What motivates you to unclutter that you think isn't necessarily a common reason for other people? I think we all want that extra living space, to not be embarrassed to have friends over, and to breathe cleaner air. For me, one small (but also oh, so very big) reason is that in my new apartment, I'm avoiding opening the blinds because the windows are pretty hard to get to, and I don't want the neighbors to see all the boxes I haven't unpacked. This means that my little kitty (who is getting on in years) doesn't get as much sunshine as she could. She still climbs around the boxes to get to the windows and gets the open blinds in the bedroom, plus what gets through the horizontal blinds elsewhere allow when open just a little bit. I don't think she's unhappy, but it hurts me to think that I'm depriving her of the enjoyment of sprawling on a clean floor with fully open blinds and the sun blazing through. So part of this is for her and for the joy she brings me :)
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Sounds like a great reason to me, Scarlet - speaking as someone who has her own spoiled rotten fur-baby!
My reason breaks down into one simple mantra. "I will not turn into Grandma. I will not turn into Grandma. I will not turn into Grandma." One hoarder per family is enough!
Posted 1 year ago # -
i can relate, scarlet!
everything we do around here is with cat comfort in mind.my motivation isn't all that unique.
i strive for a simpler life and a feeling of lightness and easiness.
decluttering is one of the ways there.Posted 1 year ago # -
That's sweet, Scarlet. I know what you mean - I recently bought little cubes to help my elderly kitty reach and sit on her favorite windowsills. Cats look so perfectly happy in the sun, don't they?
Part of the reason for my uncluttering is I can get visually overstimulated. By that I mean that if an environment is too visually "busy" I find myself getting anxious, irritable, and I then get quickly tired and will often have a headache. Maybe all the things to look at are competing for my attention, and I have trouble focusing? It's perplexing, as I wouldn't say I'm easily distracted in general. I really don't understand what that's all about, but it's a quirk I've learned to work with. Bad allergies are another powerful uncluttering motivator for me, as the less clutter there is, the easier it is to keep things clean and my allergies under control.
Posted 1 year ago # -
We recently decided that we'd like to sell the house in 5 years and either buy a condo or rent an apartment. I now approach decluttering, potential purchases and property upkeep with our goal in mind.
Posted 1 year ago # -
One of the things that initially inspired my uncluttering was the desire to finish renovating the study on the second floor of my house. Right now I'm doing my music practice in the rather small office adjoining the large room, but it would be so nice to get the study finished.
Instead of a mess of boxes and furniture, I now have a vision of a music studio, meditation space, and lounge with green plants and a wide, cat-friendly window ledge. Yes, the furbabies drive my plans too...
Posted 1 year ago # -
My reasons are going to make me appear extremely insane, but I will share them anyway! Firstly, the mental attachment to my stuff bothers me. When I have less stuff I feel like I have a clearer mind. I realize that this probably sounds extremely obsessive.
The second reason is that when I have to dig through things to find what I need I get annoyed. The other day I opened the medicine cabinet and three things fell out and it annoyed me that there wasn't enough room for them. (Silly, I know!) I know someone who keeps their mop and bucket in their shower and everytime they need to shower they have to move that stuff out. The same thing with the oven - they store pots and pans in the oven and when I was helping them cook one day I turned on the oven and was met with a shriek of, "No! No! I have pots and potholders in there!" Stuff like that drives me crazy. I need space for things.
Lastly, I have issues with things "not getting used". I feel guilty if something is in my home and it never gets any use. Sometimes I will wear a shirt I hate to get use out of it, or listen to a CD I no longer like, just to use it. Now I get rid of these items and wear and listen to the things I love!
Posted 1 year ago # -
If you are insane, then so am I, tml. I initially decluttered for those same reasons, and more.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have the visual clutter = lack of focus thing too (I have ADD) and my son has ADHD and does MUCH better in a less visually cluttered environment - we actually made a minor change in his room (fabric cubes in his Expedit bookshelf instead of the stuff just sitting in the bookshelf) and it has helped our morning routine go much more smoothly.
My other motivation is that I would really like to downsize into a smaller house, so I'm trying to constantly reduce the amount of stuff we have in this house. We're concurrently doing a bunch of home improvement projects (renovating the kitchen, landscaping, painting) so once the market improves we can sell.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I, too, have issues with visual clutter (not that I like stuff packed away in my closets either though). Like @anitamojito stated, I think it's over-stimulating and I get distracted!
Posted 1 year ago # -
@ themusiclivez, JuliaJayne and Rosa: I think I've got some variant of ADD as well. In my case, it's a combination of visual and kinesthetic overload (Not only do I see clutter; I can "feel" it when it's too close) and it manifests as a kind of mental paralysis in which I don't want to do much of anything.
This might be because any time I do something, my environment is an integral part of the doing. I can't just read a book; I have to account for the chair, the lighting, and that little wooden elephant sitting in the periphery of my vision...
...Um, excuse me for just a second. (Banishes the elephant to a distant shelf)
Even a little bit of decluttering was enough to ease the pressure and literally give me room to think, and the more things got cleared away the better I felt, and the more I wanted to declutter.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Wasn't there a post here recently that addressed clutter affecting your ability to focus? Seems like a pretty normal thing to me!
Of course, ability to focus and ability to function in any way are different. I'm not sure which it is for me--I prefer to be in my bedroom, which is relatively uncluttered, but If I have to be in the living room (which is where the scanner is), I can usually zero in on the scanning pretty well and not be bothered by the rest too much. It's when I'm not focused on something that it all gets to me.
Thanks for all the responses so far... Very interesting to learn what people consider unique or not unique to them, too :) I think part of joining a community is learning that very little is new under the sun, and feeling better about your own problems as a result.
Oh, and I *love* how you described your cat, jbeany! Spoiled rotten fur-baby! I'll be saying that for weeks.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have two reasons, one, similar to everyone else is the clutter on surfaces thing. Drives me potty if I can't start something because there is no clear space. The other is that I WILL NOT allow my GF to turn into her mother and have stuff EVERYWHERE! I love my MIL but she has (lovingly, but firmly) forbidden me to touch anything on her kitchen surfaces (she thinks she can't find things after I have visited), and it makes me stressed when I go to her house. I will not let our house get into that state.
Posted 1 year ago # -
One of my new rules, now that I'm age 56 & rapidly approoaching 60, is that anything I own must be light-weight enough for me to move the item on my own, or with the assistance of my daughter. Any piece of furniture, other than a major appliance, that requires two or more strong healthy men to move needs to be replaced with something smaller. It's part of my down-sizing adventure.
I also have a 15 minute dusting rule. If it takes longer than 15 minutes to dust everything in the house, it's time to edit. I am down from 20 minutes,and that's progress.Posted 1 year ago # -
Well, I'd say my current reason for decluttering is unique. We happen to live in the area of the Morganza Spillway (where is it currently flooding). We were initially told that my home could get 5-10 ft. of water and we needed to get our stuff and get out. We were days away from actually seeing any water on our property, but were under an evacuation order. I donated a truck load of stuff to the local racetrack for the chaplain to give to the migrant workers and I threw away at least 25 of those 33 gallon garbage bags of Lord-knows-what. Well, we haven't seen any water yet and may not. (Thank you, Lord) All my furniture and appliances are out of the house, so I'm continuing the decluttering and doing super-duper spring cleaning. I have a roll of garbage bags ready to throw out even more stuff. (We were unable to get to the two sheds and still have stuff in the house.) I figure if I left it in the house when I thought I'd lose it, then it probably isn't that important anyway. We still have a chance of flooding from the backwater creeping up on us, but it shouldn't be much (fingers crossed). We are able to stay on our property for the time being, so we are living in our camper. I think about all the people who lost everything in these floods and recent tornadoes and realize how blessed I really am.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Felicia, I hope the flooding misses you!
I can relate to the visual clutter causing mental clutter. Our place is teeny and I while I love our location and high ceilings and quirky layout, having no space for things that we use frequently keeps my mind too busy. I am an organized type, but in such limitations the only way to not get overwhelmed with STUFF everywhere is to get rid of as much as we can. The trick is to do that and keep our quality of life the same.
Posted 1 year ago #
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