Getting Clutter Under Control

I have a lot of stuff-too much stuff from the looks of things around here. The books shelves are packed dangerously high and deep, and with a great deal more stuff than just books. Pictures and photos that range in dates from my parents’ childhood to the latest pics I got for Christmas from my brother and his wife and his two kids, looking way too cute. (It had to be photo-shopped, because they normally don’t look like cute like that!) But anyway, that is just a description of one of the many piles of stuff that festoons this place that I like to think of home, no matter how messy it is. It got me thinking though. When exactly is enough enough? When do you know when you have too much stuff? And on top of that what do you do with it when you realize it’s gotten to that level, and you actually have to do something about it? There are a few things I think are simple and easy signposts to recognize it’s time to downsize some of your stuff. Read on to learn more.

Taking a Good Look

If you clean and after you are done you still don’t have a lot of room to walk around, you might have too much stuff. If you find stuff that you haven’t seen in a few years and think I haven’t seen that in years! I was wondering what happened to that … regardless of what it is, you might have too much stuff. Take a look around and be really honest with yourself.

Decision Making Process

The hard part will be deciding what to keep and what to trash to gain control of the clutter. If your only problem is like mine, all those photos, garbage is usually the right decision. In the digital age there is almost no reason to keep photos like that. Old photos of Grandma as she came off of the Carpathia are another story entirely, but if you have questions about something and you aren’t sure you should keep it, that is a sign that it has outlived it’s usefulness, and that usually means the only correct answer is goodbye. If the furniture is worthless and beaten up and you can afford better stuff or it’s simply taking up space you want to use for something else, by all means, toss it.

Downsize

Now this is the hard part. You might really have to bite the bullet and get rid of stuff that you really love. Bite the bullet. Do it. If you do it fast it’ll be like a pulling a Band-Aid off of hairy skin. It will only sting for a second and then the pain is gone, especially if it’s something small like that clearly photo shopped pic of my brother’s kids. Trust me, they’ll take more pictures. They always take more pictures!

Storage

But what if it’s something that you can actually use, and know you will want for later? Like furniture or that insanely large collection of sports plaques that your husband simply can’t bear to part with? You could go with self-storage. For a fairly small fee depending on the size you want, you can safely store the stuff that you actually need but don’t have room for. For less than one hundred dollars, you can usually get a space large enough for most anything.