I will use it ‘Eventually’
Many of us justify keeping things in our clutter because it’s something we do or could use in the future. We may not need it now or plan to use it in the near future but we tell ourselves (and others) that we’ll probably use it – eventually.
This is just another way of saying ‘it might come in useful’ to avoid making a decision, knowing that no one can challenge the fact we might actually use it.
Here are 5 reasons why you will never clear your clutter if you use this to justify keeping your clutter.
1. Vague Deadline
You will never clear your clutter when you make decisions based on a vague deadline of ‘eventually’. The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word ‘eventually’ as;
‘in the end, especially after a long time or a lot of effort, problems, etc.:’.
The truth is, EVERYTHING in our clutter might get used eventually, in the end, after a long time. However, while you wait to use them, those things take up space in your home, remain part of your clutter, and keep you from making progress on your Journey by clearing your clutter and living your Clutter Free Best Life.
When you clear your clutter the Clutter Clearing way, we don’t make decisions based on ‘eventually’, because it’s one of the many reasons why we have our clutter challenge in the first place. We make decisions based on the ‘near future’ e.g. for household items or food, that’s up to a maximum of one calendar month.
In the modern world, you’ll easily be able to get to the supermarket or have a home delivery to replace household items or food within one calendar month, so realistically you don’t need more than a months’ worth of stock taking up space in your home.
I had several clients who accumulated, and stock-piled toilet rolls at the start of the pandemic. They justified keeping them all because they would use them ‘eventually’. However, after doing the usage exercise on Step 1 of the Journey, they discovered it would take them literally years to use all the toilet rolls they had.
You need a clear deadline against which to make a balanced, realistic decision. You can then let go of any clutter or stock that you do not plan to use by that deadline. For example:
- You only REALISTICALLY need enough food and household items for a maximum of 1 month.
- You only REALISTICALLY need enough beauty products for 6 months – 1 year (it’s not about the life of the product, it’s about hygiene).
- You only REASLITCALLY need the clothes you wear regularly i.e. at least 7 times in a year.
2. Accumulation Denial
You will never clear your clutter unless you stop accumulating things you don’t need and won’t use in the near future.
When you have clutter, you have accumulation habits that you don’t realise you have until you’ve climbed Step 1 of your Journey.
We often automatically buy things that we know we use when they’re on special offer, even though we’re completely oblivious to the fact that we already have a year’s worth of supply at home – way more than we realistically need in the near future. We justify it because we save money, although what we save in financial terms, costs us in space and new clutter.
Telling ourselves that we won’t let go of something because we’ll use them ‘eventually’ ignores 2 key facts:
- We’re almost certainly accumulating it faster than we’re using it because of habits and assumptions.
- it’s going to take us more than a month to use it.
3. Fear of Waste
You will never clear your clutter if you have a fear of waste.
If you were brought up to believe that letting go of things you didn’t use was a waste then you can thank previous generations for your struggle to letting go.
You need to start reframing, retraining and re-educating yourself about what waste really is to ensure this outdated belief doesn’t sabotage your Clutter Clearing success.
Re-educate yourself for the modern world. Things and money are only wasted when you don’t use them in the near future. Although YOU may not be able to use them in the near future, someone else usually can, especially if those things are likely to go out of date before you can realistically use them yourself.
Reframe your perception of waste. You only waste things that are in date, not used, in excess of what you need in the near future, and sitting in your clutter. When you let them go to someone who will use them quicker than you, either directly or through a local foodbank for example, you are preventing waste and supporting your community, whilst also clearing some clutter to make more space in your home, getting you closer to your Clutter Free Goal and Best Life.
4. Sacrificing Space
While you could choose to keep everything that you believe you would use ‘eventually’, if it’s realistically going to take you a year to use them, you will need to sacrifice space to store them for that year while you slowly use them, assuming you stop accumulating. Letting go is a win-win situation. Someone who NEEDS those things now can have them now, and in return, you will instantly have you more space in your home.
5. Your Perfectionism
Yes, you might use the things in your clutter eventually. But you probably said that when you accumulated them years ago and they eventually turned into clutter.
When you struggle with perfectionism you have unrealistically high expectations and standards. It’s like the ultimate quality control, and anything less than the perfect decision is interpreted as a waste, so best to hold onto things while you make the perfect decision.
Your perfectionism is in control, and behind your perfectionism is fear. Fear of failure, the future, the past, the void, change, success, making a mistake – you name it, it’s driving your denial that is making you keep things that you won’t realistically use in the near future, and that’s sabotaging your success.
SPOILER ALERT – there’s no such thing as the perfect decision. There’s only taking action by making a realistic decision in the present, getting the feedback from taking that action, and learning from that feedback to make better decisions in the future.
The ‘perfect’ decision is one that ensures the things in your clutter are being used for the purpose they were made as quickly as possible, by the ‘perfect’ person to use those things as quickly as possible.
That’s probably not you. So let it go to someone who is ‘perfect’ so that they can use them NOW.
You can clear your clutter FAST, or you can clear your clutter FOREVER, but you can’t clear your clutter FOREVER FAST.
To find out how Clare can help you clear your clutter Forever, without the need for an expensive home visit, click here now: https://www.clutterclearing.net/clares-help-centre/
