Tackling Clutter in Our Lives

By Eileen McCafferty

Look at the belongings that line the closets, draws, and crevasses of your home. Do you ever feel that sometimes your belongings are way too important to part with or that your stuff makes you who you are? It’s common in society now to find our material possessions are taking over our lives since we are bombarded with advertisements of how owning a certain product is going to make us happy. And sometimes we can get addicted to collecting things. There is a state of mind, however, that one can apply to one’s life that might actually assist us in gaining back self-worth, create stronger personal relationships and make us value what we do have. That mind set is commonly referred to as minimalism.

Minimalists make decisions based on what they need instead of everything they want. This is not to say throw everything in your home away, and only keep food, clothes and a bed. But make purchases that hold a true purpose to you. There are many benefits that come when you choose to begin a minimal lifestyle: you free up space in your home, spend less money and time on stuff, and begin to realize what is actually important to you.

When you have an untidy room, you feel better once you have decluttered the mess and it can feel like you have relieved yourself of mental clutter, as well. With less belongings, tidying up your room no longer haunts your consciousness and gives you time to focus on family, friends, and YOU!

The products on the market also come from somewhere: The Earth. It takes resources to make, ship, advertise, and sell these products. If we were to buy less, less would be produced and fewer resources would be utilized. The reduction of the carbon footprint would be quite tremendous if we slowed down our incessant shopping patterns.

Minimalism is almost defined by each person who practices it and it is not to say that you can’t hold onto various things. If you love to read, keep your books. If you love music, keep your CDs or your records. If it makes you happy, those items serve a purpose. To start moving into a smaller collection of stuff, look at each item and ask yourself a couple questions:

1.  How frequently do I utilize this?

2.  Does this hold sentimental value to me?

3.  Do I have a real plan to use this?

4.  Am I holding onto this to fix, utilize, or wear in the future?

Minimalism brings you back to focus. In life there are essentials such as food, water, clothing, shelter. After that, you can take matters of the heart into consideration: family, relationships, friendships. If we focus more on buying the latest and greatest new gadget or knickknack, we are depleting ourselves of valuable time. You cannot bring your stuff with you when you die, but the memories you make will last forever. Less love for your stuff means more love to give to the people in your life, yourself, and to the Earth.