As a Home Organizer, I help people clear out their clutter. Clutter in their time and schedules, their to-do lists, their relationships, and mostly I help people clear out the clutter in their homes. I not only deal with the physical aspects of clutter, but I specialize in the psychological aspects as well. The truth is, I can help someone clean out and organize their home, but if we don’t deal with the psychological side of their clutter problem, the clutter always seems to come back.
Unfortunately, clutter is not always an easy problem to solve. It sometimes seems like it should be, but it’s just not. Sure, if you were to walk into someone else’s cluttered house and look around, you’d probably think to yourself, “Wow, this is a lot of stuff! Do they really need all this? I’m sure most of it isn’t even that important. I’m sure it would be a piece of cake to get rid of all this junk and clear this place out!”
Yes, it’s easy to view other people’s clutter as useless or insignificant, but when it comes to our own clutter… well, that becomes a whole other story! You see, there so many reasons why we feel the need to keep things in our life. So many reasons why we hang on to stuff, even if we know we probably shouldn’t.
In this episode, we take a look at a handful of those reasons that you might relate to.
First, are the good reasons to hang on to things:
- You love it and it brings you joy.
- You use it and need it.
- You think it’s special or sentimental.
We also look at some other not-so-great reasons to keep things:
- You feel guilty for how much it cost.
- You feel guilty that someone gave it to you.
- You feel guilty that it might go to waste.
- You lack awareness or knowledge that you even own it.
- You really do intend to use it one day.
Now, there are definitely other reasons that I’m sure you can think of as to why you might hang on to thing that potentially clutter your home.
But in this episode, we talk about one very specific reason that we hang on to certain items that we don’t love, don’t need, or don’t find as sentimental. It’s a very common factor that I’m sure all of us can relate to. It’s called the “just in case” mentality.
Have you ever held on to something that you don’t need, that you don’t use, that you don’t necessarily even like “just in case” you might need it one day? Everyone of us has, at some point, feared tossing out something only to realize that we really did need it after all – even if that “after all” is six months, one year, or even five years down the road.
In this episode I give you some very specific examples in my own life of times when I’ve been guilty of keeping things “just in case” I might need them one day. We also take an in depth look at the consequences of keeping too many of those types of items.
And finally I give you two very simple solutions to help you whenever you find yourself slipping into the “just in case” way of thinking… because it’s definitely a trap sometimes!
Do you know anyone who could use some inspiration to organize their home? Anyone who’s a little overwhelmed with clutter and chaos? Share this episode with them by having them go to CarlaRaeArneson.com/epsiode15 or just have them visit LifeMadeSimplePodcast.com .
If you don’t want to listen to the full episode, you can read it instead! Just click here to download the free transcript.
Links Mentioned in this Show:
Share this Episode: CarlaRaeArneson.com/episode15
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Free Worksheet: “5 Steps to Organizing Your Home”
Or send a text to 44222 with the word ORGANIZE
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Or send a text to 44222 with the word 9SIMPLIFY
Website: CarlaRaeArneson.com
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Full Transcript of this Episode: CarlaRaeArneson.com/transcript15
