I’ve been spending a lot of time packing for our move in a couple of weeks (more on that later), so I’ve been thinking a lot about clutter – the accumulation of stuff to the point that you can no longer neatly stash it all away. Anyone who has seen our house knows that clutter is our natural state of being. Clutter can seem pretty harmless, after all it’s not like anyone died because their kitchen table contained a rotating assortment of odds and ends. As I’ve been sorting through the clutter, it has occurred to me that there is a cost to clutter – both monetary and mental.
First, the monetary. I don’t know about you but our house is packed to the gills. Almost every closet is lined with shelves full of stuff. Kitchen cabinets are overflowing. We have bookshelves in almost every room. Things are stashed under the bed, behind the couch, and in every nook and cranny. And still we have more stuff than will fit. So a few years ago we started renting a storage unit to store our extra stuff. For us (and many others) our clutter has a very real and very direct cost – the cost of renting a storage unit every month.
There are indirect monetary costs, as well. How many people buy a bigger house so they can fit all their stuff. More rooms, more closets, basements, attics. All of these give you more places to stash stuff but also come with higher costs. Bigger mortgage payments, more insurance, more heating, more electricity, and more upkeep. The costs build up over time. Maybe it’s just $10 a month of extra mortgage. Another $10 for the bigger heating bills. Need a new furnace, water heater, or roof? Those will be bigger so they’ll cost more. Want a bigger garage for your second car? You get all the costs of a bigger home plus the insurance and maintenance of a second car.
Then there are the indirect, indirect costs. We don’t usually think about the value of our time. Time is a given (or at least we act that way) so we take it for granted. More stuff means more time to pick up, clean, organize, and maintain stuff. A bigger house means more space to clean and maintain, as well. At $10 an hour (far below the living wage) even one extra measly hour a week translates into $520 a year. I don’t know about you, but I could spend a lot more than an hour just dusting my house every week.
Then there are the mental and time costs. I don’t know about you but I find it hard to relax when the floor is littered with toys, the tabletops are covered with stuff, and the clutter presses in from all sides. Do you find yourself unable to relax because of the clutter? Do you have to “get out” in order to unwind? In monetary terms stress has unseen costs as well – the cost of medications for stress-related conditions and the cost of vacations and “stress-relief activities”.
Putting clutter in perspective is helpful for people like me. By nature we are pack rats; the but-I-might-want-it-one-day kind of pack rat with some I-don’t-want-to-waste-things thrown in. When you look at an item and see dollar signs it makes you think. Does this item pull it’s weight enough to warrant the room and board it requires? A lot of items don’t make the cut. Even if you do want an item later, the savings of getting rid of all those things will more than cover the cost of repurchasing the few things that you do want down the road. And as for waste – well, that’s what Craigslist, Goodwill, and Freecycle are for.
It is actually very freeing to pick up an item and, instead of packing it away, toss it in the charity box.