It's Your Mess, But Not All Your Fault

Clutter is the stuff in your life that you no longer use and love, or does not comfortably fit in your home. It does not contribute to your life's current productivity or meaning. It may have had value once, but not now.

Just like you need a home; your stuff needs a home, too. Easy access and knowing where things are reduces daily frustration. Constant frustration easily escalates to anxiety or anger, or another perfectly natural response, depression or lack of motivation. If you remove the blockages — the clutter — you can't help but feel better.

You can not always control life, but you can control your clutter. Clutter clearing interventions take effort. Learning new habits to prevent future clutter takes perseverance and patience. It's all doable — maybe not alone, but all doable. Getting clutter clear has a power affect on your entire life. You literally make space, making the room — in your environment and mind — for the life you do want to lead.

We all have clutter. It's just a matter of degree — and clarity. You can have clutter all around you or neatly packed away, taking up valuable space, leaving little room for what you currently use or love. A mess is not necessarily clutter because it may all be stuff that you use or love - now. It's just not put away. A collection becomes clutter when it is so densely packed on shelves that it is hard to find an object or see and enjoy the collection. Clutter becomes hoarding when an environment becomes physically unsafe because of all the stuff in it.

People frequently say, "I used to be organized." Often clutter is simply the result of the space not properly being set up for the unique activities and brain of the person(s) living in it. It's necessary to find the right fit between you and your environment if you want to be at your best — not just surviving, but thriving. It's amazing how much easier it is to stay organized when the clutter is out of your home.

Clutter is a natural by-product of changing life circumstances: births, deaths, marriages, divorces, multiple moves, and inheritances. Each transition requires certain things that others do not; each requires discrimination, the courage to choose what to keep and what to let go to make space more fluid for yourself and your things in your current life. Clearing clutter is not about being perfectly organized; it's about adapting to the demands — and joys — of life transitions so you can live with greater comfort and control.

Social and economic trends fuel our clutter craziness. One rarely acknowledged trend is the most significant: twenty-five years ago middle-class women began to work outside of the home. Without the free labor of women who have the time to care for the home, coupled with greater prosperity to accumulate, clutter became an epidemic in our wealthy, guilty, time-strapped society full of people yearning for meaning. The answer is not to put women back in the home full time. The answer is to learn new ways of being and living in the realities of today's world.

Clutter is part of a larger American phenomenon — overweight, overspent, overscheduled, and overstuffed. People resist the realities and constraints of an aging body, bank account, 24 hours in a day, and finite square footage. If you think you have clutter, you are not alone.

Most of us have clutter, and in most cases, there is nothing innately wrong with us. We all suffer with varying degrees of distraction in this fast-paced culture of technology, advertising, and multi-tasking. It's your clutter, but not all your fault. Each of us has to respect our unique needs, brain, and environment, and deal with our stuff. When you don't, you feel bad. Learning how to let go to make room for what you truly want is within your reach.

One way to feel better is to become clutter clear. Instead of finding fault in yourself or others, begin to pick up your clutter. One hour, one box, one drawer, one pile, or one closet at a time. It will change your life. If not, you will eventually become "clutter blind" or "clutter numb." It's your choice to stay stuck or get free.

It's OK to have a lot of stuff. Just make sure that it isn't blocking the flow of your home and frustrating you. Today, starting small, begin to toss, recycle, donate, sell, shred or fold. You will get tired sometimes, but you'll also gain momentum and motivation. Figure out what's really important to you and do some more tomorrow. Ask for help if need be. Pace yourself, don't push, and aim for ClutterClarity, making room for what you do love and use — now. Remember, it's your clutter, but not all your fault.

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It's Your Mess, But Not All Your Fault