Challenge Weekly - The Cost of Clutter

Published: Mon, 04/16/18

 
Your Weekly Challenge... from Brook Noel

Monday, April 16, 2018
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The Cost of Clutter


“Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens.  If you have them, you have to take care of them!  There is great freedom in simplicity of living.  It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest.”  ~ Peace Pilgrim

Clutter, whether emotional or physical, is the number one robber of simplicity.  Clutter takes up free thought and free space in which energy could otherwise roam.  Try this simple experiment to see how clutter affects you.

Walk into the most cluttered area of your home.  Start a timer for ten minutes and stand in the room.  Do not pick up anything or begin rearranging or decluttering.  Just stand in the clutter and absorb it, imagining you will later need to recount as many objects within the room as possible.

After then ten minutes have passed, move to the least cluttered area of your home.  If everything is cluttered, go outside.  Stand in this space for ten minutes.  Once again don’t “do anything” – just “be.”  What difference did you feel?  (Note: to read this exercise on paper will not offer the same benefit as doing it and feeling the difference between space and clutter.)

When women do this exercise with me, they often respond with:

*** ”I literally felt like in one area I was choking and in the other area I could breathe.”

*** “I felt hopeless and lost amongst the piles.  There was clarity when I was outside.”

*** “I felt a lot happier in the open space…instead of mixed among all the things I thought I need to be happy.”

Truth be told, it doesn’t take much to make a person happy.   Most of happiness’s components cannot be found in store aisles or catalog pages.  Not only do we not find happiness within the stuff, we pay a high price for the clutter.

TAKE A STEP FORWARD:

In your journal, create a page with three columns labeled ITEM, MONEY, and TIME.  Go back to your cluttered area, pick up an item and ask: “If right this moment I could trade this item back for either the money I spent, the time I spent choosing and maintaining it, or both, would I?”

If you answer, “no,” move onto the next item.  If the answer is yes, write down the name of the object in the ITEM column.  Next record how much this item has cost you.  Lastly record how much time you have spent on the item (including purchasing, caring for, dusting, maintaining, learning how to use, thinking about, etc.).  Just estimate – mark down whether it’s a little, medium, or a lot of time.  Continue working through each object in this manner.

After completing the cluttered space or filling one page (whichever comes first), total the columns.  This is the true cost of clutter.  This is the time and money you have given to “stuff” that has not added value to your life.  Let this awareness exercise be an inspiration to think twice about buying “stuff” in the future.


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