Why Decluttering feels like a never ending task (and how you can stop feeling like this!)
I really enjoy reading Kristin’s writings over at The Frugal Girl. If you haven’t checked out her blog I highly recommend taking a look. She has so much wisdom delivered in a concise, thoughtful, approachable way. I have learned a lot from Kristin and one thing that has stayed with me for a long time is the article she wrote entitled: How much stuff should you own? The answer is simpler than you think.
In the article Kristin writes “The right amount of stuff = the amount you can fully and regularly use.”
So simple. So elegant. I love it.
Why do we always feel the need to declutter?
Surely it is not that our houses have become smaller or our families have become bigger. On average, houses are trending much bigger than they were even 70 years ago (with a slight trend downward in recent years but still nothing compared to the norm of 70 years ago) and family size steadily declining.
So we can safely turn our attention to the real underlying issue: the rate at which things are entering our homes.
The fact that we live in a global economy plays a big role. I think that the onset of fast fashion, cheap household goods and a culture of advertising and super-consumerism along with our country's overall wealth are key factors contributing to excess possessions and the overwhelm that comes with it.
Decluttering is a reactive process.
Our accumulation of possessions gets so much attention on the back end. Perhaps because we have culturally come to love the dramatic before and afters of a marathon decluttering session. That feeling of a clean slate is so alluring. It produces a high that can be addictive. And it also makes sense. One usually waits to declutter until it’s negatively impacting their life.
How can we be more proactive, rather than reactive?
You don’t have to wait until your house and life feel like their bursting at the seams. That is one way to be more proactive.
The other, more sustainable option is to slow down the rate at which things are entering our home. We thoughtfully consider what our true needs are and whether or not a product will address that need before it enters our home.
What if before you considered buying something or bringing something into your home and your life, you thought about the full life cycle of the item? Not just considering the purchase price but also time and money spent maintaining the item? Can you buy spare parts? Would it be worth the cost and effort to repair? How hard is it to clean? How frequently will it be used? Where will it be stored when it is not being used? How much of a hassle will it be to retrieve the item from storage? What happens when the item is no longer serving us? Can we pass it along? Will it be destined for a landfill?
I also think it is wise to ponder a purchase for quite some time. Depending on the item and the level of investment this can be a few days, or much longer. Slowing down the purchasing process helps things become clear and helps you feel confident about your purchase. And usually, unless its an emergency, you don’t need the item right away so you have at least a few days to consider if you really need or want the item.
Figuring out what you truly need, what will bring you happiness, what you will actually use, is a skill. It is an exercise in knowing yourself better.
The good news is I think you can get better at this if you want to. And when you practice consuming slowly and thoughtfully you get a better sense, intuitively, of what is worth bringing into your life and what is not.
So why aren’t more people talking about being proactive? Why don’t we talk about Clutter Prevention more than we talk about Decluttering?
First, while I would argue that the mental, emotional and physical work of Decluttering is much greater than Clutter Prevention, Clutter Prevention is a change in behavior, and making changes in behavior is hard. With decluttering, you are batching decision making into a session (deciding what to keep and what to discard all at one time). It’s more of an event, rather than a change in behavior (although I do think that decluttering, done with the right mindset can teach you a lot about yourself!)
Clutter Prevention involves a lot of tiny decisions that are happening every time you’re considering bringing something new to your home.
Second, the model of Clutter Prevention does nothing for the huge corporations making tons of money off of selling us cheap crap they have convinced us we need. They will stop at no end to shove advertising down our throats. And there is BIG money in advertising. A lot of people have a lot of incentive to sell you stuff and very little incentive to get you to buy less.
If you’re serious about Clutter Prevention, Here are a few ideas you can try:
Implementing a 24 hour waiting period to purchase anything that is not a consumable (food, paper goods, personal care, etc.) Implementing a longer waiting period for large purchases.
Reduce your exposure to advertising. Unsubscribe from catalogs and marketing emails. Limit your time spent watching commercials or on platforms with an abundance of marketing (Facebook, instagram, tik tok, YouTube).
Answering some of the following questions:
Can I borrow this instead?
Where am I going to store this?
How often will this get used?
And the truth is, even if you are good at Clutter Prevention, some level of decluttering will still need to be done. Our lives and our needs evolve. Things break or become obsolete. But the decluttering you do need to do will be so much more manageable because you have a lot less stuff to declutter.
Want to start preventing clutter but feel like you’re drowning in stuff? I truly believe clutter attracts clutter. The best way to start preventing clutter is to thoroughly declutter first. If you’re ready to declutter thoroughly and want an expert by your side, I’d love to help. Book a 90-minute decluttering session with me. Have a bigger project you want help with? Contact me for more info.
