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Eliminating Clutter and Finding Balance in your Life

Updated on July 4, 2013

Stress and Clutter

When I find out that someone has a lots of stress its in life, I'm usually curious to see the place where that person lives. Do you find it hard to imagine someone living in a beautiful minimalist home experiencing a lot of stressful situations?

Being unbalanced is usually 'privilege' of people who have too much in their lives. It can be too much obligations and commitments, but also, stuff and junk. Why is that so?

Making Decisions

Top managers usually have great salaries, and this is not a coincidence. Making decisions, especially ones that can reflect on many lives is very responsible job and that's not something one can do easily.

So, if you don't have a habit of making decisions, it can reflect in so many stressful ways in different aspects of your life. Clutter is one example. We are having a lot of junk because we let it come in to our homes, and then we don't know when it's time to let it go. It's much easier to just let things pile up or store it 'out of sight, out of mind', than actually take a minute or two to think about it.

How often do you declutter?

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Reasons for Decluttering

This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't reflect to our life in so many bad ways. Let's see how clutter can hurt you.

1. Clutter is unhealthy. It disturb us subconsciously, and distract us from the things that really matter. Your brain shouldn't receive so many colorful objects at once. It's originally made to look at grass and sky, not every piece of useless decoration you put on your shelves.

2. Clutter takes your space, time and money. And these are resources that you probably need the most. I don't want to by new shelf just to be able to buy more books when there is a library out there. I'm not ready to spend money for buying it or time to dust it. Also, I don't want to pay higher rent because I have too much stuff and can't live in the smaller apartment.

3. Clutter complicates life. If I have to choose what to wear in the closet full of clothing, or have to take care not to break anything while trying to get glass from cluttered kitchen cabinet, it can reflect really badly on my morning routine, and therefore on the whole day.

4. The more you have, the more you want. This is the circle that you need to break for your own sanity. It doesn't matter how cool, modern, interesting and beautiful shiny things do you posses, next week or month, they will invent something newer and better. And you just can't buy everything!

5. The less you want, the less money issues you have. If you are currently feeling like you have to work harder and make more money than you do now because you want to buy so many things, it's time for decluttering. This may sound illogical, but here is why. If you declutter your home, you will see how many useless junk you already had, and this will make you cautious next time you wish something new. This will lead to less spending and more money saving.

6. Decluttering is a great if you have problems in decision making. Here, we are talking about stuff. And although it's not easy, it's not so hard to make decisions on stuff as it can be with some other areas of your life, so this can be a good opportunity to work on this skill.

7. Don't be selfish. It doesn't matter how much do you have, there is always somebody that has less. If your closets and cupboards are full, think about people that doesn't have a closet of cupboard, or home at all. If you have something to share, something that someone else can use more or better than you do, you should donate that item. Today.

Benefits of Having Less

So, how will this process of decluttering reflect on life of one person or a family?

First of all, you will have less to think about, less decisions to make, and less to clean. And this will reduce time you spent doing irrelevant things in your life. There are so many ways to spend that additional time. You can spend it with people you love, or work on your personal goals, or just rest and do nothing. In our busy lives, there is always something more important to do than to take care of our junk.

Second, this will make you want less, and realize how much you already have. Finding out that actually, our needs are satisfied, and ability to make difference between wish and need is very important skill. It will make you stop wishing something new that actually doesn't bring any additional quality in your life.

Third, this will help you find the peace. You can't feel relaxed in environment that is cluttered. And peace is one of the biggest gifts one can wish.

Also, you will do something that is good! You will donate some of your possessions to someone who is less lucky than you are. You will help saving the planet by consuming less. And you will say no to the consumerist society, that is always in pointless rush, to make more so it can spend more although there is no need for doing that. You will be an example to others around you, and they will maybe follow your lead.

And one more thing. When you start decluttering, you will find out that the more things you let go, the more things you want to let go. This will lead you to the home that has all you need, but nothing that is unnecessary. And this will lead you to the life that has other purpose than pointless consuming. So, you can enjoy everything you have, spending more time doing things that make you feel good, and, in other words, eventually, you will become happier person.

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