Your Clutter Is Just Garbage!

Decluttering your home can feel overwhelming. You spend all that time looking through your belongings and making decision after decision about what stays and what goes until you feel mentally exhausted. Decision fatigue is real! But then, after all of that, you have to make more decisions and do a ton more work to get rid of it all. This can feel so overwhelming that many people start to declutter and then burn out before they finish. Did you know it doesn't have to be that way? Did you know that it is better to throw your clutter into the trash than to live in a cluttered home?

Why We Don't Want Clutter

Clutter makes everyday life less pleasant in many ways. Let me list just a few of the top reasons.

1. Clutter can hurt us. Think of slips, trips, and falls, as well as dust and mold (it's difficult to clean cluttered areas).

2. It makes life more complicated. Where did that library book go? What do you have to move out of the way to cook dinner? Why don't my clothes fit in my closet?

3. Clutter is expensive. Have you ever repurchased something you already own just because you didn't know where to find it? Not to mention the cost of storage facilities for the clutter that no longer fits in your house.

4. Clutter stresses out the brain, causing elevated cortisol levels. We need less stress, not more.

5. The brain is overwhelmed by clutter, causing anxiety and an inability to focus.

6. Also, for many, clutter is an embarrassment that can affect our social lives because we are unwilling to invite friends over.

Watch Me Talk About It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABdnipVYtqA

Your Clutter Is Not a Cat

This is a quote from one of my favorite YouTubers, Cas from Clutterbug: "Your clutter is not a cat; you do not NEED to rehome it." We want to be good stewards of the earth. We don't want to add to landfills. We want our belongings to go to the perfect place, where we know the perfect people will benefit from them. However, it's just stuff...why do we care so much? For many of us, it feels wasteful to just toss something we aren't using, so we hold on to it. We store it just in case, because we don't want to be wasteful.

Storing Vs. Using

Obviously (I think), storing things is not the same as using things. Items were manufactured to be used or otherwise enjoyed. If an item is sitting in a closet, ignored on a shelf, or tucked behind other items in the basement, then it was manufactured for no good reason. And you know what that is? It's wasteful.

All Items Will Eventually End Up In The Landfill

Either now or in 20 years, most of the items in our homes will end up in the landfill. If you aren't actively using or enjoying your items, your home is effectively a landfill.

And if throwing perfectly good items into the trash makes you feel icky, maybe that will help prevent you from buying items you don't need in the future.

The Point

If you are wondering what point I am trying to make here, it is this:

1. It would be awesome if you could find the perfect donation spot for your decluttered items, but...

2. Sometimes the local Goodwill is good enough. And...

3. If you don't have the time, energy, or ability, you're welcome to throw the items into a garbage bag and put them in the trash. If this makes you gasp in horror, I'm sorry. But holding onto things doesn't make it any less wasteful.

Your house is not a landfill. Storing is not the same as using. If you don't have the time or ability to get it into someone else's hands, just let it go...it will end up in the landfill eventually anyway. Learn from it and think twice before buying stuff you don't need in the future. Your clutter is not a cat; you do not need to rehome it.

The Lesson

Of course, it would be great if we could find someone who could use our unwanted stuff. However, it takes a lot of work to transport it to a donation center. It can be overwhelming to list it for free on FB Marketplace, and maybe you don't want strangers showing up at your house to get it. Not everyone lives in an area where stuff left on the curb will get picked up by someone. If you can't give it away, just toss it. Let it go. Get it out of your house.

And if you are paying for a storage unit for items you never use, what are you doing?

Repeat After Me

MY HOME IS MY SANTUARY. I DESERVE A HOME THAT IS CLUTTER-FREE, PEACEFUL, AND EASY TO MAINTAIN.

The end.

Love,

Tracy