Is your home full of clutter?
William Morris, a 19th century English craftsman, said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”
I share this quote with my clients because I believe it can guide us in controlling clutter in our homes.
Things accumulate in our homes over time unless we give our attention to the meaning they bring to our lives. Things break and instead of scheduling time to get it fixed or fix it ourselves we put it off until later. These things get stuck in a drawer, at the back of the closet or cupboard, in the attic or in the garage. Before we know it these spaces are filled up and overflowing! We forget to go through these hiding places and empty them of the things we know we don’t use or want any more.
As you look around your home ask yourself:
1. Do I use this? If you do great! Find a place to keep it.
2. Do I believe this is beautiful? If you don’t like the way something looks and you don’t use it, what is it doing in your home?
The benefits of controlling clutter are:
1. You will save time because you won’t waste time looking for the things you want. You’ll know where they are.
2. You will save money because you won’t waste money buying duplicates.
3. You will have less stress. Science has proven that extremely cluttered environments are stressful.
Download the Clutter Quality of Life Scale quiz to see the impact clutter is having on your life. This scale was developed by the Institute for Challenging Disorganization. Give me a call after you take the quiz!