Should you hire a professional to help you Declutter?
I really enjoy reading Kristin’s writings over at The Frugal Girl. If you haven’t checked out her blog I highly recommend taking a look. She has so much wisdom delivered in a concise, thoughtful, approachable way. I have learned a lot from Kristin and one thing that has stayed with me for a long time is the article she wrote entitled: How much stuff should you own? The answer is simpler than you think.
In the article Kristin writes “The right amount of stuff = the amount you can fully and regularly use.”
So simple. So elegant. I love it.
Why do we always feel the need to declutter? Surely it is not that our houses have become smaller or our families have become bigger. On a macro level, houses are trending much bigger than they were even 50 years ago (with a slight trend downward in recent years but still nothing compared to the norm of 50 years ago). Family size has been steadily declining.
So we can safely turn our attention to the real underlying issue: the rate at which things are entering our homes.
I think that the onset of fast fashion, cheap household goods and a culture of advertising and super-consumerism along with our country's overall wealth are key factors contributing to excess possessions and the overwhelm that accompanies such excess.
Decluttering is a reactive process. Our accumulation of possessions gets so much attention on the back end. Perhaps because we have culturally come to love dramatic before and afters of a marathon decluttering session. That feeling of a clean slate is so alluring. It produces a high that can be addictive.
I would like to present to you an alternative option. A more proactive approach to decluttering (or maybe we should call this “Clutter Prevention”). One in which we consume at a much slower, organic pace. Where we thoughtfully consider what our true needs are and whether or not a product will address that need or create more hassle than it is worth (a cost-benefit analysis if you will).
What if before you considered buying something or bringing something into your home, your life, you thought about the full life cycle of the item. Not just considering the purchase price but also time and money spent maintaining the item? Can you buy spare parts? Would it be worth the cost and effort to repair? How hard is it to clean? How frequently will it be used? Where will it be stored when it is not being used? How much of a hassle will it be to retrieve the item from storage? What happens when the item is no longer serving us? Can we pass it along? Will it be destined for a landfill?
I also like to ponder a purchase for quite some time. Depending on the item and the level of investment this can be a few days, up to a year’s time. Slowing down the purchasing process helps things become clear and helps me feel confident about my purchase.
This is one of my main points that I want to offer you. Figuring out what you truly need, what will bring you happiness, what you will actually use, is a skill. It is an exercise in knowing yourself better. Purchasing items is a skill. The good news is I think these are skills anyone can learn. I feel like when we learn to consume slowly, organically and thoughtfully we get a good sense, intuitively, of what is worth bringing into our lives and what is not.
So why aren’t people more proactive? Why don’t we talk about Clutter Prevention more than we do about Decluttering? First, while I would argue that the mental, emotional and physical work of Decluttering is much greater than Clutter Prevention, Clutter Prevention seems like more work. Mostly because it happens on the front-end. When you ignore the strategy of Clutter Prevention, you get the immediate gratification of purchasing the item and allowing it to solve your problem (even if it’s only a short-lived solution or a poor solution. This is the illusion of progress because it’s actually making your life harder in the long run, not easier).
Second, the model of Clutter Prevention does nothing for the huge corporations making tons of money off of selling us cheap crap they have convinced us we need. It is a serious problem environmentally but I believe this way of life also takes a serious toll on our mental, physical and emotional health. Once you own something, you now have a connection to that item. Scientists have termed this, the Endowment Effect. The endowment effect describes a circumstance in which an individual places a higher value on an object that they already own than the value they would place on that same object if they did not own it. This is one of the reasons I believe that Decluttering is so hard. We have this psychological connection to our items.
Also, Decluttering is work. It can be exhausting. You physically have to pull out your stuff and do at least some handling of it - even if it's just to throw it in the trash bag.
So how can a professional help you through your own Decluttering Journey? It is ow can someone not living in your household and not knowing how things are used possibly know what is excess? The short answer is they can’t. Women are often the eyes and the ears of the household and have a good handle on what is being used on a day to day basis.
A professional can prime you mentally and emotionally for the task at hand. I think our excess can represent a manifestation of perhaps bigger issues in our life. And therefore, confronting that excess stirs up some emotions, usually negative, or at the very least can feel emotionally and mentally exhausting. A professional can help you stay more emotionally neutral, seeing your excess for the lessons it can teach you and not just the mistakes you have made. And I can help you see how those lessons will apply to your life going forward so that you can consume more thoughtfully and break the never ending cycle of Decluttering.
A professional provides momentum. How many times have you put “declutter the linen closet” on your list of things you want to accomplish, only to find 10 other things to do with your limited time and energy. As Gretchin Rubin says, “something that can happen at any time often happens at no time.” Evaluate your track record in this area and I think you will see that hiring a professional can give you the momentum and motivation you need to finally tackle what you’ve wanted to do for a long time. And having a finish date to work toward also helps you stay motivated and focused when you’ve run out of decluttering steam (my availability and accountability by phone or text help too).
I can be objective. Yes, I’m not you and yes, I don’t know everything about you and your family but I think that’s actually a benefit, not a drawback. I don’t have the physiological connection to your items and the bias that comes along with that. Having an objective third party on your team throughout the process is invaluable.
I think Decluttering can be a beautiful process and a great teacher for us if done with a new mindset (and doing it with the help of a professional definitely helps!).
I believe (and have experienced) that our excess possessions can show us what is no longer important to us (and by default what is actually important to us now). For example, in the process of decluttering your closet, your clothes can teach you what colors you prefer to wear, what styles of clothes you prefer to wear, and show you what clothes actually work for your life. And when the excess is removed, I can tell you that the path forward is so much clearer. You will begin to see that you already have enough or you will clearly see where you may be lacking.
This is just one example but I know from personal experience that this can happen in all areas of our life where we choose to remove excess. Everything is easier, everything is clearer. You have more space for living. You have more space for thinking. YOU have more space for existing and aren’t crowded out by your possessions.
So are you ready to strengthen your decision making muscles and move from a life of constant Decluttering and make the shift to more purposeful consumption?
