My son is mobile now, and very curious. I've got to make sure it's safe for him. The less clutter there is, the less likely he is to get into something that he shouldn't.
It's also nice to be able to spend more time playing, and less time trying to clean a cluttered apartment.
I have a number of reasons to Unclutter. First, as a student and someone hoping to go into International Affairs I move a lot and this likely won't change for the next few years after graduation. Now that I finally have my own apartment and everything out of my mother's house, I'm trying to pare down before May so I don't have to go through the trauma of moving it all again.
Also my family has definite packrat tendencies that I see in myself so I'm trying to nip it in the bud head on. I don't want to end up like my grandmother, with a basement the size of my current apartment full of boxes and boxes of... stuff. It's packed floor to ceiling and I have no idea what's in there.
I am a packrat and a stacker. I am also disabled and don't have much energy to go through the day, so being organised and decluttering is pretty essential. My goal right now is to half most of my possessions. The more compact i can make my life, the less energy i waste on looking for and getting things and the more i have to use on stuff i enjoy doing.
It makes cleaning easier and makes my home feel very peaceful! Right now, my entire apartment is almost entirely uncluttered. It is so nice to come home to a neat, clean house. And when it gets messy, it is very quick to pick up because everything has a home!
My fiance and I are house-hunting. I have been for a few months now an avid unclutterer, but now I'm trying to get rid of everything that won't belong in my new house. I have been, all of my life, a sloppy packrat, but ever since I started uncluttering like crazy I've been happier and less embarrassed. I have a bedroom floor! And a garage!
I'm slowly getting uncluttered. It's a difficult process for me because I have a horrible habit of procrastinating. If I could break that habit, I bet I could unclutter everything a lot faster. I'm also a pack-rat, and I never want to let anything go because I'm worried that I'll miss it. When I grew up my parents always had old electronics that I thought were cool and I think that's another reason why I keep a lot of the stuff that I do; so I can have something for my kids to look back on (once I have kids). I also live with my brother and his girlfriend so it's difficult to unclutter everything when they don't make an effort to keep their stuff uncluttered. Once I get a place of my own and break those habits, I think I'll be able to get my life uncluttered.
For me, it's the ability to pursue my passions. If something gets in the way, I'm agitated, stressed, and overwhelmed. Clutter can't be in the equation. I spent too many years worrying about stuff, and it was all for nothing. Now I work at being uncluttered (and yes, it is still work for me) so that I can be distraction free.
I'm just way to unorganized. At the moment I'm a student and still live at my parents place, so I guess since there is always my mother who cleans up after me I never felt like I had a big motivation to unclutter and my father is the perfect example of why you should unclutter, he keeps every thing that he "might need some day" and I just try to get my head above this before I move out and have my own place which is as clutterd as my parents one.
I will be working from home in about a week and I have to get organized, fast! I have limited space, lots of craft projects and a 4-year old, so it is quite a challenge. Now there is a time frame involved and I have to get serious about it fast.
I want a simple life. My home is clean, neat and organized but I have too much stuff. I don't think I could be a minimalist, but I believe less is more. I want to let go of more stuff and sometimes it is hard. But after it's gone, I feel better.
I identify with what Erin said in her post above - I get incredibly stressed and overwhelmed when things are in a mess and then something unexpected happens.
Example - we both fell really ill this week and needed to take our temperatures in case it was swine flu. I had to search for a good half hour (all the while feeling really ill) before I could find the thermometer, which wasn't where it should have been in the medical box. Pointless stress - there was a place for that thermometer, but it wasn't in it :)
Another example - I was already starting to feel ill last Friday at work, and didn't leave my desk organised. I was really sick on Monday and couldn't teach my classes, and my colleagues had to ransack my office to find the stuff I had prepared. Unnecessary stress and hassle for them, unnecessary embarrassment for me. It would only have taken me an extra two minutes to file my stuff last Friday, and we all would have been saved the hassle this week. Lesson learned!
So, for me, decluttering is about sanity and good functioning!
I have spent the last 2 years de-cluttering and simplifying our home and lives. I did one round of simplifying and when I started looking at my things more critically, I realized that the first go-around was really the tip of the iceberg.
It all started rather unspiritually Halloween of '07. I was schlepping to the door for trick or treaters. I was embarrassed at the state of my house and thinking about Christmas and it all just came to a head internally.
The thought occurred to me – - I live in a darling little victorian house that could be the epitome of home and warmth, but it feels cramped and messy. And I knew Christmas would be here before we know it and that will mean *more* decor and clutter. Talk about missing the point and skipping the whole peace and reason for the season.
So I decided that night to start the next day removing as much clutter and reorganize so that in a few weeks when the Christmas season hit, I was going to enjoy my little house and cramming it full of people and things I really loved.
I worked my TAIL off and it made a huge difference in our Christmas and in my mental clutter. I started to look for things that had meaning in my stash of Christmas decor and somewhere along the process, I started to see *all* my things in a new way….I wanted to be surrounded by things I love and not by stuff I should keep. I re-thought what I wanted our living spaces to be like and how they could serve our family better. For example…while a rocking chair emotes a feeling of warmth and comfort, how practical is it when my wrestling little boy gets it in the head and floor space is at a premium?
And in the 10 months since, I have kept at it…paring down our entire house- – basement to bathroom – -every drawer and corner. I’ve taken countless overflowing carfuls of possessions to the thrift store and there isn’t a single thing I wish I’d kept. That concept has been sobering to me say the least…I had *that* much stuff that was “out of sight out of mind”. Oy…no wonder we’re consider the “haves” of the world. And I’m still finding things weekly that I can purge.
To me, this isn’t about if I have 100 things or 1000. It’s about living on the least I can. It’s about spending less time thinking about stuff and more time loving people. It’s about living in the present and not being caught up in the past or waiting for the future. It’s about seeing everything I have as a huge blessing.
Am I down to the bare minimum? Probably not, but I’m getting there. And with 2 kids in school and the school being a total paper whore, it'll always be a battle. But I feel like I’ve discovered a new way of living that involves real thought and priorities and creativity. I ask myself questions now when dealing with my things…Will I really use this thing (and not just in theory!)? Is it in the most sensible place for it? Would it mean more to someone I love to have it? And most importantly “Just because I CAN buy something, does it mean I have to”?
And this desire for simplicity has spilled over to how I spend my money and my time too.
I watch home videos now and can't believe the difference in my house from when my kids were small. Dang it, I LIKE the look of empty counter space I have now! :)
For me it’s an obedience thing. I have been given by God a huge heart for the less fortunate of the world. So how can I possibly justify being excessive and wasteful if I care about the poor and the injustice in the world?
And my Dh and I love to travel and hope to eventually turn this passion into living overseas. So I see it as less to do when that move becomes possible for us.
So forgive my long-windedness, but those are my reasons.
We're uncluttering for many reasons. Moving out of a house we'd lived in for only 6 years was shocking when I saw how many things we had accumulated. Having sold our house much more quickly than expected, I felt burdened by the amount of stuff I had to clear out quickly. We were in transition for several months and it was liberating in some ways to be reminded how little we actually needed. It was also exhausting to tote everything.
Unrelated to the move, we had one major hurricane evacutation and a direct hit from hurricane Ike within three years. We've been forced to think "OK, if the house damaged, what do we absolutely need?" The move and the hurricanes gave me new perspective on my posessions.
Now with two kids, the cycle of things in, things out accelerates as clothing and toys are outgrown. I also need things to be safe for my toddlers.
My husband works from home and needs an uncluttered work environment. I have a desk in his office that became the official dumping ground of anything he didn't want to see out anywhere else, certainly not on his desk! I am in the process of digging out and am almost to the maintenance only stage.
We've enjoyed being able to pass on our kids outgrown items to others who need them, and have made some money getting rid of some unwanted things as well.
We are in our first house and it's only 955 square feet for my wife, me, the dog and 2 cats. When we first moved in, we had a LOT of stuff. It feels so good to downsize our belongings to match our living space.
We had a yard sale over the summer and that gave us $400 for vacation. We even donated everything that didn't sell at the yard sale. We love boxing up stuff to take to the consignment clothing store. Trash pickup is successful for the week if we have a lot of old, dirty and/or broken things to throw out.
Since we've been getting rid of the extra stuff it has become so much easier to clean the house and put away stuff that's laying out.
Three moves in three years. At the first move, there wasn't even enough room to even begin to pack boxes. I thought I was ruthless but I still felt burdened by all my stuff. The second move was into a smaller place so more had to go. This time I had room to pack and decluttered as I went. For the third move, I downsized all my stuff, except kitchen, clothes and bathroom, to fit into a single cabinet and the top shelf of a wardrobe. I said goodbye to a lot of books and things I had been holding on to "just in case". I knew where everything would go before I unpacked and had everything put away very quickly - except one box of filing, papers, etc. This darn box has me set in a state of inertia. I know I have to stop procrastinating and just get the stuff filed, but I am a world-class procrastinator and it sits there mocking me.
7 moves in 7 years. My ex-boyfriend and I lived in a 2300 square foot house, just the 2 of us, with a 2 car garage. The house was PACKED, and we couldn't park in the garage. 16 6foot bookshelves full of books, and he had obscene amounts of gaming stuff, like little miniatures and such. When I moved out last May I left most of the books for him and took only the ones I can't live without. I've since gotten rid of more books, and more will go soon. I did a lot of uncluttering before I moved. Every few weeks I walk through my 1000 square foot apartment looking for more stuff to get rid of. My new bf moved in, but thankfully didn't have too much stuff. I made him go through his clothes (why keep it if you don't wear it or it doesn't fit?) the other week. I need to go through mine yet again and pare down.
I feel so much better when the apt is clean and uncluttered. My desk is usually free of stuff. Just have a few final points to clear out. Clothes, books, junk closet, storage closet (camping stuff and xmas stuff) Then I feel like I'll be fairly clutter free.
Great stories!
Zchristy, I loved your story. It wasn't long-winded; it was a pleasure to read.
I live in a ~450 sq.ft apartment, I have two kittens and I'm not home very much (thankfully my boyfriend helps me take care of the kittens!). Regular uncluttering keeps my apartment from being overstuffed, keeps the cats from potentially getting hurt by anything left out by mistake (e.g. no glasses on the edge of the table, no knives on counters etc), and makes the time I spend at home more serene by letting me focus more on relaxing and less on cleaning.
At work, it's a necessity. I work on 3 different programs, one of which requires me to deal with about 100 or so files a month (which have to all be on my desk for the duration of the month), and constant incoming correspondance that needs to be dealt with on a daily basis. Without a system to manage all of it, I probably wouldn't be able to find an inch of free space on my desk.
Also: I hate being "enclosed" (by walls, shelves at eye level, piles of stuff etc), and love wide open spaces. So the more I get stuff out of the way, and the wider my perspective, the better.
I just can't stand having so much "stuff". The house is easier to clean and pleasant on the eye when things are not lying around. I feel less stressed too.
zchristy - loved your story and reasons for uncluttering, especially how materially rich we are.
We're moving in a month - removalists turn up on 18 Dec! - finding somewhere big enough to fit us and our stuff last time (3 years ago) was bad enough. I'd rather pack less boxes this time around. (Or rather, not have to call in someone else to pack this time around.)
There's no guarantee of finding somewhere decent that can take all our current stuff (plus a few things left at the in-laws last time) so I'm trying to get rid of anything I haven't used in last 5 years (or even less) or am unlikely to use in the next year or two.
I once had a real estate agent tell me that the way to reduce your "stuff" was to move every 5 years. At the time I thought he was mad because we would get to near the move date and end up boxing it all because we didn't have time to cull and sort. This time I'm starting earlier.
I'm also trying to unclutter to make room for the hobbies I <i>do</i> still do.
I'm trying to reduce my number of collections, particularly of things that have no practical purpose for me. Years ago I ditched the stamp collection; 4 or 5 years ago I ditched the bottle collection (or most of) and this time I'm ditching the key-ring collection (expect for a few quirky items). I'll take some photos of things before I hand it over to a good friend who still collects them.
And it's always good to ditch something you acquired in your more pretentious phases (e.g. the leather look "classic" books that if you really wanted to read them, you'd get them out of a public library). It brings your stuff more into line with the real you.
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