his books, but his brother's. Oh, did his brother know he was selling these? I asked with some alarm. Oh, yes, he had been storing his brother's books for years; the brother had regularly promised to come and get them, but well he just never did. Now the moving brother was left with all this clutter to deal with (and obviously their cousin was too bright to allow this absent brother to clutter up HER home with all his junk!) I looked around at that garage and saw not just book inventory for my small business, but mostly clutter that had probably literally cost hundreds of dollars to purchase of which the original buyer would not see a penny back.

Driving back from this home, I couldn't help pondering "Do we own the stuff or does the stuff own us?" How many of us are overwhelmed and buried in clutter and just need a little push to be rescued from this materialistic madness? How many other relatives are suffering because we haven't conquered the clutter bug and don't know how to rule our own pocket book and possessions?

I'm speaking from experience: over the last few years I've been slowly convicted in allowing stuff -- clutter -- rule my life. I had allowed my home to turn into a warehouse for my books. An honest business hazard on the surface, but actually just a sign of lack of organization and discipline on my part. How much of the stuff I had been hanging on to was really necessary? Or even wanted? Why do we need to have all this stuff? Over time I've been learning about myself and what ruts I've fallen into in regards to my clutter and a little of how (Americans at least) have been programmed to respond to stuff.

People collect stuff for different reasons. Some because they want a "collection" and can't pass up that new and exciting item. To someone else it is just "clutter", but to the collector -- oh, it's a must have! Forget about the fact that there really isn't any more room in the curio cabinet for yet another version of the "what's-it." Others keep things because it was a gift (particularly from a family member) and they equated giving away the gift with disrespecting or hurting the giftee. (I struggle with this one regularly.) Similiar to this is the item left behind from a deceased loved one's estate; as someone who has lost both a brother and a mother, I can relate to this. With some items I had to verbally say outloud "This is NOT [the loved one's name]" and "[The loved one] would not want me held hostage by their stuff." In these cases I was careful to contact other family members to see if they wanted the items I was decluttering, so there would not be hurt feelings in the future, if anyone were to actually notice the items were gone.

Or do you fall into the "but I might NEED this someday!" trap? That one is easy to fall into, especially as financial times continue to get hard. With these kind of items, I sometimes have to sit myself down and think hard about how I might actually use the item and what the likelihood that particular situation would ever arise. And then I might group all the examples of that item together (say dish towels) and count how many I actually have. Do I really need 25 dish towels? Probably not. So I grit my teeth and toss the five most grungy looking ones. Oh, now is that liberating.

Another trick I've used in my decluttering journey is to tackle one small area -- say a closet -- and making a committment not to stop until I'm done. Or if the area I'm working on is too overwhelming, to set my timer for 30 minutes. I can usually bear to do one difficult or tedious house chore for at least 30 minutes. After that I can take a break, or promise to do something fun. The two most ultimate motivaters for me in regards to decluttering and cleaning my house is to imagine family coming to visit, or, if I'm feeling really unfocused, what it would be like if I passed away and I left THIS MESS for my family to go through for my estate. Yuck. (That's the extreme motivator and not for the faint of heart.)

Recently I was able to get a major amount of clutter out of the house and left feeling like the ultimate decluttering queen because I was unable to work for 10 days. My computer literally blew up and as an online bookseller, I was unable to work. I could no longer use the excuse of "I have to work" to keep me from facing the disarray in my home, and I found myself surprisingly eager to clean house. I wouldn't wish that on anyone (it was amazing how much I missed my computer!), but I would recommend setting aside a fixed amount of time to do that major clean out, if you've been putting it off and pushing it further and further back on your priorities.

Finally, I probably need to address that one has to change one's buying habits if one is going to KEEP the clutter down and to the minimal. It won't do to toss things out if you are just going to go out and buy yet more stuff! Do some real thinking about whether you really need that extra thing or knick-knack. Visualize yourself having to dust it weekly and you may decide that no, you really don't need that thing (whatever it is!) after all!

Now, get off the computer and go tackle that clutter!