THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF CLUTTER:
4 WAYS YOUR STUFF IS STEALING FROM YOU!
The things we own have energy. They are not passive. And, since everything in the world is about energy, all our stuff exchanges their energy with us.
It’s common to feel attached to the things you own for a variety of reasons.
- You spent your money on them.
- You feel an emotional attachment to your things.
- You use your “stuff” to express who you are and how you feel to the world, etc.
And because of all those reasons, it gets more challenging for you to declutter.
It is time for you to think of all the adverse effects of accumulating things you no longer use. Stuff that occupies valuable space that you could use for something else and steals energy from you.
Here are four negative effects of clutter and how they make you lose your time and energy:
1. Clutter steals your time
Everything you own in life has taken a part of your time. The time you invested in working to buy it. Or the time you spend taking care of your things, organizing them, cleaning them, etc.
When you spend your time taking care of things that make you feel good, and you like, it is time well spent. But, if you spend hours trying to fix the mess on that mountain of things you don’t use, or even thinking about you should tidy upon them, it is time wasted.
When you have more stuff than you need, love, or actually use, you spend a valuable part of your time managing and taking care of them. As a result, you have less time for other, more important things.
2. Clutter steals your space
Everything you own occupies a room in your home and your life.
Again, if they are things you love, it doesn’t matter how much space they take up because they add value to your life. Otherwise, the things you don’t use (even when you say you will need one day) make you waste space.
You end up turning your house into a crowded, cluttered, and overwhelming space without realizing it, which can sometimes lead you to consider that you need MORE SPACE when what you need are FEWER THINGS.
3. Clutter steals your money
The stuff you own now used to be money you had.
Stuff steals your money when you buy more than you need. Or even worse, when you buy things that quickly end up as clutter in your home.
Emotional purchases are excellent examples of how cluttering steal your money.
The things you buy as an impulse quickly end up as unused or unloved clutter in your home. And even worse, unplanned purchases make you spend more money than you want or can afford. They even lead you to accumulate debt.
4. Clutter steals your energy
The most negative effect of clutter is how much energy accumulated stuff takes from you.
It starts with working to earn money to buy the stuff initially. Then goes on to the energy it always takes to manage all the things you own. From shopping for them, picking them up, organizing them, looking for them, reorganizing them, keeping track of them, etc. it all adds up.
Finally, all the clutter stays in your home (and your life) until you decide to get rid of it. Then, the cleansing process takes even more time and energy from you than you thought.
Imagine all the things you could do with the extra time and energy you’d take if you didn’t spend so much of it taking care of your “stuff”!
It is not that all your belongings become a burden on you that you have to get rid of everything or feel guilty about the time, money, and space that they represent for you.
The goal is only to keep the things that spark joy to you, add enough value to your life, something that you use regularly or love, to make up for what it takes from you.
In the end, decluttering is not about what you’re giving up. It is about what you gain when you finally let go of the clutter, the excess, and the annoying distractions.
The happy ending comes when you start clearing the clutter from your home and life, so you have more energy, time, space, and freedom to live!
