Clutter can cost money: Declutter, lighten up
Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY 1 p.m. EDT April 19, 2015


If the clutter in your home or office is stressing you out or costing you money, then it's time for some spring cleaning.

So says Peter Walsh, a professional organizer, who has offered advice to thousands of people on how to tame their messy, disorganized spaces. "I believe strongly that unless you have a vision for your home or office, you'll always have trouble getting organized," he says.

Over the years, Walsh has noticed that when people slim down their homes or offices, they often can slim down themselves, too. He explains why and how in his new book, Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight. USA TODAY talked with Walsh about taming the clutter.

Q: How can clutter cost you money?

A: In numerous ways. When you end up buying something that you know you already own but simply can't find. When you end up paying late fees or your credit score diminishes simply because you misplaced the mail and lost the bill in your house somewhere. When you buy food items that you don't use prior to their expiration date because they were jammed in the back of the cabinet. All of these are costly.

Q: What advice do you have for organizing paperwork and electronic files?

A: When it comes to bills, I believe the simplest solution is the best. My super low-tech go-to piece of equipment is a monthly accordion folder. After you've paid the current month's regular bills, like utilities or credit card statements, throw all of those bills into the folder. Do that every month.

For electronic organization, I believe people sometimes spend too much time trying to organize what's on their computer. Digital storage is cheap, and searching for anything online or on your own computer literally takes fractions of seconds these days. Spending lots of time trying to figure out which folder a certain document or picture needs to go into ultimately ends up being unproductive.


Q: In the book, you say that in six weeks you can turn an unmanageable maze of a home into a well-organized refuge while you're melting away stubborn pounds. How do you do that?

A: I've been working as a professional organizer on television for the past 13 years now, and I've helped literally thousands of families declutter and organize their homes. One of the amazing things I began to notice was that families would get in touch with me months after we had finished working on their spaces to tell me they had lost weight. Their moods had lightened. I ran a test panel of 25 people through the six-week program and found great results. The average weight loss was 10 pounds, and the amount of stuff that left their homes was close to 40%. And, every single person in the program lost weight. What we found is that for these people getting on top of the clutter in their homes helped them get on top of other issues going on their lives as well. The six-week plan can easily be cycled through as often as needed to achieve the results you desire.

One of the problems that keeps people from getting organized is that they don't know where or how to start. To address that, the book lays out a very easy-to-accomplish set of tasks for you to do each week of the six-week program. The tasks are broken down into four components consisting of a decluttering plan, an exercise, plan, a nutrition plan and a mindfulness program.


Q: How does decluttering help with weight loss?

A: When you declutter and organize a space, it brings a sense of calm to you. When your kitchen or dining room are cluttered and disorganized, it's much harder to eat healthfully. When your kitchen is organized and the healthy foods are organized near the front of the refrigerator or pantry, you're far more likely to eat foods that are better for you.

And, when you're organized, you give yourself the ability to plan ahead. That planning translates into food choices you make not at the moment when you're starving but in advance when you're thinking clearly. When you know you've got a healthy meal waiting for you at home, you're far more likely to eat that than run to the drive-thru at the local fast-food place.

Walsh divides clutter into four broad categories:

• Lazy clutter is the stuff like the mail or the laundry that just seems to pile up because you haven't thought it was important enough to deal with at that moment.

• Memory clutter are the things "we hold onto that remind us of an important person or event from our past. Of course, some things are absolutely wonderful to hold onto in this category. The problem only occurs when the amount of memory clutter overwhelms your life today."

• Malignant clutter, a subset of memory clutter, is stuff that reminds you of a particularly painful time in your life. It may represent a failed relationship or career; it may be medical equipment that for some reason you're still holding onto from a past procedure. "I call it malignant because I believe it has such a strong toxic hold on people and should have no place in your home."

•I-might-need-it-one-day clutter is the stuff "we hold onto just in case. Pass this stuff on to someone who could use it more than you can. You'll feel good about doing something good for others; and you'll feel good about the newly opened up space in your home."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/pers...oney-topstories

Quote: truthkeeper wrote in post #2

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In active de-cluttering mode prior currently. Thanks for this article!

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