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10 Ways Clutter Can Affect You and Your Life
According to The American Heritage dictionary, clutter
means a confused or disordered state; a jumble; or to make disorderly or hard to
use by filling or covering with objects.
Clutter has a way of creeping up on you gradually and you
don’t realize how much it affects your life.
Here are 10 ways clutter can affect you and your life:
1. Family
- Clutter causes irritability, resentment and stress.
You may start to feel like you are not a good spouse or a good example for
your children.
- Excessive clutter can cause depression.
- Children may act out or exhibit bad behavior due to
their inability to focus caused by the clutter.
2. Relationships
- Causes conflicts often due to chronic lateness.
- Can keep you from socializing because you don’t
entertain or want have people visit you in your home.
3. Loss of Self-Esteem
- Causes you to feel like you aren’t capable or are
missing some gene that everyone else “seems” to have, so you feel bad about
yourself. The truth is you are not alone; many people have issues dealing
with clutter.
4. Emotionally
- Excessive clutter often causes feelings of shame,
guilt, anger and embarrassment.
- Clutter drains your energy and causes you to feel
uneasy and restless in your own home.
5. Physical Health & Stress
- Clutter can cause enormous stress. Every time you
can’t find something, or an argument flares up with a loved one over
clutter, or you can’t relax because you worry about all the things you need
to do, but can’t until the clutter is cleared, your stress levels creep
higher and higher.
- A cluttered kitchen and dining room can make it
difficult to eat healthy, causing all kinds of health problems.
- You can’t clean clutter so all the dust that
accumulates under, over and around the clutter causes allergies, aggravates
asthma and sinus problems.
6. Mental Health
- Clutter decreases your ability to enjoy life. It
causes stress, confusion and inability to focus. Clutter often leads to
depression.
- Clutter can cause people who don’t have ADD to have
ADD-like symptoms.
7. Safety and Hygiene
- In extreme clutter, you may have a hard time walking
without tripping or bumping into things.
- Things can be hidden in the clutter that are unsafe
for children.
- As already stated, clutter can’t be cleaned so you and
your family will be exposed to extreme dust and eventually mold and mildew.
8. Time
- Having too much stuff leads to chronic lateness which
wastes other people’s time and makes you look unprofessional.
- Not being able to find things quickly and easily leads
to procrastination and missed deadlines.
- Not being able to find things wastes a huge amount of
time each day. According to the American Demographics Society,
“Americans waste 9,000,000 hours per day searching for misplaced items.”
The Wall Street Journal states “The average U.S. executive wastes six
week per year searching for missing information in messy desks and files.
(That translates into one hour per day.)
9. Your Future
- Holding on to clutter keeps you stuck in the past
instead of enjoying the present and looking forward to the future.
- Clutter distracts you from being able to think about
your goals and projects or enjoy your hobbies.
10. Financial
- Clutter costs money in the following ways:
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Late fees for bills paid late
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Credit card debt, often for unused stuff
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Duplicates purchased because you can’t find things
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Renting storage facilities
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Some people move to a larger home to accommodate more stuff
If clutter is affecting even one of these areas of your
life, then you are not living your life to its fullest or happiest. You don’t
have to live this way.
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