Clutterbugs: The Clutter Game
This is one of my favorite decluttering posts, so every so often, I take it out and dust it off for readers who might not have seen it before.
Let’s play a game. Let’s pretend that over the course of the next month, you have to actually use everything that is currently in your house. You have to wear every piece of clothing, eat off of every dish, use every towel and sheet, and read or watch every single book or movie!
That’s pretty ridiculous, isn’t it? But even if you stretched it out to a year, what percentage of your “stuff” do you think you would actually use?
I would think 50% would be a pretty generous estimate. If the statistics folks are right, it’s probably closer to 20%. That means that 50% to 80% of the stuff in your house is living there absolutely rent free, all year long!
Because when you think about it, that is how possessions earn their keep, by providing us with comfort and convenience and by serving some useful purpose. But if you’ve got a whole house full of “freeloaders” who aren’t pulling their weight, they are costing you money.
I would think 50% would be a pretty generous estimate. If the statistics folks are right, it’s probably closer to 20%. That means that 50% to 80% of the stuff in your house is living there absolutely rent free, all year long!
Because when you think about it, that is how possessions earn their keep, by providing us with comfort and convenience and by serving some useful purpose. But if you’ve got a whole house full of “freeloaders” who aren’t pulling their weight, they are costing you money.
You have to own and maintain a larger house with additional storage space for them. Some people even rent additional storage spaces because they’ve outgrown their houses. Shoot, if we only kept the stuff we "really" needed, we could probably live in a camper, but instead our houses just get larger and larger, along with the corresponding mortgage payments.
You have to buy boxes and baskets and bins to store it all away and keep it out of sight - I’m hoping you do, anyway. If not, then you have the emotional cost of having all this stuff lying around and taking away your peace of mind. And what is that worth?
You have to buy boxes and baskets and bins to store it all away and keep it out of sight - I’m hoping you do, anyway. If not, then you have the emotional cost of having all this stuff lying around and taking away your peace of mind. And what is that worth?
And how much time do you spend messing around with it? I just spent most of a whole weekend reorganizing all my pictures. That was OK with me because those pictures have a lot of meaning for me and now I won’t have to do that for probably another 5 years. But how often have you spent a whole Saturday or a whole weekend cleaning out the garage or doing the “stash and dash” for company? That’s a lot of time and effort this stuff is costing you.
Then there’s the energy drain. There are some things that really give you joy and bring back fond memories for you, but a lot of excess stuff just acts as a drain on your spirit and just makes you feel depressed and guilty for letting it pile up so much.
And what about the shame issue? You feel so embarrassed when someone drops by and your house is all messy from your” freeloaders” taking up every spare inch. I hate that one. You just want to sink into the carpet and die.
Not to mention the conflicts with your children, spouse, or mother! More than one marriage has ended because of conflicts over messy homes. Wow, I’ll bet you’re really looking at your freeloaders with new eyes, aren’t you?
Let’s do one more fun game. Mentally estimate what percentage of your house is filled with your freeloaders – everything from old broken toys, clothes that don’t fit, stuff hiding out in the garage, books you aren’t ever going to read, etc. Be honest about it. Now mentally pack it in boxes and stack it up in one (or two) rooms of your home. Estimate what percentage of your square footage that would represent.
Let’s say it’s 10%. If your house payment is $1500, you are paying $150 a month to keep all that clutter! If you’re not getting $150 worth of joy out of it, I suggest you start sending that stuff out into the world to go freeload off of someone else!
Not to mention the conflicts with your children, spouse, or mother! More than one marriage has ended because of conflicts over messy homes. Wow, I’ll bet you’re really looking at your freeloaders with new eyes, aren’t you?
Let’s do one more fun game. Mentally estimate what percentage of your house is filled with your freeloaders – everything from old broken toys, clothes that don’t fit, stuff hiding out in the garage, books you aren’t ever going to read, etc. Be honest about it. Now mentally pack it in boxes and stack it up in one (or two) rooms of your home. Estimate what percentage of your square footage that would represent.
Let’s say it’s 10%. If your house payment is $1500, you are paying $150 a month to keep all that clutter! If you’re not getting $150 worth of joy out of it, I suggest you start sending that stuff out into the world to go freeload off of someone else!
Be sure and come back next Monday for the next installment in my Clutterbugs series. To see the rest of the series, just click the Clutterbugs tag at the bottom of this post and it will bring up a list of them.
By TwitterButtons.com
5 comments:
Oh my god I don't even wanna no how much rent I am paying for all the freeloaders in my house! But seriously, thinking about it like that makes you realize how bad it's gotten and makes you want to take action!
I totally agree. But I can't talk my husband into letting me get rid of the books he used 30 years ago in college. Plus lots of other stuff he doesn't use. I could come up with more storage space in my house if I could just get my hands on my husband's stuff
but, but, but .... I need it all, really I do.
Who am I kidding, right!
Damn freeloaders.
It's a great way to think about your clutter when you factor the time thing in. How much time it would take you to listen to every CD you own, for instance. And I think it highlights a very human tendency. We all like to think we have much more time in a lifetime than we actually do, and we keep things for that time when we finally are going to get down to oil painting or surfing or whatever, which never actually materialises. When I find myself doing this, I ask myself which lifetime I'm saving it for, because I'm not going to have enough time in this one!
LOL, perfect timing girl! Love your blog look! Yeah, definitely have too much stuff.
hugs
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