De-Clutter Your World

Photo by Sheilajross

As Easter is just around the corner, I am reminded about all the surplus junk that keeps on growing in the garage and this is the perfect time to clean out the mess and de-clutter. Interesting we are not alone according to a report by the Australian Institute entitled Stuff Happens: Unused Things Cluttering Up our Homes, 88 per cent of Australian homes has at least one room full of trash-slash-treasure. And also interesting is that four out of ten Australians find themselves feeling anxious, guilty or depressed about the amount of disorder in their homes sometimes going to extraordinary lengths to deal with it. Like moving house, adding rooms, even purchasing more stuff like storage containers to accommodate the things that were brought and never used. People who horde stuff everywhere in their home and in some chronic cases they have surrounded themselves with stuff that they only see the passage to the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. Amazing to even phantom such a state!

It is not just things that make this a modern phenomena, it also includes having the email inbox full, mobile phone message bank full, magazines/books piled up to be read ‘one day’ the 200th pair of must-have shoes in their box. Naturally all of these do have a sentimental value and we associate so much with our past. We risk that we shall forget the memory of it, if we discard it someway. Or that we shall need it one day and if we remove it then we risk having to purchase it again. And so we keep it, pay storage for it if we have to, because we have ‘things’. How many of you have a spare kitchen appliance that lies dormant in the garage or at the back of the kitchen cupboard? We do and I am determined to just get rid of it at the next council pick up and then I will feel lighter and feel that I have more space.
 
Also electronically I have a large inbox to manage and it does make me feel like being snowed under sometimes. So my challenge to myself is to keep this realistic and once a week to clean up my inbox and put into corresponding folders. Plus just delete old emails that date back to 2007!

Some research also indicates that hording is frequently associated with obsessive compulsive disorder. This explains why some people have the need to keep collecting things even though they really do not need it; ‘just in case’ scenario is the usual response they give.

There is no problem with holding onto stuff, the problem is when this stuff takes over and you are forever looking at getting more, storing more and not discarding any in the process, to make room for the new. This is when you run into trouble as your space gets more and more crowded. If you find that this is you, help is not far away, a life coach can help you get back on track and help you through transition and ensuring you feel safe and secure every step of the way.

Just imagine how your place will look when you have de-cluttered it will look much bigger and clearer, just like your mind.