We live in an era of mass online commerce and special offers, so as a consumer it is incredibly easy to accumulate possessions that we just do not really need in our everyday lives. With that comes a need to have space to store all this “stuff” that we were tempted to buy but never use (also known as “clutter” – defined as ‘a confusing, or disorderly, state or collection, and possible symptom of compulsive hoarding”).

Before you know it, a lot of people become quite discouraged the moment they realize that a lot of their frustrations can be linked to the fact that they have too much clutter. Regardless of whether it is physical, mental, emotional, psychological challenges, clutter tends to get the better of us.

Most of us are aware that they just have too many possessions piling up, but the tendency is to bury our heads in the sand and we never get around to clearing the clutter in our lives.

So in this post you will come to understand the importance of decluttering. Here are quick ways to declutter your lives without feeling overwhelmed.

What are the signs of having too much clutter?

The clutter effect can actually adversely affect your ability of think clearly  and can also increase the effect of mental stress.

Primarily, if you are always find:

• that you always feel like you need more possessions

• that you worry about losing it all

• that you equate possession with happiness

• that you find it difficult to find mental or physical space

• that you place undue importance upon the price of something rather than its usefulness

• that buying something new gives you a sense of euphoria – but the feeling goes way quickly

…then it is likely that you have a clutter problem (or will soon)

So what can you do about clutter?

So assuming that you have overcome the first hurdle and understand that you have a clutter problem. It’s time to take practical steps to deal with it –and that means figuring out what is truly important to you – and that needs a quick audit.

This means that you makes a list - on the one side the things that you really need (your “values” list), and on the other side, the things that you have acquired (‘your possessions list). Try to link everything you have to your values list to your possessions list, and if you get stuck, think about how those possessions help you achieve these goals.

As an example, in your values list, you might conclude

a) that you need a car for your family of four’s transportation

b) that your house roof needs replacing

In your possession list you see that in fact

a) you have 3 cars but only 2 people only really need to drive

b) you do not have the materials needed for your roof replacement

Only 2 possessions are needed help you achieve your family transportation goal – so why have the third car at all?

The third car is unnecessary possession clutter that does not advance your value of family transportation because you hardly use it. So in this case, sell the third car and use the money for something else that helps you to fulfill another value – why not replace the roof?

At the same time, you’ll lose all the clutter in your mind worrying about maintaining third car, its insurance and expenses - and also the worry that at some time your house rook might leak.

While you are having the roof repair done, your roofers will probably dispose of the old roofing materials in a dumpster from a reputable company like Eagle Dumpster Rental, so take the opportunity to undertake some more home improvement and declutter your house of old furniture and long-lost-long-forgotten items sitting in the attic or garage.

Once you focus on what you really need and what you and your family are in terms of your goals and the way you want to live your life, taking steps to eliminating clutter your lives of unnecessary possessions will help ease your worries, help you to find clarity and keep your moving more easily towards your life goals.

By Jim Mckenzie