Your efforts to achieve organized living cannot be achieved without clutter control. If you are living with too much stuff you are giving the clutter thief permission to steal from you. Without consistent and systematic efforts to declutter, you allow the thievery to continue unabated.

There ...Your efforts to achieve organized living cannot be achieved without clutter control. If you are living with too much stuff you are giving the clutter thief permission to steal from you. Without consistent and systematic efforts to declutter, you allow the thievery to continue unabated.

There can be no question that clutter is the number one thief in the organized living neighborhood. It takes up space that belongs to you and it does so with your permission. If someone was coming into your home every day and stealing your material goods you would take action to stop that thief, and yet your clutter continues to steal from you every day that you allow it to exist.

The stuff in your environment is robbing you blind. It is robbing you of:

  • self respect - if you do not want people in your home because of its current cluttered state you are allowing clutter to rob you of your self respect.
  • focus - if your environment is so cluttered you don't know where to start then the clutter thief has robbed you of your focus and ability to set priorities. Clutter in your environment distracts you from the important things that you should be focusing on in order to manifest the life that you really want.
  • future - clutter keeps you oriented to your past and tied to things and events that have already happened. What is the difference between clutter and memorabilia? Clutter keeps you stuck in the past effectively stealing your future, whereas memorabilia celebrates the past and promotes good feelings about the life already lived. This promotes self confidence so you can move towards the future.
  • energy - your stuff is an energy thief. Feng shui teachings suggest that clutter blocks the proper flow of energy in a space and that "stuff " that hangs around represents blocked energy. No wonder people with cluttered lives say they cannot mount the energy to "deal with it". Together with another thief called depression , your clutter steals an immense amount of energy leaving you feeling physically, emotionally, and spiritually drained and unable to mount any kind of defense against the energy hemorrhage from the wounds these co-conspirators inflict.
  • health - good maintenance and cleaning of a physical environment is simply not possible when you have stuff everywhere. Dust build up leads to potential health problems like asthma and allergies. If left too long clutter can invite other creatures to come and live with you like rodents and insects, both of which can carry potential health risks.
  • clarity - without consistent efforts at clutter control your stuff will quickly build an enormous mass until it becomes so overwhelming you lose your ability to set priorities and make good decisions. You see, the clutter thief counts on you to lose your ability to think clearly so that it can continue robbing you.

Most modern homes today have intruder alarms but no amount of sophisticated security systems will stop the clutter thief. There is no technology that that will alert you to the build up of clutter and no organized living police to come and catch the clutter criminal. Only you can do that.

Author's Bio: 

Beverly OMalley is a nurse who loves to organize anything! Visit www.organization-makes-sense.com for further insights into the real costs of clutter and how a disorderly and chaotic environment carries real risk on the physical, emotional, and spiritual level.