Clutter Kills!

I found this article very interesting.   This picture is from a home in Houston where a lady had been contacted over and over about her account.  When they finally got permission to check on the lady, this is what they found in her house.  Can you say she had an obsession with Whataburger?

It points out that one of the number one killers in America is clutter.  Unfortunately, I have a mild case of the disease--but none as bad as the sister to the left. 

We keep and collect too much stuff.  A piece of paper here, a program there, a reminder note and it all begins to pile up. Our kitchen counter is the worst magnet for clutter.  The mail gets dumped here and more.  It's the first piece of surface that you see when you come in the door.  We are constantly fighting the battle with clutter at this point in our lives.

I love the show on HGTV where they pull everything out of the house on to a tarp and give you 30 minutes to sort through everything.  You decide whether to keep it, toss it or sell it. After these moments you are left with a smaller pile--but then you have to go through the keep pile and put it on a smaller tarp.  Hard stuff to watch, but it points out that most of our decision about clutter comes down to two things:  1)Emotional attachment to things-we place great value on things and who they belonged too.  I'm just as guilty on this one.  I have old family photos that I'm keeping and items from my parents.  They're stored away but taking up space in that storage.  I know what they mean when they say that we are emotionally hitched to things in our lives. 2) Lack of decision--we just don't want to have to make a decision about things right now, so we put them off.  That's when the clutter bug strikes.

I want to read this book in the future to help me with this disease.  Do you have anything that helps you avoid clutter in your life?

HT:  Boing Boing