Ever since that Hoarders show started playing on A&E the accumulation of possessions in one’s home has been a topic I return to frequently when tripping over the beer bottles I leave on the floor. Watching an episode of that show will get me to clean like nothing else will, let me tell you. Interestingly a lot of people have told me that show induces cleaning sprees in them as well; I guess we want to avoid getting on that show.
The issue with the show, though, is not directly about lack of cleanliness but that the people can’t throw anything away. They buy stuff and bring it into their home and never remove it. They may have grown up poor, or they developed a mindset somewhere along the way that throwing stuff away was wasteful and they can’t do it. Now, most of us don’t have the OCD-esque mental health issue that these poor people suffer, but somewhere between religious-vow-of-poverty and them are people like me, who were brought up to be pack rats.
When I was getting ready to move to Kelowna, I got rid of a lot of stuff. Probably a third of all my things, including the CRT TV, big couch, clothes, at least half my books. Yet when the movers were bringing my boxes up to this apartment they commented on how much stuff I had for one person. Shit, and I thought I’d been so thorough!
I read some article online a few months ago in some anti-clutter simplify-your-life sort of website where the person spoke about how when you see the insides of houses of rich people, and in magazines, there’s not a lot of stuff in the pictures. Now, I recognize that the pictures in magazines like dwell are staged (avec placement of unhappy hipsters) and in real life the owners’ stuff is all stuffed into other rooms or inside giant closets or something, but it got me agreeing with the writer:
Maybe rich people buy less stuff?
Clutter is bad. I certainly enjoy my place more when I’ve opened up some space by removing a piece of furniture or put some books away. Various books and articles about self-organization talk about how clutter in your home and desk creates mental clutter and I totally get that. I have not been ruthless enough in getting rid of things that I don’t want or need and they haunt me and make me feel guilty that I’m not using them. Enough, yo.
The other thing, and more practical perhaps is that the next time I move it will probably be on my own dime so will I want to pay to move crap I don’t want to keep anyways. Plus should I actually someday live in an apartment that’s not for low-income people* it’ll probably be smaller since it’ll be newer. Which is maybe why richer people don’t have as much stuff, since their fancy shoebox apartments don’t have the space.
Have any of you gone on mad decluttering sprees in your homes? I’m going to be doing another round soon, once I get over this flu. Of course, since October one set of my parents have been getting rid of the majority of their possessions since moving from a 4000+ sq.ft. giganta-house to a 2-bedroom condo that’s maybe 1000, and I’ve taken a few pieces of furniture from them, so I’m not doing that well, pound-for-pound. The TV stand is nice, though.
*Mom thinks I should be ashamed for living in such cheap quarters, given what I could afford. I agree, I am ashamed, but try finding another building in Kelowna that allows cats.
