Clearing Clutter from Your Life
Theories, Information and Resources
to Help You Gain Control of Your Home
Publisher, The Red Lotus Letter
Clutter happens. The problem is that it keeps happening and nothing much gets done about it. Why do we clutter? I have a couple of theories. Most of the clutter generation grew up putting Mickey Mantle baseball cards in their bicycle spokes to make them sound cool, or threw away precious collectibles because we thought "old" meant it wasn't valuable. Now we regret throwing away the precious hand-embroidered set of dinner napkins, our Madame Alexander dolls, and original Barbie dolls. So, now we save everything because we're afraid we'll lose out. That's Theory 1.
Shopping Fun
Theory 2 is that we have become recreational shoppers. Look at how many malls, outlets, and shopping venues have popped up all over the nation. We have a sick obsession with more -- of everything. This means that we are constantly adding to the pile of stuff we have in our homes. What's interesting to me is how much more stuff we have in our lives and how more people are on antidepressants than ever before.
What is it we are hoping that new sweater is going to do for us? We've bought into a "look" promoted in a magazine ad and believe that if we wear the same sweater the model is wearing, we'll be rich and famous, too. We need to buy for love, not for filling a void, which sadly, is what most of us do. There is never a single item that you can buy that can fulfill you as a human being. Only YOU can do that. Buy for need and love, not just the want impulse that too many of us don't exercise control over.
Warehouse Shopping
Theory 3 is bulk buying. We've also entered the mega-warehouse age. We used to buy what we needed. Now we buy what we need -- and what we think we might need in the future. A megamillionaire I know personally told me that what made his chain of restaurants so profitable was that all his money wasn't tied up in inventory. He only bought supplies on an as-needed basis.
He said the trap that many businesses fall into -- and now the average person falls into -- is the belief that you need to have an inventory of items on hand at all times, just in case. That's just not true. Look around...how much of your money is tied up in your "inventory" of the latest gadgets, clothing, knick knacks, and so forth?
We've also been trained to believe that buying in bulk makes sense financially. Oddly, nowadays the better buy is often in smaller quantities. The fact of the matter is we don't need a pallet of paper towels, we usually only need two rolls.
If we lived in a warehouse, then, yes, buying anything by the gross wouldn't be a problem. But, most of us live in normal sized houses and having an 18-roll pack of paper towels presents storage problems -- requiring us to be overstuffed and in search of the ever-widening house.
What's most interesting is about this megamillionaire was that his business theory applies to any average household. Too much money, time, hopes and wishes is tied up in all that stuff you're surrounded by. How much is invested in all your inventory? And if your house burned down today, would you have more money tied up in your "stuff" than you did in your house? If so, that's a lop-sided investment.
How to Get Control Over Your Clutter
If you're sick and tired of all the stuff you're surrounded by and coming home makes your feel empty instead of inspired, stuck instead of energized, depressed instead of uplifted, you need to get your clutter and stuff under control.
Here are some of my favorite tips for handling clutter that I follow myself
- Never miss an opportunity to throw something away
- Clutter happens every day...so should decluttering
- Allow yourself to take time to clear out clutter
- Handle one thing at a time
- Make this your motto: Don't put it down, put it away
Recommended Clutter Resources
These are some of my hands-down favorite clutter resources. I hope you will try them; I have and it's why I recommend them. You won't regret this purchase either, unlike that chartreuse sweater that's been hanging in the closet for over a year!
Fast Feng Shui author Stephanie Roberts has put together a wonderful and comprehensive program on clutter that hits at the heart of your feelings about clutter and your home. Her step by step program is a wonderful interactive program that is delivered online, so you can be reading the material and incorporating it in minutes. The program is delivered to you in six easy to digest parts -- making it manageable for most anyone. I highly recommend this program from this author.
This book is so simple and so streamlined and so the point with its comments about clutter. Author Karen Kingston even writes clean and uncluttered! This compact book gets to the roots of our obsession with stuff -- and what all that stuff means and says about us and our lives -- and even our prosperity. It enlightened me to say the least. This is one of those "foundation" type of books that no home can do without.
©2006 Kathryn Weber
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Kathryn Weber is the author of the ebook Applied Feng Shui and the Everydayclean.com Cleaning Calender, the calendar that helps you stay on top of cleaning all year long . For more information log on to http://tinyurl.com/g2yjy.
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