How to Reduce Clutter in Your Home and Mind
How does clutter happen?
Hundreds of thousands of purchases occur every day. The benefits of the world in which we live include an incredible surplus of goods and services. While the modern economic system has its flaws, especially big business, the benefits are hard to ignore. Most people are healthier than in years past, and have significantly more material wealth. Smartphones, TVs, computers, toys, and other commodities have become much more affordable thanks to our system, but there is one downside that I’d like to highlight. Clutter.
Our society, through social influence and advertising, has programmed so many of us to focus on “keeping up with the Jones’.” The result being that as a society, we buy a lot of things we don’t need. While it’s definitely acceptable to treat yourself to a new toy or gadget once in a while, we have made it almost a monthly occurrence of buying the newest and best things. Early in life, everything seems fine because it really isn’t that much stuff. As time progresses, these things really start to pile up. Eventually, it isn’t just your stuff either. It’s your children’s and your spouse’s stuff. No wonder the self storage industry is booming.
Physical Effect of Clutter
There are a lot of problems with having this much clutter, both physical and mental. From the physical side, you lose valuable space that could be used for play, and you lose the ability to downsize. Imagine you’ve reached retirement. You have the option to retire to a small little house by the water. There isn’t a lot of storage space. The kicker is that you’re coming from a 2,000sqft house that’s packed to the brim with years of your family’s junk. There are three options, you either get rid of the stuff, don’t sell the house, or buy a storage container.
The storage container idea is attractive to many, even those that are not retiring and need somewhere to store their parents’ old stuff, or their children’s old toys. The reality is that the annual cost for just one self storage container is around $100 per month for the smallest size and up to $500 per month for the largest size. Per year that is between $1,200 and $6,000 for storage of goods you never actually use.
Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings have a word for these items that are rarely used, but from which they did not wish to part: mathoms. Our society has embraced the mathom, and embraced everything that accompanies the mathom, so much so that we spend money putting our mathoms away in storage containers that we never open.
Another option of course, is not to sell the house and keep expanding your collection. The detriments of this is that you could be living in a house that is too big for your needs just to store more stuff. The larger the home, the higher the property taxes, the more water used, the more air conditioning, etc. More stuff always compounds into higher costs.
Mental Effects of Clutter
Higher costs means higher stress. This is the first way in which clutter is bad for your mental health and is directly related to the financial situation of having too much stuff. If your monthly income is $3000 per month, and you have so much stuff that you’re spending $500 of that (or 16%) on storage, it’s going to be much more difficult to do the things you need to do such as feed your family, pay your mortgage or invest in your future. 16% suddenly becomes a lot when life is factored into the equation. Financial stress and debt plague many Americans, and clutter just exasperates that problem.
The other main contributor is physiological. DePaul University ran a study highlighting work related well-being and clutter in the office. The study highlighted how it’s been identified that home clutter reduces overall well-being and stress levels, and that clutter at work actually led to worse occupational outcomes leading to higher stress and emotional exhaustion. The more stuff you have the more stressed out you can become.
The negative effects of stress are numerous from not being able to sleep, to reduced happiness levels. Stress wreaks havoc on the human body. It can even have an effect on the immune system making it more difficult for your body to fight infection. While de-cluttering isn’t a cure all for stress, why have that stress added to your already stressful life?
Sentimental Value
The argument on the other side is always about sentimental value. I totally get that. In fact, I have a few things of sentimental value myself. There is nothing wrong with having pieces of sentimental value, but it’s important to not go over the top. You don’t need four tube TVs from the 1990s to help you remember the 1990s. Items with sentimental vlue remind us of people or times that we loved and that were good, but it’s an important exercise to ask yourself whether you’d forget that time if you didn’t have that thing.
My strategy for these is simple. Every year, I go through a couple of mathoms that I have lying around. The first time I did this, there were a ton more, most of which I’d forgotten where they came from. I examine each item, remember the memory and create two piles, “keep” and “discard.” If the item goes into the “discard” pile, I always take a picture of the item. My phone library is forever, and if I really wanted to remember that particular memory, I always have the image in my phone. If it goes into the “keep” pile, I re-examine that pile altogether, and discard anything that I realized is unnecessary.
At this point, I only have items that are necessary with a couple of exceptions. Nearly everything in my house, aside from a single bear beanie baby and some toy jets I got as a kid, has a purpose and a use after doing this exercise. Every year, things pile up of course, and then as a result, we discard and start over.
Eventually, I expect all of these items to be gone in the end. I don’t need an object to remind me of my grandfather, or a t-shirt to remind me of my first fencing tournament. I just have those memories in my heart, and there is no way they are leaving. Even if I had nothing but the clothes on my back, I’d still remember those things.
Reducing Clutter Leads to a Different Mindset
St. Francis of Asissi famously took off his clothes aside from his undershirt and threw them at his father in order to commit himself to Christ. He recognized that to truly be free, meant to untether himself to worldly possessions. He went so far as to joyously live out the ascetic life, even begging for the worst food and the worst garments. While his example is incredible, most of us have other responsibilities to our families and throwing off our garments isn’t an option. But that being said, there is nothing stopping us from trying to emulate him in the best way we can.
Wants vs Needs
This is the classic conversation of want vs need. We are all human, and there will be things we want, but it’s important to get into the mindset of examining those wants and desires every so often. A perfect example for me is video games. I have over 70 video games on my computer and probably 15 more for my PlayStation. My friends have a lot of these games, and it’s good to sit down and play with them sometimes, but when I play games, there are a few types of games I really enjoy. Why go on a spending spree purchasing games I’ll play only once? It’s the same with stuff. Why buy a dress you’ll only wear once, or an expensive suit you’ll only wear on occasion?
On the other hand, there are things that we need in life. Food, water, and some clothing are the first that come to mind and the most important in terms of physical necessities. Everything else for the most part from hobbies to decorations is a want. While wants are fine, we focus far too much on them, and not enough on the needs. The most important need is God, but behind that need is family, love, and human connection. While hobbies and decorations may bring you closer to these things, they are still desires facilitating a need. The stuff related to these wants must therefore be used only for utilitarian purposes. We have golf clubs to play golf because it would be hard to play golf without them.
Don’t buy things for the sake of buying them. When you are done with those things, or you need to upgrade because of changes in the game, or in your physical ability, don’t let them become mathoms. Give them away, or pass them on to someone else who is interested in trying your hobby. If you can’t find someone to give it away, sell it or throw it away. They are just material possessions and by themselves can never bring you joy or happiness.
What De-Cluttering Can Do for You
The ultimate purpose of reducing clutter is to help find some inner peace. By removing the physical clutter, you start to clear up the stress and the mental clutter. That begins you on a journey to true joy and happiness, doing the things you love with the people you love. The less stuff you have, the easier it is to let go, and the more you practice the skill, the better you will get, and the happier you will be.
In the end, it doesn’t matter anyway. Your old TV or your first iPhone have no purpose in this life or the next other than to cause you stress, so get rid of it. It doesn’t improve your life or anyone else’s. Throw them out the window and be free.