10 Ways to Identify Clutter in Your Home

There is a freedom that comes when you get rid of the clutter in your home.

Everyone has clutter. It’s a fact of life. As we go about the business of living, we accumulate stuff. We buy clothes, home décor, office supplies, kitchen gadgets we use once and never again. We subscribe to newspapers and magazines. Mail comes in every day—a lot of it junk—and it lays in a pile, unopened, on the kitchen counter, table, or desk. We have a dozen screwdrivers, but never the one we need. Can’t find something? Forget it—we don’t even know where to start looking.

What is Clutter?

Merriam-Webster defines clutter as “a crowded or confused mass or collection.” When I think of the word clutter, I think mess. I think of stacked newspapers in a hoarder’s house . . . a sink full of dirty dishes . . . a kitchen counter so crowded there’s barely enough room to work . . . box-upon-box of stuff collapsing the minute you open the closet door.

Sometimes houses appear orderly because the clutter is hidden from view behind that closed closet door . . . or tucked away in drawers . . . or stored in the attic or basement where no one ever goes.

In most cases, clutter is basically an accumulation of unnecessary things that need to be cleared.

If something is useful or beautiful or enhances your life and lifestyle, you should keep it. If an item holds special meaning, has sentimental value, or invokes memories that are precious to you, by all means, keep it. The whole purpose of decluttering is to surround yourself with the things you need and love.

Some Questions to Ask Yourself

1. Do I need it? Is it essential? Does it enhance the quality of my life? Identify (1) what you do every day, and (2) what you enjoy doing. No, these are not the same. You might go to work every day, but not enjoy it. Or you might like going to the movies, but don’t do it on a daily basis. Once you’ve identified your lifestyle, determine how the item relates to it. For instance, I love a cup of coffee first thing every morning, so a coffee maker is a must-have. Candlelit dinners for two—yes, we have them—require candles and candle holders. I rarely bake, so why keep all the pie pans?
2. Does the item work? Say goodbye to anything broken or unusable. This includes out-of-date medication and vitamins, rusty tools, dead batteries, pens without ink, torn clothing, stained tablecloths.
3. Does the item get used? Our crystal stemware is lovely to look at, but we never set a table with water, wine, and champagne glasses.
4. Is it a duplicate item? You only have to unpack four complete sets of fine china to know you have three sets too many. If you’ve ever combined households, like we did, you can count on finding duplicates.
5. Would you replace the item if it were broken, damaged, stolen, or lost? If the answer is no, it can’t be all that important.
6. Are you saving the item for someday? This applies to just about all of the heirloom items we were hoping to pass on to the kids. Do they even want the stuff? A wake up call came when my daughter said, “Why would I want such expensive wine glasses when I can get some for $10 each at Crate & Barrel? And, if they break, I can go back and easily get more?”
7. Does the item serve its purpose well? No matter how decorative or cute, unless they have sentimental value, knick knacks are generally unnecessary and do nothing but sit on shelves and other flat surfaces collecting dust.
8. Has the item been replaced by a better model? Inexplicably, we keep outdated versions of tech gadgets and cellphones, even after they’ve been replaced. Pointless.
9. Is the item being stored away in an out-of-sight place? No matter how neatly the kids’ baby blankets and christening clothes are folded away in the cedar chest, they are still clutter. Anything stored and never used, with no plans to use it, is clutter. Why keep it?
10. Does the souvenir or memento actually prompt memories? Storing boxes of the kids’ kindergarten drawings or A+ arithmetic papers is nothing but hoarding. We never look at the stuff, and the kids don’t want it. Get rid of it all.

It’s hard to part with possessions, and deciding what to keep can be daunting. I know. I’m still trying to sort through our house full of stuff. On a positive note, that Employee of the Month plaque from a job I didn’t like much is now gone with the wind.