Clutter vs. Your Health
Clutter: the ultimate dirty word in real estate.
The thought of a room overflowing with knickknacks & furniture or every inch of a wall covered in pictures in enough to send shivers down my spine.
Trying to sell a house that is overflowing is a feat in itself — usually resulting in a loss of thousands of dollars compared to similar non-cluttered homes.
But even when we aren’t selling, clutter has a tangible negative impact on our mental, spiritual & financial health.
How can all of these wonderful items cause such havoc in our lives?
And if they are such a leech on life, why are we keeping them around?
Our possessions are accumulated slowly over time & often we do not use them regularly yet the thought of letting them go pains us!
A book you’ve been meaning to get to — an outfit that will be perfect for an event one day — gifts from family or friends — each item may only take up a small physical space but the accumulated mass is enough to send us for an internal tailspin!
Because it happens gradually, piece by piece , we are often unaware of the impact until we start to lighten the load. As famous organization author Marie Kondo says in her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up …
Hold an object and if it does not fill you with joy, get rid of it.
If something does not serve an active purpose (cutlery, toilet paper, pens — even these can become clutter if you have too many of each!) or bring happiness to your soul, it’s time to sell or donate.
For many, the thought of getting rid of objects they have paid good money for is the equivalent of taking a twenty out of their wallet & burning it. Consumerism has been ingrained into our psyches – those born in the mid 70’s & all of those after have felt it since birth… Buy this and you will be happy, beautiful, loved, & desired . The catch is that you work to buy these non-essential items & are happy for a fleeting moment. Once that moment passes you now need to buy something else to get the same feeling.
It’s hard for most of us to initially embrace this negative spiral of consumerism but once you remove the veil it is almost impossible to unlearn. Those small choices today will add up to large savings in future purchases left on the shelf & the experience of lifting that weigh can be immensely cathartic.
Learning to find the happiness & joy in what we have allows us to embrace a life of true value…
Yes, set goals for where you want to be in the future but do not let a world of materialism determine what is truly valuable to you.
Some really worth while ideas…
TedTalk – The Case for Collaborative Consumption
Documentary (Netflix) – The True Cost
“Rise of collaborative consumption – this isn’t a short term trend but a powerful cultural and economic force reinventing not what we consume but how we consume.”
-Rachel Botsman
Keeping it genuine,
The Edwards Team
The Genuine Blog
