Causes of Clutter
No matter what its outward form, every item of clutter is produced by a single cause: a deferred decision. Simply put, clutter is the result of our failure to decide. Whether we delay a decision, deny the need to make it, or defer taking action on that decision, the genesis of clutter lies in the deciding.
Take a look around you to see the proof of this. Junk mail sprawls on the countertop a few short feet from the recycling bin because the person who brought in the mail failed to sort and dispose of it. Too-small clothing crowds the clothes closet, waiting for its owner to admit that it no longer fits. Empty cans of paint hang out in the garage, in need of a lift to the disposal center.
While you’ll find a deferred decision behind clutter of all kinds, the principle of it plays itself out in three variations: delayed decision making, deferred action, and denial. Let’s take a look at these factors and see if you can recognize them at work in your own surroundings.
Delayed Decision Making
Around the house, it’s hard to find a better example of delayed decision making than old school textbooks. Once you pack away the cap and gown, they have no more use in your life, yet here they are, taking up space on the bookshelf or piled in a corner.
You can’t release them because you can’t decide what to do with them. They were expensive, so should you sell them? How about donating them to the local library? Maybe you should keep them, because someday you might need to look something up. Making a decision seems too difficult, so the textbooks stay put, taking up space, gathering dust, and growing steadily more out-of-date with each passing year.
Blast through delayed decision making by asking yourself this question: what’s the worst that can happen if I release this item? Most of the time, that worst-case scenario means little more than having to buy another book (or look the issue up online). So release the clutter, reclaim your space, and move on!
Some clutter is born not from lack of a decision, but because we fail to follow through with the decisions we make. For example, few of us will read or reread newspapers that are more than a couple days old. When we put them down, we’ve already decided to dispose of them. Nonetheless, they wander the house, silent witnesses to our failure to take follow-up action by walking them to the recycling bin.
Disposal routines can go a long way toward addressing the problem of deferred action. Adding a collection container to the family room and creating a routine of emptying it once a week makes quick work of scattered newspapers. The hard part is deciding to release the clutter, so disposal routines are helpful in automating the end of the road and sending the clutter on its merry way.
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SPEEDY SOLUTION |
When you can’t see the clutter for the trees, borrow a pair of sharper eyes and tackle clutter with a trusted friend. Outsiders to your space see clutter more clearly, to help you release it from your life.
Denial
When it comes to clutter, denial is like putting on a pair of rose-colored glasses. Clutter? What clutter? That’s my stuff! Denial blocks the realization that you need to make a decision in the first place.
Yes, the closet is stuffed with leftover materials from a long-ago fling with scrapbooking, but you’re not yet ready to admit that you’ve grown tired of stamps and stickers and glitter. Denial keeps us from seeing that items we no longer need, use, or value have swallowed our space and surroundings.
Denial is the most difficult-to-address variant of the causes of clutter. It’s easy to spot with hoarders, but most of the rest of us possess a good bit of it as well. Because denial keeps us from recognizing clutter as an issue to be dealt with, it postpones the day of reckoning. To counter denial, we need to have our clutter vision checked…and corrected.
To stare down denial, ask yourself, “Is this item part of my life now?” Maintaining a museum of the outgrown, whether it’s clothing, hobbies, or stage of life, makes it harder to live the life you have now. Remind yourself that your spaces should support you in the life you live now, and release those holdovers from another day.