Clutter Bust Your Life

Choosing what you allow and keep in your life gives you a sense of having control of your happiness and your future. If you are hoarder, or living a cluttered existence with too many material possessions, know that it is limiting your spiritual growth and personal fulfillment. The path to enlightenment is not paved with stuff… and more stuff. Maybe it’s time to rid yourself of those things that no longer serve a purpose in your life?

Releasing clutter is a mental thing. Millions of people worldwide suffer from what professional organizers and psychologists call ‘hoarding.’ Most people that have this problem don’t recognize this pattern in themselves, until their lifestyle is really out of control. Clean out all your closets in your home and in your mind.

The belongings people accumulate throughout their lives will always own them. People seem to think if they had more they’d be happier or freer, but their possessions only chain them to the earth ~ Sarah Noffke

Clutter may be defined as having excess items. Sometimes people hoard so much that they have to rent additional storage space to keep everything. Renting storage often means paying good money to store things that will never be used again. In some cases the clutter is messy, and in some cases the clutter is very organized, either way it’s just excess stuff. Pathological hoarding is simply a step up the ladder, so to speak, a higher level of clutter.

People start on the road to clutter for different reasons. Some people may start after a life changing event, such as a divorce, death of a loved one, or loss of any kind. Some seem to come into the world of clutter by learned behavior.

The mind tells the person that it is wasteful to just dispose of things that may still be good. You may need that object someday. After all you paid good money for the item and you may use it someday, or someone you know may need it.

Paper is usually a problem. Magazines! I may want to read an article again or I might have missed something. Storing things for the kids or grandkids too. Craft supplies. After all I may want to do that craft again someday. Some people wind up buying things they already have, because they have so much stuff they can’t find it.

Some people have other compulsive behaviors in other areas of their life; such as compulsive spending, television, shopping. A lot of people just can’t resist sales. It’s such a good deal. I just had to buy it.

Whatever the reason you give yourself to hang on to stuff, you can overcome the problem. You have to truly want to be free of excess physical and mental baggage.

At the end, all that’s left of you are your possessions. Perhaps that’s why I’ve never been able to throw anything away. Perhaps that’s why I hoarded the world: with the hope that when I died, the sum total of my things would suggest a life larger than the one I lived ~ Nicole Krauss

I must admit books are the bain of my existance it is really hard for me to part with books. After all what if I may need one as a reference for something I may be lecturing about? I have let some go to good homes or donated to the library. I treated myself to a Kindle e-book reader, after seeing one on the Oprah show as one of her favorite things. Now all I have to do is keep track of my iPhone, iPad and my desktop computer.

Clutter affects individuals is many ways. Everyone is different, but have some core initial fears. Clutter may affect a person’s job, relationships and just about all areas of life. When a person’s home is full of clutter they isolate themselves. They don’t let others into their home. They resort to being loners. They feel ashamed of the way they live. If it’s a family, it affects the quality of life for all that inhabit the home or space.

There is help for hoarders who really want to change their life. I am a certified ‘Clutter Buster’ myself and have seen great results with my clients.