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Why You Hold onto Clutter (and How to Let Go)

9/3/2019

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by Susan McCarthy
Chances are that while you’re decluttering you encounter items that you don’t know what to do with. You know that you haven’t used it. You might even be clear in the knowledge that you don’t like or care for the item. But …

You can’t make yourself put the item in the trash or the donation box. You think, “What if _____?” and decide that you should hold onto this unwanted item “just in case.” And you tuck it away in the attic, basement, garage, shed, spare room, corner of your laundry room, or … back where you found it.

You’ve decided to hold off on deciding. Although, really, you did decide. You decided to keep an item that you don’t use or want.
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Reasons You Hold onto Unwanted Items

There are many reasons for holding onto an item as opposed to tossing it, giving it away, or donating it.
  • It cost a lot of money.
  • It was a gift.
  • You inherited the item.
  • You haven’t used the item as much as you thought you would.
  • You’ve never used the item.
  • You wanted the item at one point in your life and you haven’t acknowledged that your life has changed in a way that means that item isn’t important or helpful.
  • It’s connected to an event you attended.
  • You think this is the type of item you’re supposed to keep. (For example, photo greeting cards.)
When you pick up an item in your home, you probably acknowledge why you don’t want to decide what to do with it … and you then brush that reason right out of your mind and you return the item to it’s place on a shelf or to a box intended for storage.
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Storage Spaces Hold a Lot of Emotional Baggage

When you delay making a decision about an item and put the item into storage, you are filling that storage space with emotional as well as physical baggage.

This makes storage spaces challenging areas to declutter. You’ve already handled these items and decided that you weren’t going to decide. And that delayed decision creates an open loop.

Think of a circle with a gap that prevents the curved line from becoming a circle. You want to close the gap and complete the circle. When you delay making a decision, these open loops call out to be closed.

That’s why walking into one of your storage spaces feels so draining. You already know that you held off deciding and that if you start decluttering this space then you’ll need to face those items again.

Decide to Eliminate Clutter

Holding onto items that you don’t like, use, or even want traps you in the past (including the future that you had hoped for in the past). These items clutter your view of the life you are living right now.

There is no easy way to carry out decluttering these items. Start by picking up an item and ask why you’ve held onto it. Next, turn that reason around.
  • This cost a lot of money. But keeping it in a box in the garage doesn’t spend out that sunk cost. If I give it away, then its new owner will make use of it.
  • This was a gift. But the purpose of a gift is for the giver to show how they feel about me. Me receiving the gift has met this purpose. I can release the item.
  • I inherited this item. But I don’t like it or use it. My memories of the person aren’t in the item, they are in me. I can take a picture of the item in case I want to look at it again. Keeping the item in a box isn’t honoring my memory of the person. Holding onto this does nothing for me or memories.

Now, these responses may seem somewhat laborious, and in the beginning, it can take some time to untangle yourself from an item. However, once you come up with a response, you can use it again for other items. “Oh, here’s another item that I thought that I’d use more often than I have. Oh, well, I haven’t used it and I can’t see myself using it now, so I’ll pop it into my donation box.”
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Additional Resources
  • Let It Go
  • Why I Wish My Mother Had Heard about Swedish Death Cleaning
  • How to Decide What to Keep when You're Decluttering
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    Hi, I’m Susan

    I’m the chief (and only) Organized Squirrel at A Less Cluttered Life. In these articles, I meld my nearly 30 years as a teacher with my new career as a professional organizer to show you how to clear your cluttered home and schedule to create the life you want.

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