Engl 1122 Haley Bonner

Leah Gautreau
Ms. Bonner
Engl 1120
11/19/2023

Decluttering the Way to a Positive Lifestyle

When most people think of improving one’s life, they think of getting a better job or

finding love. But what if the start and end to all obstacles to happiness was much closer to home?

In fact, what if it was home? Most people can agree that excessive clutter can negatively impact

someone’s life. When you neglect your home life, you’re neglecting yourself. So, if we learn to

let go and declutter the chaos around us, it seems inevitable that our lives will improve around

us. By improving ourselves we also affect lives outside ourselves in positive ways.

You might think “it’s just a little clutter, can it really be that bad?” If we look at the

extreme side of clutter, it takes the shape of hoarding disorder. This is defined as “difficulty

discarding, clutter, and frequently excessive acquiring” (Shaw). You might be familiar with the

once popular Reality TV shows “Hoarders” or “Hoarders Buried Alive.” Both shows gave

viewers a look at real people suffering from a hoarding disorder and all the ways it impacted

them and the people around them negatively. Not only are these people often put into hazardous

living situations for their physical health, but it is clear that their emotional well-being is not

being nurtured either. “Theories have pointed to intense negative emotion reactions (e.g.,

sadness) as one factor that may play a critical role in HD’s etiology.” (Shaw)

However, you do not need to be a hoarder to experience the negative impacts of clutter.

In an ongoing German research project, “The qualitative results from two workshops and two

reflection exercises show that the main motivation for participants is the dissatisfaction with their
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multitude of possessions and the desire for fewer material possessions in the future” (Muster

Viola). Can you think of a time when you or someone you know shoved a bunch of your items

under the bed or in the closet before a guest showed up? Or possibly cleaned the whole house or

apartment the days leading up to family coming over? That stress and anxiety of tidying up the

place that we live in may come from a belief that how our home life is viewed is how in turn our

own selves are being perceived. One scientific article concluded that “…home self-extension,

and clutter in particular, are significant predictors of wellbeing” (Rogers and Hart). It may then

stand to reason that if clutter can negatively impact one’s wellbeing, then decluttering may be its

solution.

In recent years, the concept of decluttering has resurfaced in pop culture. Thanks to

popular literature such as Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and other

resurgences of social media tips and DIYs for decluttering, society is looking at itself and

wondering if getting rid of its stuff can really help improve other aspects of their lives. One

scientific article’s conjecture is that “although decluttering constitutes a central household chore

in consumer societies, it is rarely communicated as work within the current popular minimalism

discourse, but rather as an expression of self-care” (Muster Viola). When we take care of our

home, we are taking care of ourselves; when we take care of ourselves, we can take care of our

community.

It seems difficult to comprehend that something so simple can have such an impact on

our everyday lives. This may stem from the fact that unless we have come to the conclusion

ourselves, we may be unwilling to recognize that we need this change in our lives. An exercise

suggested in the article “The cultural practice of decluttering as household and its potentials for

sustainable consumption” is to first think about the amount of goods you own in a particular
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category. Such as clothes, books, collectibles, etc. After estimating this number, go and count the

real number of items in that category. Often, people are shocked at the discrepancy of what they

thought they had and the actual volume that existed in their homes. This exercise encourages the

first step of looking closely at what we own. When we’re not utilizing them, it’s easy to delegate

what we have as more of a “concept” than a reality.

Once I helped my friend clean out her books since she said it had started to stress her out

how much book clutter she had accumulated. She estimated to me that she probably had maybe

100 books to go through in her house. This, at the time, had already seemed quite a bit to

someone like me who has one small bookshelf, However, once I started going through the books

with her, it turns out that she had maybe 100 books… in one room. The first day we filled up 8

boxes of just books she knew for sure she didn’t want to keep in the room where she had the

least amount of books. We still had 3 more rooms to go, each having more books than the last.

Even she had felt shocked when she realized that she had undershot her accumulation of books

by a lot. It was like she had put blinders on to maybe mitigate some of the stress she was getting

or maybe to minimize the problem so as not to become overwhelmed by the task at hand. It was

a grueling task, but proved the point that decluttering was the start to a change not only in her

living space, but also her head space.

This psychology of letting go can be seen in other demographics as well. The article

“Spring Clean Your Home and Heart” focuses on nurses and how decluttering can help de-stress

and better their lives. When one thinks of a nurse’s day-to-day stresses, it may be easy to forget

that at some point they go from nurse to normal person going home. While their homes may also

have clutter, what they also might be bringing home is the emotional clutter from work. The busy

life of a nurse never gets easier, and the stress may follow them mentally around all day at work.
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Taking the time to declutter their home’s may give them a space to be allowed to also confront

their own internal clutter. “Studies also show that nurses can clear mental and emotional clutter

by putting their thoughts down on paper” (Karam).

Anyone can attempt this process of decluttering. The act of choosing which items to keep

and which to let go is a skill anyone can obtain. “The decision to declutter can be understood as a

window of opportunity in which individuals are willing to reflect on and realign their possessions

and desires for goods” (Muster Viola). Yet, it can be difficult to let go of the items around us. If

you look around your place, what are your eyes drawn to? Pictures of family and friends? Hobby

items and knick-knacks you have on tables and desks? Posters of your favorite movies, games, or

celebrities? Can you easily distinguish between the items you keep because they make you happy

and the items you keep because you can’t let them go?

Whether yes or no, it is important to note that decluttering does not mean that no clutter

can exist. Findings from “Home and the extended-self: Exploring associations between clutter

and wellbeing” showed that clutter is not inherently bad. “When things are in their place,

wherever that might be, and home expresses self-identity, wellbeing is more likely to be present”

(Rogers and Hart). How each of us view our clutter plays a large role in what is too much or too

little. If being surrounded by sports memorabilia makes someone happy, then the quantity is less

important than the quality. Some people, like myself, feel more stressed by having tons of items

around the living space, and instead prefer a more minimalistic aesthetic to begin with. What we

keep may differ, but the joy we reap is the same. When we are comfortable in our homes we are

often also comfortable in our own skins.

But if it were easy to accomplish this task, everyone would be happy. The first time I

went through my friend’s books with her, for every one book she was willing to let go of, there
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were twenty she couldn’t part with. This would have been fine except for the fact that the reason

she wanted to keep them was never because she loved that book. “A friend recommended it to

me (10 years ago), it came for free with another book I bought, I haven’t read it yet (in 10 years)

but I might, I paid so much money for this set…” When we finally did another lap around and I

pressed harder on if she really wanted to keep some that hadn’t made her happy in 10 years, she

became emotional and needed a break. I never pushed her to get rid of anything, only encouraged

her to reflect on the items that she didn’t keep because she liked the way they made her feel.

Eventually, 1 out of 20 became nearly all 20 out of 20. Something as simple as a murder

mystery book became a deeper exploration for her past self and her current self. Why did she feel

bad giving away a book her friend got her when she already had a copy? Why did money matter

when the money was spent over 10 years ago? Why did getting rid of it make her sad, but

keeping it gave her anxiety? It started becoming clearer that some of the items we keep are like

pieces of our lives we have put on pause, to be dealt with later or never. Maybe it’s as simple as

not wanting to get rid of a specific pair of jeans that we used to fit in because we believe keeping

it may encourage that time of our lives to come back or a fear of letting it go because then we

must acknowledge that time of our lives as being over. Maybe it’s as complicated as keeping a

memento from a loved one who has passed away. Some people may keep them as tangible

connections to people now gone that brings a spark of love when we look to them, others may be

holding on to something painful because they can’t move forward. It’s important to take the time

to figure out why we’re having the type of emotional reactions we might have to letting

something go. In doing so we may be one step closer to building a better us. “A clean home and

heart can make it easier for us to navigate day-to-day responsibilities and engage in the love and

relaxation we deserve as the day winds down” (Karam).

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Once we have faced ourselves and begun making progress in decluttering our homes and

our headspaces, we can see how it can change our outside world as well. When we are in a good

place, our loved ones can also benefit from this. The worry and stress friends and families may

have for us when they see us anxious or stressed can be alleviated if we have worked on that root

cause. “Additionally, clearing up clutter will give them more room and time, which will improve

their well-being because they will have more time for their family and interests” (Jain).

On a broader scale, some studies have found that decluttering can also help our world at

large. “A minimalist lifestyle will help to preserve precious resources, reduce waste, and lower

carbon emissions, all of which will have a significant positive influence on the environment”

(Jain). Every small step gets us closer to a cleaner world. It may feel so small as not to feel like it

could possibly have an impact, yet if one became many then the progress would be inevitable.

Self-care is often seen as the biggest benefit of decluttering, but it is a nice addition to know that

we may be playing our own small part in upkeeping our own communities and the wider world

we live in.

The choice comes down to being willing to take the first step. Look around your home.

What does it say about you? What do you want it to say about it? What is the story behind the

things you have displayed and the things you have tucked away, out of sight, out of mind? If you

look closer at your home and find yourself feeling stressed or maybe not feeling anything at all,

maybe try going through a few boxes in the garage or some drawers with some old clothes and

start your journey of letting go. When you do, what parts are leftover and who are you

discovering?
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Works Cited
Jain, Vijay Kumar, et al. "Goodbye Materialism: Exploring Antecedents of Minimalism and Its Impact on
Millennials Well-Being." Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary
Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development (2023): 1-22.

Karam, Samantha. Spring Clean Your Home and Heart. 26 May 2022. <https://voice.ons.org/news-and-
views/spring-clean-your-home-and-heart>.

Muster Viola, Iran Samira, Münsch Marlene. "The cultural practice of decluttering as household work
and its potentials for sustainable consumption." Frontiers in Sustainability 3 (2022).
<https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsus.2022.958538 >.

Rogers, Caroline J. and Rona Hart. "Home and the extended-self: Exploring associations between clutter
and wellbeing." Journal of Environmental Psychology 73 (2021).
<https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494421000062?fr=RR-
2&ref=pdf_download&rr=828c36cf9c8c1f32>.

Shaw, A M et al. "Hoarding and emotional reactivity: the link between negative emotional reactions and
hoarding symptomatology." Hoarding and emotional reactivity: the link between negative
emotional reactions and hoarding symptomatology 63 (2015).
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4387091/#:~:text=Theories%20have
%20pointed%20to%20intense,linked%20with%20greater%20hoarding%20symptoms.>.