February 12th, 2020

WHY DO WE HOLD ON TO STUFF?

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There are many reasons people hold onto things. Attaching emotion to random items in our homes is one of the biggest reasons. In reality, no matter what the item is, it has an emotion attached to it. I’m not talking about a piece of junk mail or a broken pen (although some people are attached to those as well). I’m talking about items that we’ve kept for years because we just can’t let go of the memories they hold.​

Another reason people can’t let go it’s because “I paid so much for this”. As organizers, we’re not coming to your home to discard your memories or discard something valuable. Your personal belongings are just that: personal. You own them. You have the ultimate say in what stays and what goes; however, you need to think about the amount of your clutter. I mean really think about your clutter. Attaching so much emotion to an item or not getting rid of something because the item was expensive hasn’t amounted to anything in the past. Clutter has one job and that is to fill up your precious space and give you stress. We’re all paying so much money just to house our “stuff”. Whether it’s on our kitchen counters, dining room tables, closets, the extra storage unit we pay for, or in a garage which is meant to house a vehicle.

​Here’s another way to think about our clutter - we all have items coming into our homes every single day, but how many items are actually leaving our homes? If you happen to own a big house and the space to fill it, it doesn’t mean you should. And the biggest excuse of all - just because we spent money on something, it doesn’t mean we should continue to keep it. Think of it this way, the money has already been spent and most likely, we will never get the actual value of it back. Exceptions could be rare paintings or a favorite family heirloom but not doubles or triples of a casserole dish or a tool set. 
Once we let go of our “stuff” and free up the much-needed valuable real estate in our kitchens, pantries, garages, offices, closets, and basements, then we can fully thrive and make our house a home.

​​Kelly Ghavidel with Decluttered Life is a professional organizer in Katy, Texas.