When I work with my clients who need help decluttering they often get stuck. While we are sorting and making decisions they say things like, “I may need that someday. I’ll keep it.” or they say, “That’s useful I can’t just throw it away.” or they say, “That might fit again. I’ll keep it just in case.” They become frustrated because they want to declutter but they end up having a difficult time doing just that. They ask me for strategies to help them stop the madness and mental tug of war they often experience.
This is mental clutter at it’s finest. Mental clutter is a difficult topic because we don’t realize what “the stuff” is doing to us. It’s death by a thousand cuts. It doesn’t only pile up physically it piles up mentally. We continuously stumble over, push aside, move around, tuck in the back these things “we might use one day.” As a result, we are exhausted, stressed, overwhelmed, depressed, and feel guilty.
Clutter mentally robs us of more important things. We don’t have friends over because our house is too messy. There is no going out because we need to stay home and clean. We don’t have money to do the things we love but we have a house full of stuff we don’t use. Imagine if you had less to worry about.
When things are put in the “I might need it someday” category my response is always the same. Living for later will cost you. You will pay 10 times over (monetarily and mentally) to store the items, to move the items (over and over again), to walk around them each day, and to feel the mental drain. What is your mental health worth?
We don’t live in a time when things are scarce or hard to get. We can have everything we need delivered to our door! Additionally, tomorrow our tastes will change, our needs will change and the items will no longer serve the purpose they do today. Today it’s difficult to know what tomorrow will look like.
This isn’t to say you may determine later that you need an item you tossed. You may make a few mistakes. But you will find alternatives or something you have that will suffice. You are resourceful and creative and always land on your feet.
So the message is to live for today, not tomorrow. We don’t know what tomorrow brings.
