Clutter Causes Unhappiness: Clean It Up Now

Clutter; my family makes fun of me for being so vehemently appalled by clutter and so terrified of clutter in my home and life that I keep nothing – really, nothing. No clutter in our cars, house, life. Now my loved ones can stop giving me a hard time about my clutter aversion because according to an article on MSN, clutter actually prevents happiness. That’s right; if you have too much clutter in your outer life, it’s difficult for you to find happiness.

Toss Things You Don’t Need

What’s in that box in the closet in the hall that’s been sitting on the top of the shelf for the past 12 years that you’ve lived in this house and you haven’t opened it once in that long? Who cares! Get rid of it. Chances are good it’s not anything important…you keep your photos in albums and you’ve used your passports and children’s birth certificates in that time, so toss it.

Don’t Give Clutter a New Home

Finding adorable storage solutions for your home can make your house look less cluttered, but it doesn’t actually get rid of the clutter. It just dresses it up. Dressed up clutter in great storage containers is still clutter. Clean it out and then store what’s important; tossing everything into storage bins is not the answer to decluttering your life.

Don’t Keep Clothes

Sure, shoulder pads did come back, but what you wore in 1985 did not come back – do you see what I’m saying? You want to lose 15 pounds so you decide to keep your skinny clothes even though you haven’t worn them in about 4 years? Don’t; if a style from decades ago does come back, you’re still not wearing that ugly 1990s ensemble and your skinny clothes might have been amazing four years ago, but when you do finally lose those last few pounds, you’ll want to celebrate with a shopping trip.