How does clutter affect your life? We can talk about the obvious, how it creates tension and resentment in your family, how it makes you feel deeply ashamed inside, or as Flylady says, it leaves you in a state of C.H.A.O.S. (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome).
My friend and fellow organizer from New Jersey, Ariane Benefit, (that really is her beautiful and fitting name!) has written words that are so true about the 10 ways excessive clutter leaches the life force from our lives, in her fabulous blog NeatLiving. Here's what she has to say: (My added comments are in red.)
Here are 10 ways excessive clutter can affect you and your life:
1. Family
- Clutter causes irritability, resentment and stress that leads to temper tantrums, outbursts, and overall disharmony (especially, if people are having to deal with "other people's clutter"
- You may start to feel like you aren't a good parent or aren't a good example for your kids
- Excessive clutter can cause depression, acting out, bad behavior in children due to their inability to focus caused by the clutter
In many families, the underlying power struggles are acted out in external clutter. When one person in the relationship does not feel "heard" or appreciated, or when someone feels they are the 'victim' of the other person's control, clutter happens as a symptom of unspoken and toxic feelings.
If you are dealing with your partner or spouse or children's clutter, please take a look at how you can be more kind or less constrictive or more appreciative in the relationship. If you feel you are the one who is being controlled, take a breath and find your way back to yourself. No one can control you without your express permission! It's time to get back into your own power. Why are you living in a way that sabotages your own happiness? Resentment hurts you more than the person you are resentful of. Think about that!
2. Relationships
- Causes conflicts often due to chronic lateness
- Can keep you from socializing because you don't have the energy or can't find clothes to go out
- Keeps you from getting close to people because you don't entertain or want to have people visit you in your home
What are you hiding from? What are you losing by being late or keeping people at arm's length? Can you get your need for alone time met in a more effective way, so that you don't have to live in disarray?
We are all deeply affected by our surroundings, ask yourself, what are your surroundings telling you? (see the previous post on this topic)
3. Loss of Self-Esteem
- Causes you to feel like you aren't capable or are missing some basic skill that everyone else "seems" to have so you feel bad about yourself - the truth is you are not alone, many people have issues dealing with clutter
4. Emotionally
- Excessive clutter often cause feelings of shame, guilt, anger and embarrassment that holds you back
- Clutter drains your energy - and you don't realize it till it's gone. Every item in your home has an energy to it. When items go a long time unused, unloved and uncared for, they become stuck, stagnant energy that actually physically drains you of your energy.
How true! Have you ever noticed that when you clean out a drawer or your closet, the next time you walk in the room it actually feels lighter, even though you can't even see what you decluttered? That's because everything around us has an energetic weight to it, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. When we rid ourselves of the things that no longer serve us, we are literally lightening ourselves up! Check it out. Try organizing just one drawer, in your kitchen, bathroom or office and let me know what happens...(you can comment at the end of this posting)
5. Physical Health & Stress
- The stress caused by clutter is enormous. Every time you can't find something, or an argument flares up with a loved one, or you can't relax because you worry about all the things you need to do, but can't till you get the clutter cleared, your stress levels increase. Stress in turn, lowers your immunity and resistance and so you may have frequent, persistent colds.
- Clutter can make it more difficult to eat healthy, headaches, fatigue, sinus problems and allergies and more.
6. Mental Health
- Clutter decreases your ability to enjoy life. It causes stress, confusion, inability to focus, and often leads to depression.
- Even in people who don't have ADD, clutter causes ADD like symptoms.
- Sometimes clutter is initially caused by depression, but clutter also makes it nearly impossible to recover from depression.
- In my experience, once people start releasing their clutter, their energy comes back and the depression gets better, sometimes it goes away for good. Some people are extremely sensitive to their environments and just never realized what a difference it could make.
Clutter causes stress and it can also be a symptom of stress.
In either case, be kind to your sweet self and ask for help. Whether it's by calling a neighbor or a friend to sit by you while you declutter, or by hiring someone to work closely with you, do something wonderful to change your life. That's when the magic really happens!
The phone does not weigh a ton!
On the West Coast, call me (Jessica) for organizing help: 310-455-0627
On the East Coast, call Ariane for organizing help: 9 7 3 • 4 2 9 • 2 1 0 0
7. Safety & Hygiene
- In extreme clutter, people have a hard time walking without tripping or bumping into things
- Often there are things hidden in the clutter that are very unsafe for children. I've seen some cases where a young child is pretty much confined to a playpen all the time because it just isn't safe to be out of the playpen.
- Inability to clean cluttered areas can lead to extreme dust and even mold and mildew that exacerbates and even causes health problems in yourself and your children
8. Time
- Simply having too much stuff eats up your time like crazy. Every thing you own requires some amount of care and organization.
- If you have too much stuff, it's much more difficult, time consuming, and expensive to get organized.
- Having too much stuff often leads to procrastination and lateness which wastes your and other people's time and causes a whole host of other problems.
- Not being able to find things is a huge time cost of clutter. For some people it wastes several hours every day.
Even just 5 minutes a day of time wasted dealing with clutter adds up to over 30 hours a year!!
9. Your Future
- Holding on to clutter often grounds you in the past at the cost of your present life and your future.
- Clutter distracts you from being able to think about your goals, projects, hobbies and get things done
I can't agree with Ariane more! I have heard every excuse in the book about why people need to keep things, even broken things, because of the emotional charge. Here's a simple trick to "decharge" something you feel attached to:
Hold the item in your hand, feeling every bit of the sentimental and emotional connection you have to it. Really feel what it would be like to let that item go. Would you feel sad? Lost? Angry? Resentful?
Next breathe...breathe in the memories, feelings, connection, attachment, breathe it all into your body, breathe every single bit of it out of the item, leave nothing of you or your feelings in that object.
Now, look at it. It's just a broken shotglass, or an ugly afghan, or a piece of paper that no longer has meaning, you have taken all the meaning back into yourself, where it belongs. That is true power.
10. Financial
- Things have to have homes. Whether the home you provide for things is an extra room, a piece of furniture, or a container, you continue to pay for things long after you initially acquire them.
- Clutter directly costs money in the following ways:
- Late fees for bills paid late
- Credit card debt - often for unused stuff
- Duplicates purchased because you can't find things
- Some people move to larger home to accommodate the stuff
- Renting storage facilities
- Clutter affects people's careers. Studies have shown that people with cluttered desks and offices are less likely to be promoted. This of course affects how much money you can make.
Remember, different people have different ways of processing information. Some of you are filers and have no problem putting things away in files at the end of the day. Others, like myself, need things to be out in the open where I can see them, or I forget all about them. I NEED the visual cues to jog my memory that things need to be done. If you are at an office where neatness counts, try taking the 5 day office challenge and see what happens!
If I've learned one thing in all my years of organizing others, it's that there are no ideal solutions that work for everyone.
If you find yourself surrounded by clutter and that situation no longer works for you, the first step you can take is to evaluate which way you think, and then create systems that actually work for you. (No, entropy doesn't count as a system!). It may take time, but if you have any questions that I can answer, please type them in the comment box. I love nothing more than hearing from you!
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((¸¸.·´ ..·´ Jessica -:¦:-
