Price is what you pay.

Value is what you get.

Warren Buffet

If Warren Buffet said it, it must be true. According to Wikipedia, as of April 2024, he was the ninth-richest person in the world, so he probably knows what he’s talking about.

When we struggle with clutter, we need to make decisions based on whether something is going to help us achieve and add value to our Best Life, or whether we can let go of it so it can be part of someone else’s Best Life. Much of our clutter are things that we’ve never – or barely – used. As a result, we only have the memory of the price we paid for it, or the memory of what we intended to do with it to help us make a decision. Here are 7 things to consider  when  you  are  focused on price or past intention, not value.

1. The Value has Gone

It had value when you bought it. You paid a price you believed it was worth at the time you paid for it, otherwise you wouldn’t have bought it. However, you never turned that financial value into any other type of value (practical, sentimental etc) because either you didn’t use it, or you only used it a few times. In the past you may have told yourself that you would get value out of it ‘when I clear my clutter’, but you didn’t clear your clutter because you kept things you haven’t used.

You’re trapped in a vicious Clutter Keeping Cycle. It’s time to accept that you had good intentions in the past, poor execution in the present, and you’re never realistically going to get any more value out of that thing in your clutter in the future.

2. The Money has already gone….

The money was gone the minute you paid for it, when it had value and you thought you were going to use it. If you had used it, you wouldn’t be focused on the price, unless you’re one of those really annoying people who goes around telling everyone how much – or how little – you paid for everything (!).

That either makes you look like you’re a Scrouge, only buying things if they’re on sale or at rock bottom prices, (things you never actually need because if you really needed it, you would be willing to pay full price for it), or you are so insecure you have to flaunt your wealth to get the attention you crave. If you’re the latter, you can save time and money on your Journey by paying for storage units to store your clutter.

3. Depreciation

The things you buy lose financial value over time, regardless of how much or how often you use it or what you think they ‘should’ be worth.

A car loses approximately 11% of its financial value as soon as you drive it home. If you average 10,000 miles a year, it will have lost around 40% of its financial value by the end of the first year, 60% by the end of the third year.

Thanks to how fast technology evolves, a mobile / cell phone loses even more – it can lose 78% of its value in the first year – so that iPhone you bought for £/$1,000 may only be financially worth £/$220 after the first year.

Your clutter is the same. Unless you have an immaculate, still in the box, original Star Wars (or is it Star Trek?) figurine, it won’t be worth anywhere near what you paid for it in the past. So let go of the price you paid for it, because you are unlikely to ever get that money back.

4. Limited Demand

You may love that Princess Diana style wedding dress you bought back in 1982, and you may have finally accepted that you’ll never wear it again / fit into it again / renew your wedding vows in it / wear it for your next wedding, even if you do find the ‘perfect’ man 2^nd (or 3^rd) time around.

Although you’re ready to let go of it, are you realistically going to find someone who is willing to buy that dress and pay to have the alterations required to make it fit their body perfectly? How much of YOUR time, energy and effort will it take you to find that someone?

Trying to find someone who agrees that something in your clutter is worth the price you paid for it (or more) is like looking for a needle in a haystack. That’s not to say that needle isn’t there – it’s just very, very, very small in the grand scheme of things, which leads on to reason number five…..

5. Time, Energy and Effort

How much time, energy and effort are you prepared to spend looking for that needle in the haystack? Time, energy and effort that would be better spent making decisions about the things in your clutter and getting closer to your Best Life.

You only have 168 hours in a week, 56 of which you need for set aside for good quality sleep to help you make balanced, realistic decisions. You only have a limited amount of mental and emotional energy. Aren’t those limited resources more valuable when you use them to get closer to your Clutter Free Best Life by letting go of things in your clutter, rather than trying to reclaim the money you spent on that thing that you didn’t use and will require your time, energy and effort to find the needle in the haystack?

6. Ignoring One Important Price

I hear time and time again that people consider or justify putting put their clutter in self-storage so that they have things in case they need them or because they intend or want to use them in the future. Their ‘favourite’ books, clothing, furniture, tools, appliances, antiques and so on. Things that they see in terms of the price they paid for them, what they think they are worth, and to save the cost of replacing them if they want or need them in the future.

Yet they’re ignoring one important price – that of the storage unit. Yes, you might get the first month or even three months for free, but what you pay in storage costs almost always outweighs the price of replacing what you put in that storage unit.  

For example, if you pay £/$100 a month, 3 years of storage = £/$3,600. 5 years = £/$6,000, 10 years = £/$12,000……. You get the idea.

But what is the total PRICE of replacing everything in that storage unit, after you’ve taken into account all the points one to five? Wouldn’t you be better off letting go of the clutter and either saving £/$100 a month while you’re on your Journey, or reducing your bills between now and step 7? (storage units are always the last to be cleared on the Journey).

7. Your Best Life

Do you think of your Best Life as being a price or having value? Does your Best Life Script include anything relating to price?  Yes, it really is that simple.

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/