Clutter: How Much Is It Costing You?

Did you check out Lamare’s blog about having enough money? It clicked for me that I need to clean up my act. Literally. Clutter drives me nuts, but I’ve been ignoring it. This is an active decision. I see a mess, and I want to fix it. But I’ve stopped myself, so as not to ‘fuss’ about things too much.

We moved into our homestead less than a year ago, and I’ve been waiting for things to settle. If I could waive my magic wand, everything would have a place. “A place for everything, and everything in it’s place.” But a lot of our things are just kind of where they are. They haven’t been deliberately assigned a home within our home.

Hold on lady, how is this related to not having enough money?

Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (affiliate link) and Vicki Robin’s Your Money or Your Life (affiliate link) hold the answer. That is, Kondo’s book shows how much energy clutter consumes from us. We’re probably disorganized, and have random stuff around the house that doesn’t give us joy. And if it doesn’t give us joy… it needs to move merrily along. And Vicki’s very wise book shows us how much our efforts earn, and purchases cost us. She talks about how much the “gazingus pins,” or impulse purchases we collect, actually cost us.

When I look around and see the clutter, it reminds me that I’m being lazy. That I’m willfully ignoring the nag to tidy things up. No sense in slapping my own wrist every time I throw something in the ‘we’ve been here almost a year and haven’t touched this yet’ pile for probably purging. I say probable purge because that nomination needs unanimous consent, that’s not a unilateral decision for one partner to make without the other! While it’s tempting to scold myself for the “wasted” money, that’s not helpful. Nor is it probably true. We’re deliberate with our spending. Like Ms. Kondo says, it probably served a purpose, but now it’s time to thank it, and send it out the door, either to give someone else joy, or land in the trash/recycling.

With an organized home, the chaos of homesteading is enjoyable. A cleaned up inside means the ‘oh crap’ things that come undone or need attention throughout the day are much easier to address. There aren’t 6 piles that something missing could be buried in. There isn’t a heap of something by the door to trip over. You get the idea.

But think about it. If I didn’t check myself on this current mindset, how much more might I be feeding this mindset? If the status quo conditions win the day, I’m probably adding more clutter than I realize since it fits right in!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facepalm

While we’re pretty deliberate with our spending, like I said, I’m starting to wonder if my intent is aligning with my actions… and I’m sure it’s Amazon that’s been my enabler. We are still using curb-side pickup options because of COVID-19, so it’s not store gazingus pins, but very likely an extra thing or two in the Amazon cart that has no business being paid for and shipped to our abode.

I know my Love was making a different point with having enough money, but it was a great reminder for me that we have more than enough, so much so, that it’s in piles! It was a great reminder to stay the course, keep diligent with our spending, and to clean up my act, literally, at home. Especially with teleworking, this clutter has been a lingering annoyance for longer than I should have let it be one!

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