Everyone would agree that it’s been a bit of a stressful year. I keep reading about how over the course of this pandemic season, a multitude of people are coming to the realization that a life full of excess is certainly adding to the stress and are looking to simplify their lives. Many are making the decision to deal with their clutter by cleaning out their spaces and downsizing their possessions.
More and more of us are seeing that a life without excess is a better, more peaceful, healthier life.
Clutter-induced stress is REAL, but it’s easier to ignore when we are out of the house at work, running the kids to their activities, running errands, etc., most of the time. But since most of us have been home this year more than ever before, that clutter has become impossible to ignore.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been lucky to have had a growing minimalist mindset my entire adult life and I give this a whole lot of credit for keeping me well over the last decade. I learned years ago that extra possessions create extra stress. I purposefully consider everything that comes into my home by asking myself these questions: do I need it? Do I REALLY want it? Will I use it? How much maintenance will it require? Where will I store it? Will it last? Will this add value to my life? Is it worth it? If I don’t have good answers for these questions then it’s usually fairly easy to just say no. I’ve learned the hard way that letting my guard down in this area quickly leads to packed closets and stressed minds.
By only owning what I need and what I really, really want, I am able to stay on top of clutter and easily keep my home in order. This is a huge gift I give to myself because when my home is not orderly I feel tangible, copious amounts of health-sucking stress. When my environment is peaceful, my mind is naturally more at peace.
Even with having less possessions, keeping a clean and decluttered home does take intentionality and commitment. Each morning I spend a few minutes tidying - making the bed, cleaning up from breakfast, putting dishes away, straightening up the couch pillows, wiping the bathroom counters, running the hand vac on the tile floors, clearing off surfaces, and putting away anything that didn’t get put away the prior evening. This allows me to start my day feeling lighter, peaceful, and energized.
I remain ever-vigilant, yet it never ceases to amaze me that at least a couple times a year I still need to go through the closets and drawers to declutter. Particularly with having a kid, stuff has an amazing way of creeping into the house despite my best efforts.
The sudden increase in people who are starting to reconsider their ways of excess makes me feel elated, yet it also upsets me, because the hard question has to be asked - where is all of our crap that is being decluttered going? Some of it may be going to charity or to someone else who could use it, but sadly most of it is likely to end up in the landfill.
Fact: much of our excess is just soul-sucking junk.
We are a “throw away society.” That cheap plastic tchotchke broke? We throw it out. The cute, trendy top from Forever 21 fell apart in less than 21 days? Throw it out. We buy packages of food that are more plastic packaging than food. When something breaks we toss it because it’s easier to buy another one on Amazon then it is to spend 20 minutes trying to fix it. We stand in line for hours to pay $1000 for the latest cell phone only to find that it really doesn’t do much more than the perfectly good phone we already have, or the one we had before that one.
We throw hundreds of dollars away on stuff we don’t need each year only to find that our wallets, and our souls, just keep getting emptier.
We have to wake up. We have to break our consumption mentality. To whom much is given, much is required. We need to stop buying so much and we need to treat what we already have with care. We need to spend less on frivolous things for ourselves and more on causes that matter.
My hope is that as the awakening to a life with less spreads to more and more people, the practice of over-consumption and excess can end now, with this generation. It has to stop with us. We have to stop collecting and stockpiling so much cheap plastic crap that breaks in a minute and so many cheap, poorly made clothes that don’t last a season. We have to stop being such suckers for marketing tricks and corporate deception.
We can’t go back in time and not accumulate the excessive, unnecessary stuff we already have, but we can get rid of it now, and then commit to not bringing anymore of it into our lives.
If we live more minimally now we can set the example for our kids that possessions aren’t as important as we’ve led them to believe. Let’s leave less of a mess for them to clean up. Let’s show them that the best things in life are free. People are what’s important. Our health is what’s important. What we do with our lives, not what we own, defines us.
If we look hard enough, we can see that there are many silver linings to be found even in this challenging season. May this moment lead us to a better way of living.
For more peace, for more health, get rid of your stuff.
Find inspiration for decluttering, downsizing, and living a life filled with more purpose here and here.
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