1. Friends and Family Always Think Your House is Clean (Even if You Haven’t Cleaned at all!)
Lovely comments from family and friends about your neat and clean home are a great confidence booster! Before decluttering, I didn’t want to let spontaneous guests past the front door.
Now that we have fewer objects to clutter our space, friends think my living room looks great when I think it’s a mess!
2. You Know What You Own, Which Decreases Frusteration.
You won’t buy duplicates because you can’t find items you already have!
I hated not finding what I knew we already owned, and It was continually reoccurring! Rebuying lost objects we needed NOW angered and frustrated me!
Owing things I couldn’t find seemed like a colossal waste. This issue led me to ask questions about my cluttered home and full storage space. What was the point if I couldn’t find anything? Why did I own all these items? Did I buy objects because they were cheap?
I concluded that I did buy most of my stuff to save money. I purchased it on sale or relatively cheap on Crages List, and I thought I’d save on items the kids would eventually need. The problem was I couldn’t find the objects when we needed them, and having to rebuy things eroded my faulty logic and sent me into a decluttering frenzy!
3. Relationships become more important than physical objects.
Have you ever met someone who gave you the feeling that their possessions were more important to them than you?
Decluttering taught me that possessions are just things, and even extraordinarily sentimental objects are not as important as the special people in our lives.
If you’d asked me years ago if objects were more important to me than people, I would’ve denied it, but an incident with my son taught me a lesson.
One afternoon, he kicked a ball in the living room, and I told him to do that outside. He continued the soccer game in the house, and I warned him one last time before traipsing off to the kitchen.
Hearing the ball hit the wall yet again, I pivoted, determined to confiscate his ball. Bounce, bounce, CRASH! A sentimental figurine fell, just missing my head, shattering inches from my toes! ”What are you doing!” I bellowed, ”That figurine is irreplaceable!” I was agitated and subjected my seven-year-old to an emotional lecture about listening and taking care of other people’s things.
I glued the figurine together, but it was a sore spot with me for months. Looking at the disfigured figure, dried glue drips here and there stirred my anger. One day I threw it out! Sentimental objects that eroded relationships didn’t deserve a place in my home.
The figurine was causing more harm than good. Getting rid of it helped me apply the same logic to items that irritated my husband.
He asked me on several occasions to get rid of certain things, which immediately put me on the defense! I enumerated all the reasons why we could not get rid of a single thing! In the end, I concluded there was no reason to keep items that caused us to fight.
Relationships are more important than things.
4. Getting rid of distractions allow you to find what you most love to do.
It wasn’t until I dug myself out of a mound of unnecessary clutter that I realized how much I enjoy writing. Up till this point, I enjoyed sewing and landscaping as hobbies. I still work on landscaping projects, and occasionally I sew, but I found a new passion for writing after getting rid of half my stuff.
I think my enjoyment of writing was always there. It was just got buried under a pile of junk!
5. Kids play Better and Longer with fewer toys.
Studies show kids are distracted when given too many toys. (See References) Having fewer toys helps kids develop longer attention spans because they spend more time exploring all the possibilities of one toy rather than jumping from toy to toy every few minutes.
6. Less Stuff = More Friends.
You invite the neighbors in and friends and family over more often when you have a clean, decluttered home. Wishing spontaneous guests would go away becomes a thing of the past, and a tidy home does wonders for relationships.
7. You Take More Pride in Your Home.
Decluttering Banishes a sense of embarrassment over clutter messes. You may already be proud of your home, but the pride that comes from enjoying a tidy, decluttered home surpasses the satisfaction of knowing you bought a house in a good location or that your home has curb appeal.
Knowing your home is beautiful inside and out is a wonderful thing!
8. Less clutter = More spontaneity!
Spending less on stuff leaves more money to do spontaneous travel. Having less stuff allows you to travel lightly and flexibly.
Owing less enables you to rent out your apartment (There is space for another person’s things as well as your furniture), put your stuff in a small storage container, or sell it and travel the world!
9. Owning Less teaches us what is most important.
It’s hard to know what we treasure most when it’s hidden under a pile of junk. When we declutter, we keep our favorite things.
10. Kids learn to Think Twice Before They Buy.
Children who grow up in homes that practice family minimalism learn helpful money habits and control impulse buying.
11. You don’t regret impulsive purchases.
When you live with a minimalist mindset, you learn not to buy items on a whim. I know I’ve deeply regretted the purchases I made at the spur of the moment.
I now force myself to step away from objects while I process if I need them, if they’re so useful I can’t live without them, or if they’re a waste of money.
My best trick is leaving the store and doing all my essential shopping before deciding if the ‘Must Have’ items are worth driving back for.
12. You can find what you own.
Before decluttering, I was frustrated over my wasted time looking for items I couldn’t find. One of my biggest motivators to get rid of things was finding what I owned.
What was the point of owning it in the first place if it took less time to drive to the next town and buy an item when I needed it!
Not being able to find anything in the storage room increased my frustration. I was frustrated with myself for buying all the stuff in the first place, and it didn’t make me a fun person to live with. Deciding to cut my losses and let things go was one of the best decisions I ever made.
The only way I found to find what I need when I need it, is to get rid of everything I don’t need.
13. More Time to do What You Love!
You don’t waste time managing excessive stock. I wasted so many hours trying to organize my hoard of ‘Just-in-case’ items that I feel sick thinking about it. I liked organizing, but I had so much stock it was impossible to manage.
When I heard Cortney Carver’s famous quote, ”If organizing you’re stuff worked, you’d be organized by now!” I felt like someone threw me a lifeline, and I started getting rid of unnecessary possessions.
I want to spend extra time with my family, not on my possessions!
14. Owning Fewer Items Saves Money!
Experiences are Better than Things! Leave the cheap stuff in the store. Even items on sale and wonderful bargains add up when you buy many.
As they say in Swedish, ”Many small streams make a river,” In other words, Spending a little too often becomes expensive, and saving a little soon adds up to a trip or outing.
15. Your Home Feels More Spacious.
When your home isn’t filled to the brim, it looks spacious; even smaller homes feel bigger when they aren’t burdened with stuff! We live in a small house, and getting rid of our junk to get rid of the furniture which housed our junk made our home feel much bigger!
16. Your Clothes Aren’t Wrinkled When You Get Them Out of Your Wardrobe!
Too many items in your closet, byså, or wardrobe wilt your clothes before you get a chance to wear them. Excessive hanging clothes in your closet get easily crushed, and folded clothes become creased if you pile them too high. Even folding Marie Condo style won’t save your clothes if you jam too many pairs of pants in one drawer!
The Swedish word ‘Lagom’ comes in handy when referring to Family Minimalism. It means to have the perfect amount! Having just the right amount of stuff for your space is what we should all strive for.
17. Your Kids Won’t Constantly Ask for New Toys When They Understand the Joy of Less.
I noticed a difference in my youngest daughter, who was only a few years old when I started decluttering in earnest! She has a tiny bedroom approximately four meters across (13ft) and 180 cm (5.9ft) at its widest point, which tapers off to just 80 cm (2.6ft). All her possessions fit in her room, and she naturally began purging toys and clothes she felt were for younger children. Without my prompt, she brings me items to give people she knows with babies and young children. When her room gets too cluttered, she picks it up and gets rid of things.
When my middle daughter grew up when I had a significant stuff problem, I bought way too many toys, and she could never figure out how to sort them. I couldn’t let go of items at the time, and I, unfortunately, taught my daughter to keep everything.
18. You do less laundry.
Getting rid of extra clothes cut my laundry time in half!
19. Clean less.
I quit picking up our living room! Getting rid of extra stuff made picking up so simple my girls (ages 12 and 7) can do it all by themselves!
20. People with tidier homes are more active.
According to a study by Indiana University, people with cluttered homes are less physically active (Reference 3). When I have fewer possessions to pick up, organize, and clean, I get out and exercise more often. I no longer have the excuse, ”I need to clean the house,” to get out of exercise.
For more decluttering inspiration, check out these posts!
Copyright Annie Eklöv
References