The Real Cost of Clutter
The real cost of clutter
Here’s an excuse I hear all the time for keeping items that aren’t used. “But I paid good money for it!” But have you examined how much more it is costing you to keep it?
The cost of something doesn’t stop when you get it home. Are you paying rent on a storage unit or buying a bigger house to hold your stuff? For most folks their second most expensive purchase is a car that they can’t park in the garage. Is your garage is full of stuff you spent good, but less money on?
Consider the real cost if an item that requires maintenance or regular cleaning – like clothing that must be dry-cleaned, air freshener replacement cartridges, and pets that require food and vet care.
Material things have emotional costs, too, and not just when you notice that something is in the way or broken. Items that reminded you of bad times or relationships cause stress, as do the pieces of projects you’ve never completed. What about the baby gift you meant to give but forgot, and now the baby is a middle schooler?
Each of these costs builds stress. This can lead to health-related costs from stubbing toes and tripping over stuff, or the old sitcom standby everything falling on you when you open the closet door. These may sound funny, but the respiratory problems aggravated when you can’t properly clean your house because things are in the way, are very real.
Ask yourself how much time you lose by rearranging your clutter to eat at the dining table, or looking for lost items. How much is your time worth? How long have you been putting up with the clutter in your house? How much has that cost? The reality is you are paying good money to keep it.
This article originally appeared in Sage, November 2008.
Tags: clutter, Habit, organizing, routine, Simplifying, storage, streamlining, stress, systems, time management
