What does impulsive behavior have to do with clutter?

Clutter can be anything. It can be a relationship and it can be stuff. One thing that is true in the world of clutter is that we aren’t innocent bystanders. There are a multitude of factors that contribute to our clutter. Let’s focus on impulsivity.  For someone suffering with impulsive behavior, clutter is a byproduct. 

Let’s look at some ways that impulsivity can contribute to clutter. 

Spending more that you can afford. Accumulation of stuff because it’s on sale or because you deserve it leads to clutter. Buying without thinking it through can certainly see people end up with more items than they actually have room for or need. 

Strategy to overcome: interrupt the process. Take a moment. This is the pause between acting and not acting. Write down the consequences of your action on a note card or in your phone. When ready to act, pull out the note to remind yourself of what this...

Downsizing is a term that most of us associate with getting older.  A concept that crosses across all ages is rightsizing. What is rightsizing? Rightsizing is a process in which your priorities in life align with where you live and how you spend your day to day life. As I work with my organizing clients, rightsizing has become a core of our process. 

Coordination: This process involves all areas of your life. You can start by asking yourself a few simple questions.

1. What are my priorities in life?
2. Is my day to day life in line with my priorities?
3. What do I need to remove/add from my life to be right sized in my thoughts, actions and living space?

I would add that taking the time to honestly sit with these questions is the secret to finding your right sized life. I highly recommend taking the time to pray with these questions and answers to get the best answer!

It might surprise you to know the answers you have today may not be the same in 5 years! I would venture to guess...

We can store clutter in many places. Let’s talk about one of the biggest places people store clutter,  paid storage spaces. Storage spaces are not new, they have been around since 1964 as we know them to be. Do you know when the very first storage space in the United States originated? The Bekins family who owned a moving company that had steel warehouses opened the first storage facility in 1906. In fact, Bekins moving is still around today.

Here are some interesting statistics about storage facilities:

• there are over 50,000 self storage facilities in the U.S.
• Average storage unit size is 90 sq ft
• 1 in 10 people use self storage in the U.S.
• 38 BILLION dollar industry
• The average cost of a storage space is $91.14 according to com
• Since 2012 there has been annual growth of 7.7%
• Storage spaces are rented on average 10 or more years

From my perspective as a Professional Organizer I see storage spaces as a contributor to clutter. Let’s think about how many times a...

While I know that no one is perfect, I can certainly tell you that in my home, I was the chaos. I was a stay at home mom with 2 little ones under three and a husband that worked a job and a half. For this reason, I can reasonably conclude I was the chaos.

Making the decision to stay at home after the birth of our first child seemed to be a no brainer. Daycare costs were astronomical and it really would be me working to pay for the daycare. Life was pretty simple with one child and then came two. This is where I ended up slowly spinning  out of balance. With two, I struggled to keep up with my home as I did with one.  So I didn’t. I told myself the children were fed, dry and rested and I was doing a good enough job.

Slowly but surely, I felt myself saying yes to one thing after another. It’s good to do volunteer work isn’t it? It is, until you find yourself volunteering more than being at home. One activity, organization or group led to another until the...

A new season of life is upon us at my house, how about yours? Life transitions can be big or small, happy or horrible, planned or unplanned which are likely to upset our day to day operations, our routines. Our routines are actually systems of organizing. A new transition can bring stress and with stress comes clutter. Stress is a clutter trigger for me. I know a little stress is good for us and it’s impossible to live without stress. With that said, let’s talk about a few strategies that can help ease the stressful part of transition. 

Utilize a morning or evening routine 

Do you have one? If you do, keep doing it!  

If not, I encourage you to create one based on what you need. If it’s solitude then plan either the start of the day or the end of the day with a few minutes of silence. If you are in need of more structure then this is a good place to implement. For some, just making the bed is a morning routine, it’s completely individual. For...

Let me start with this fun fact, there are more pictures taken every two minutes than were taken throughout the 1800’s. It is estimated that ten percent of all photos were taken in the last twelve months. (fstoppers.com) This led me to think about all of the clients I have worked with over the last six years. There are alot of pictures without permanent homes. Oh sure, the computer could be considered permanent but is it really?

The latest article I read said  1.4 trillion photos would be taken in 2020. That’s quite an increase! Chances are you’ll probably never see 99% of those again in the near future! This is soberingly true, isn’t it?

So, what are people doing with their pictures? How can we actually see the photos you’ve taken? With a large amount of photos living on social media sites, we need to save them. You see, they are the property of the social media site. Additionally, we have plenty of photos right inside our phones and computers....

As I continue my life’s work with clutter it is clear that people are being robbed of their joy. Joy is the deep peace within oneself that offer us our deepest connection to God and our relationships, including the one with ourselves. Joy is not being deliriously happy or happy all the time. Many people mistake joy for that type of outward expression. It is within oneself.

Clutter is really the devil in disguise. Any description of the devil you can think of fits in referring to clutter.

Suffocating-it sucks the life out of a room and the inhabitants

Distorted-tells us we are not worthy or that we don’t have a problem.

Liar- clutter hides and lies just like a cheating lover. It hides all of your secrets for a while anyway. Rationalizes the irrational.

Dark-hides the light in a room or in a soul

As one is caught up in clutter, it is easy to see why it’s so difficult to break from it. Emotions such as shame, guilt, sadness or doubt adhere a person to the clutter....

This may be a bit touchy for some. I have to address this because I care. I have been silent for far too long on this subject. The clutter I see in working with clients is debilitating emotionally, physically and spiritually. This is especially true when it comes from emotional shopping. 

What is emotional shopping? Shopping in response to emotion. This means it’s attached to a want more than an actual need. In addressing the clutter in people’s homes, I’ve heard the comment, “I don’t even know why I bought this.” I have found that to be a telling statement. The other comment is, “ I bought it on sale.” This is the justification behind the action. The thrill of the sale is a high not unlike one that someone taking drugs may get. So let’s look at where the emotional connection comes from so we can make some correction to curtail it.

Instant gratification- this is huge today especially with companies that can deliver to you...

It happens to the best of us. We have the best intentions but cannot seem to move forward into the action phase. Old habits we tried to break have reared their ugly heads. The system of organizing that was making life better has gone haywire. It is time to regroup.

I like to think of regrouping as a chance to do over and do better. Recognizing the need to reset is critical to ensuring success. This is awareness! Awareness leads to action.

When you become aware then you can make adjustments. If you don’t know, you can’t do better. Awareness leads to action.

When you become aware you have a better chance of being proactive rather than reactive. It’s about knowing your triggers. What is it about your personality that can lead you back to bad habits or distract you? For me, it’s likely to happen when I am tired or busy. I am aware of it so I try to get the most important things done when I am fresh, earlier in the day. Awareness leads to action.

Becoming aware...

We all have those moments where our homes look like a bomb went off. We all have those things that throw us out of whack. These trigger the clutter bugs to come out in our homes and inside ourselves. We can quickly see how they lead to chaos and disorganization. In having awareness we can tame any situation to get back to organized. For me personally, having this awareness has been tremendously helpful in maintaining the organized systems in my home.

I’ve identified four of the bigger clutter triggers along with strategies on counteracting their effect. Certainly, there are plenty more ways we can let in the clutter bugs.

Tired

This for me is where it starts. Instead of putting things away, they lay where they fall. The clutter bug starts out as one and quickly multiplies into many things not put away. Sometimes, being tired can lead to “I’ll get to it later” and later comes several days or more later. Well, you can see what this looks like after a few days.