You should keep everything in your clutter because you can / want to use it
MYTH
YOU SHOULD KEEP EVERYTHING IN YOUR
CLUTTER
BECAUSE YOU CAN / WANT TO USE IT
You almost certainly have most of your clutter because you believed this myth in the past.
This is probably the biggest myth we tell ourselves when we struggle with clutter, and its’ the myth that will keep you trapped in your Clutter Keeping Cycle. You tell yourself you can or will use the things in your clutter so you keep them, but you can’t use them because you don’t have space to use them because of the clutter.
Consequently, you don’t let go of anything in your clutter, and you just move your clutter from corner to corner, room to room waiting until you magically have space to use the things in your clutter without having to make any decisions and let go of anything.
Even if you put things into a self-storage unit and you give yourself the space to use things in your clutter (even though that’s only temporary because the clutter grows back), you still don’t use the things in your clutter despite having the space to use them.
Let’s put this in perspective by asking one simple question. How much of your clutter have you actually used more than three times in the last 5 years? You thought you would, but you didn’t. With hindsight, you didn’t really need to keep it.
There are 7 reasons why this myth is a myth:
1. Time
Absolutely – you can theoretically use everything in your clutter if you have an infinite amount of time to use it all. However, you haven’t been able to make time to use it so far, so what makes you believe you’ll be able to make time to use it in the future? You need to limit the amount of time you consider when making decisions to a realistic amount of time – what we call the Near Future i.e. between now and a year after you complete your Clutter Clearing Journey – to break your habit of focusing on the practical value of things rather than the instant and future value (you learn about the 12 values to consider on Step 3 of your Journey).
2. Clutter Magnets
When will you realistically use the things that you can or want to use? You will have to store them in the timeyou’re waiting to use them. Unless you’re prepared to pay for storage outside your home, they’ll be stored on the organisation area of your conveyor belt, and they’ll become clutter precisely because they’re not being used. When things become clutter, they can become Clutter Magnets and attract more clutter – and so the Clutter starts to grow….
3. Usage
How long will things that you can use, realistically take you to use? For example, if you know that it realistically takes you a month to use a box of washing powder, and you’ve bought 3 boxes because they were on special offer, then yes – technically you can use that washing powder. However, you must store the two boxes that are not being used for up to three months before they get used and come off your conveyor belt.
If you know that you’ve had clothes that are two sizes too small for a year and you haven’t lost the weight to wear them, realistically you’re not going to wear those clothes in your near future. Let them go now, in the present. You can buy new clothes when you NEED them. Fascinating Fact: Research has shown that when people let go of their ‘thin’ and ‘fat’ clothes, the acceptance that’s required to do that means they actually start to lose the weight without even trying.
4. It’s Not Just You
You are not the only person who can use and appreciate the things in your clutter. You and you alone are not responsible for using the things you accumulated in your past. There are other people who can use those things now. There are other people who will appreciate those things now. There are other people who need those things now. When you let them go, you help other people and bring joy to others who are less fortunate than you.
5. Accumulation
You will only realistically be able to use everything in your clutter AND clear your clutter if you stop accumulating more things at the accumulation end of your conveyor belt. However, people who struggle with clutter are constantly accumulating more things at the accumulation end of their conveyor belt, precisely because they tell themselves they can use it or it will come in useful. Consequently, even if you did use everything in your clutter (which you won’t), it would be replaced as quickly as it’s used by the accumulation of new things, and as a result you will never reduce the amount of clutter you have in your home.
6. Clutter Keeping Cycle
Keeping things because you believe can use them because you do use that thing, or you do plan to use it when you’re clutter free will just keep you trapped in your Clutter Keeping Cycle. You tell yourself you’ll use it / do x,y,z with it when you’ve cleared your clutter – so you keep that item in your clutter. As a result, you keep everything for when you’ve cleared your clutter, yet because you haven’t let go of anything, you never actually clear your clutter.
7. Best Life
When you accumulated the things in your clutter, they were part of your vision for your Best Life at that time. However, that time, and that old vision of your Best Life is now in the past. If you tell yourself you’re keeping everything because you can use it, you’re not focusing on whether you WANT or NEED to use it to help you live your Best Life in the present. Just because you CAN use everything, doesn’t mean you HAVE to use everything, or that everything is part of your Best Life in the present and future. So, which is more important to you right now? Keeping things that you might use at some point in the future if you ever have time, yet which you probably won’t because you’ll never have enough time or the space to use them because of your clutter and your accumulation, or living your Best Life in the present and future?
You always have a choice with your clutter – even if you don’t like the choices that you have…
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/
