The 5 Most Popular Excuses for Clutter

Here are the top five excuses I hear for why people keep unnecessary items in their homes.  Maybe you can relate to some of them. 

It still works. I run into this excuse a lot.  It is usually TV’s, other electronics, and old phones and small appliances.   You have already replaced these items with the latest and greatest so the chances of you ever using the items that still work are slim to none.  Electronics these days are made to be obsolete in a short amount of time.  When the TV you are using conks out, an even more sophisticated model will have been introduced.  You are going to want the new model, not pull the old dinosaur model out of storage. 

I might wear this again.  No you won’t.  The bridesmaid dress you had to buy 10 years ago is never going to come back out of your closet.  Neither is your wedding dress.  You daughter is going to want to pick out her own style of wedding dress, not wear yours.  If you have lost weight, then holding on to the larger size clothing is setting yourself up for failure.  If you have gained weight, you can’t wear those smaller clothes now.  If and when you do lose weight and are that size again, trends will have changed and you are going to want new clothes to celebrate your weight loss. 

This might come back in style.  Styles cycle about every 20 years.  While the cycle does occur, the new garments or shoe styles will not be exactly the same as they were 20 years ago.  I don’t know about you, but I am not the same weight or shape I was 20 years ago.  Who are you kidding, except yourself, that you would wear those clothes again.  You justify keeping them by thinking “someday I will wear it again.”  Be honest with yourself….you won’t.  Instead think how wonderful you will feel when you have some empty space in your closet.

I am keeping it “just in case”.   I recently had a client that had a big pile of things she was holding onto.  Some of the items included an extra coffee pot, an extra blender, a whole stack of empty baskets and storage containers, six storage bins of craft fabric for a business she thought about starting and then didn’t, another storage container full of smaller storage containers because she cooks ahead and needs them to freeze the extra food.  I was a bit skeptical about the freezer containers since they were stored in an attic, not in the kitchen or even close to the kitchen, so I asked further questions.  Turns out she did cook ahead one time, a couple of years ago, but hasn’t since! 

I might need this someday.  Buying and storing items for when you “may need them” is the most dangerous excuse of all.  How do you know you will need something two to five years from now?  Trends change, our tastes change, kids grow up, life happens.  A couple of years from now, you will look at these items and ask yourself, “What was I thinking?”  You may forget you even bought it.  When making purchases, think before you buy.  Just because it is a good deal, doesn’t mean you need it.  It is not worth taking up all your storage space because you might “need” it.