Calming the Cacophony of Clutter

Clut-ter: To fill with scattered or disordered things that restrict movement or efficiency; a crowded or jumbled mass or accumulation; disorder. Personal comments may include: “I can’t find anything in here”, “I feel so overwhelmed . .. stuck . . . exhausted“ or “This place looks like a bomb went off”! If you’ve made similar comments about your surroundings, it may be time to clear out your space, clean up your act and cash in on your stuff.

When faced with the problem of stuff, it helps to understand your clutter style and maintain a sense of humor while eliminating it. In her book, “How to Conquer Clutter”, Stephanie Culp identifies four basic styles.

1. The Stuffer jams items behind closed doors while surfaces appear neat and tidy.

2. The Spreader is one who must view every piece of paper at once by laying them on all available surfaces.

3. The Procrastinator, sometimes known as the Perfectionist, delays jobs until just the right and perfect time, tools and circumstances are available.

4. And of course, the Pack Rat simply hoards everything, not only in their home, but in multiple storage units.

The Real Cost of Clutter

Clutter has a price that takes its toll on our wallet as well as draining our emotional well-being. One way to calculate the financial cost is by estimating what percentage of your home or office is controlled by unused, outdated, unwanted, no longer working items. Consider this: if your mortgage/rent is $1,800 per month and 10% of your space is used for clutter, that’s $180 a month paid towards junk! Add a storage unit payment of another $150 and you can easily spend nearly $4,000 a year just to hang on to stuff you don’t use.

Stephanie Denton, board member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), identifies other ways finances are drained. “Bills don’t get paid on time because they can’t be found. As a result, people incur late charges, which cost money. Or, a client purchases a new TV that’s covered under warranty, but can’t find the paperwork if it breaks down, and must pay the cost of repairing it.” Denton has even located cash and checks under mounds of paperwork while working with clients. One professional organizer found a valuable collection of baseball cards for her client worth thousands of dollars. Combing through the clutter may be more profitable than you imagined.

The energetic drain of clutter may appear subtle, and evaluating the cost is somewhat difficult, but its impact on our lives is very real. Whether we believe it or not, we maintain an energetic link to everything we own. That pile of papers at your desk and time searching for information in files, equates to wasted time and elevated frustration. The stuff you step over every morning in your closet starts the day with feeling slightly annoyed and overwhelmed. Parking your car outside because it won’t fit in the garage for all the clutter needlessly exposes it to the weather and more rapid deterioration. When we surround ourselves with too much stuff, there is some form of energetic weight being dragged around with us. The affects can result in feeling tired, stuck, bogged down, confused, or overwhelmed with life. Clearing out clutter frees up not only physical space in our home and office, it releases mental and emotional energy as well.

“Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris

The process of de-cluttering and organizing space can take on many forms. Don’t overwhelm yourself by intending to clear a whole room or the entire house at once, it will only add to the problem. Find the part of your home that is the most bothersome. You know, the place that immediately pops in your mind. Start with a small piece of that area—clear one dresser drawer, one shelf in the garage or one kitchen cabinet, and notice how it feels to complete that segment. You may be pleasantly surprised by how good you feel, which can be motivating to do one more segment.

To stay focused and avoid getting up and down, set up large cardboard boxes labeled CHARITY, RETURNS, and DUMP. The RETURNS are items that belong in another part of the room or house or belong to someone else. When sorting a kitchen cabinet assigned to dishes, and you find serving platters stored there, remove the platters and group them with other serving pieces. Children’s toys found in your dresser drawer should be placed in the RETURNS box and put in the child’s room when organizing is completed for the day. Put the CHARITY box in your car to be donated when you’re out running errands and empty the DUMP box into the garbage when you’re done—without looking back!

As you sort items, deciding what to keep and what to release, ask yourself, “Is this item useful and/or uplifting to me now?” Focusing on the value of an item now rather than whether it will come in handy at some future date, frees you to discard things in the ‘someday’ category. ‘Someday’ it will come back in style, ‘someday’ I might need this, ‘someday’ keeps your life cluttered!

The remaining items left in the drawer, cabinet or shelf being de-cluttered must then be brought to order. Group like items together, placing them in drawer dividers, racks, trays, etc. to maintain an organized space. Organizing tools can be found in a variety of stores and specialty organizing shops.

Finally, reward yourself when you’re done with a section. Instead of going out to purchase more stuff, have lunch with a friend, get a massage, facial or manicure, or go to the beach and relax. You earned it!

Maintaining a clutter-free environment is an ongoing process, requiring vigilant attention. That simply means to attend to minor piles before they become major mountains of junk. Once you’ve gained control of your surroundings, you will feel free to focus on more important things in your life.

Toni Lefler is an Organizer Extraordinaire, Staging Super Hero, Moving Magician, Makeover Master, and Feng Shui Sleuth. Services are available both on site and virtually. To learn more, visit www.ToniDezign.com and contact Toni at 828-294-8219 or ToniDezign@gmail.com