How To Identify Clutter In Your Home

How to identify clutter is one of those things that’s not always easy to figure out.  Yet, what exactly constitutes clutter is a very important question.  After all, how do you get rid of stuff if you don’t know what to reduce?

I actually receive a good portion of emails from ladies who struggle to determine whether specific items in their home are in fact clutter.  This is because clutter is sometimes hard to recognize.

We live in our houses day-in and day-out, and clutter just becomes part of the landscape. We don’t even recognize piles and groupings of stuff because it’s become the norm. In fact, many have gotten pretty good at ignoring clutter, or just plain not realizing it’s moved in.

Let’s face it, clutter usually doesn’t show itself until you can’t find what you’re looking for, or realize you’ve bought something you already had – wasting time and money.

Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rule for labeling an item as clutter or useful. Everyone is different, what may be useful for me could be total clutter for you and vice versa.

However, hope is not lost. There are some basic principles and rules that can help you decide whether an item is clutter and should be removed from your home.

How to identify clutter in your home!

1. Ask Good Questions

Asking a few important questions is the first step to take when you want to identify clutter in your home.  Ask yourself:

Would I pay for this today?

Essentially, if you didn’t already own the item would you go out and buy it right now?

If you answer no get rid of it, it’s not something you need.

Are you going to use it?

If you have an item in your home you know you will never use then it’s time to move on and get rid of that clutter. Sometimes these are things you once loved and used often, but you are now in a different season of life.

For example, I recently decluttered our ice cream maker. When the kids were little we used it often, but now that they are grown, it’s not something I will use any longer.

Does it work?

If you have something that either doesn’t work or you don’t have all the pieces for, you can be confident that it’s clutter and needs to be removed. Be honest with yourself, if you didn’t send it for repair by now, it’s never going to be repaired so why are you letting it take up precious space in your home?

Is it a duplicate item?

Keeping duplicate items is one of the primary causes of clutter. There is usually no need to have two of the same item. 

This can range from kitchen tools, to work tools. Or sometimes they are not necessarily exact duplicates but you have two items that will do the same job. Think about it, do you really need a toaster and a toaster oven? Get rid of one.

Are you saving the item for someday or just in case?

Here’s the hard reality, we are not guaranteed tomorrow. Do you really want to waste your today dealing with stuff that you have no present use for?

I know it can be hard, but it’s important to trust that your future needs will be provided for and let items that are not currently useful go.

 

2. If It Doesn’t Add Value to Your Life It’s Clutter

Items in our home can add value in various ways.  They may be something particularly useful and time-saving like a vacuum cleaner or something that provides beauty or joy when you look at it, like your favorite decorative vase.

Either way, the items in your home should add value to your life in some way, if they don’t they’re clutter.

The thing is what provides value will be different for each of us.  For instance, I have a friend who easily ditched her apple slicer when she was decluttering her home. The apple slicer was something she rarely used and knew that a simple knife could do the same job.

I, on the other hand, use my Apple slicer numerous times a week. My apple slicer is so convenient I can slice the entire apple in a moment and I use it often.

So look at the items in your home and decide if the item is, in fact, useful for YOU.

When it comes to the items in your home that may not be practically useful but are more decorative, think about the type of atmosphere you want to create in your home.

For me, I love decorating and have no desire to live in a house with bare walls and every surface completely clear.  I want my home to feel warm and cozy. But I also want it to feel clean and uncluttered. So I am careful about what I keep in my home. If I don’t love it I try to get rid of it.

The bottom line is if you have items in your home that are not adding value to your life, this means they are subtracting from your life. You are having to either store, clean, or maintain the item in some way.  These items are clutter get rid of them.

3. If It Triggers Feelings of Guilt It’s Clutter

One of the absolute hardest parts of decluttering is picking up an item that you don’t really use or love and yet you find yourself overcome by feelings of guilt at the thought of getting rid of it.  When this happens we usually end up putting the item back down and stalling our decluttering efforts.

Here’s the thing, you need to get rid of that item!

Look guilt is a negative emotion that you don’t need in your life. Not only that, but it’s just stuff. Detach your emotions and give yourself permission to get rid of it.

If dealing with emotional issues is a big area of struggle for you when it comes to your declutter you really should check out this post on How to Conquer the Emotions Preventing You From Decluttering.

4.  If You’re Holding On To It Just In Case, It’s Clutter

This is probably the most common struggle I hear about. So many people stall out of their decluttering efforts when it comes to “what if” items.

These are the items that provide no current value to your life. You have other items that would do the same job or it’s a duplicate you’re holding on to it just in case you need it someday.

When I was working as an attorney I had to wear business suits almost daily. When I first quit practicing law I had only planned on taking a year off. I packed up all my suits and put them in a bin in the garage.

A few years later, I had not returned to practicing law, and I came across the bin. When I went through it, I was more than a little tempted to hang on to all those suits. I’d invested a good sum of money in and I knew I’d have to replace them if I went back to practicing law.

I really had to stop and remind myself I didn’t want to go back to living that life. At this point, I had no intention of going back to work as an attorney.  It was crazy to hold on to things for a life I didn’t want because I was afraid I might need them someday.

Holding onto things for “what if” or “someday” prevents you from living in the moment and being present with the life you have now.

Anything preventing you from fully living your life is clutter.  Let it go and live the life you have today, don’t let stuff prevent you from being fully present for it.

5. If You Didn’t Know It Was There, It’s Clutter

When you are going through your decluttering efforts chances you’ll come across things you didn’t even know where there or forgot you had.  Be honest, if you have forgotten something was even there do you really need it?

It’s obviously not something you use regularly.  If it is useful, most likely you already have an alternate item doing the job.

There really is no good reason for keeping something you didn’t even know you had. It is clutter and it’s time to Let It Go!

6. If You Don’t Have Room For It In Your Home It’s Clutter

This one is tough! There are things we really do love and hate to get rid of, but we just don’t have the room for them.  However, the fact is that if the item is just collecting dust or becomes a tripping hazard all the time, it doesn’t belong in your home.

Now, don’t start throwing out everything right now that you don’t have a specific place for.  You really want to make sure you’re not devoting storage space to actual clutter which could make room for useful items that don’t have a storage spot.  If you can get rid of other stuff to make room for it, it may not be clutter. 

However, you only have so much space available, and if you can’t make a home for something, it unfortunately just doesn’t belong there.

I hope these little tips will help you identify clutter and help you get rid of some unwanted items. The more unnecessary stuff you get rid of the easier your home is to manage.

Remember, stuff equals money, time, and even extra stress.  The more you minimize the clutter the more you will maximize your life.