Can you live with less stuff?

Recently, a friend called to tell me their home renovation is complete.  Anyone who has ever had even minor fixes to their home understands the relief this realization can bring.  Your “life on hold” can now resume again.  Your new space feels so spacious & inviting.  The items you lovingly packed away can now be rediscovered.  Let the unpacking begin!

About a quarter through the unpacking, you start to wonder when you’ll come to the end of your stuff.  At first, your new space looks like a magazine spread as you carefully place items back into their new home.  Then, as you continue to add more stuff, you start rationalizing that those magazine spreads really don’t have ANYTHING in the spaces they are showing.  Finally, you throw your hands up & just start cramming the rest of your stuff into your new beautiful space.

What happened to the spacious, inviting feeling?  The excitement of your new space?  The relief of resuming your life?  It was just covered in stuff.

Do you really need all that stuff?  What would life be like without all that stuff?  George Carlin has a video about having too much stuff.  It’s a little explicit for me to share here.  What is interesting is he’s a comedian making jokes about the important stuff we keep that ends up burdening our lives.  He has the audience rolling with laughter & probably a tear or two.  And then the audience goes home, faces reality & stops laughing.  Now the tears are not from laughing.

The frustration, stress & confusion too much stuff in your life brings can weigh you down, tasks take longer & make life harder – not easier.

Is it easier for you or your children to put away 10 toys/games or 30?  How many can they actually play with in one setting? Does it enhance their play time to have more options or just overwhelm them?  I can tell you my friend saw the answer to these questions firsthand when they started moving into the newly renovated area of their home.  The children took toys into their new game room themselves.   Toys of their choosing.  Quickly, my friends noticed some toys had been abandoned – not to make the move – and the ones selected to move were being played with instead of watching TV.  Also, clean-up became easier for them all & was completed instead of neglected.

Peter Walsh, Organizing Guru, has a book called It’s All Too Much about this very problem.  I see it everyday in client’s homes.  You can rationalize keeping each and every item in your home or you can finally decide to let things go opening yourself to a less burdened life.  It’s all a little like letting go of your blankie all those years ago.  It was frightening to consider not having this comfort with you all day.  You may have even felt a little naked without your blankie.  But it sure was easier to play with holding on to it.

I’m here to help you by disclosing my knowledge of how to organize & be prepared for any situation.  I will show you tips & tricks through posts on the Styled & Organized Living Facebook page, @StyledOrganized on Twitter & the Styled & Organized Living Pinterest page.  Some posts will be simple tools while others will be ideas to consider.   But all will show you how to gain a little more control over your life through organization because Life is Better Organized!