Is Clutter Costing You Money?

The sight of a pile of clutter can increase stress in some people. Especially when one of the pieces of the clutter on the kitchen table turns out to be an expired rebate slip you thought you sent in weeks ago. Oops! Yes this did happen to me, the self proclaimed Cheap Diva. Another costly oops moment was when I put a credit card bill on my desk and inadvertently piled papers on it. I didn’t realize my mistake until I was hit with a late fee for the credit card. Unfortunately it was a business credit card so I had the added thrill of explaining my bonehead mistake to my accountant.

There is the issue of duplication, buying what you already have without realizing it. I was going to buy a book of stamps once when I came across a brand new book of stamps while rummaging through some papers. Given how regularly the cost of stamps goes up they’re not something I tend to stock up on. What’s worse is when you know you already bought the item but you have to go out and buy another one. Because the thing you can’t find is a funny birthday card you bought for your friend and she won't find it funny to get a card two months after the event when you finally stumble across the card while cleaning out a drawer.

Expiration is also a clutter issue with perishable items. Those ancient vitamins you always meant to take that somehow got shoved behind the potato chips you actually do consume and now they have even less nutritional benefit’s than the chips! The perfumed body oil you shoved under the bathroom sink and forgot about now smells a lot less like Paris in the spring and lot more like perishables at the dump. The list goes on and on.

Then there is what I like to call the “really should” clutter. As in “I really should read those magazines, I just never seem to get around to it.” If the clutter is a magazine, you could probably find the same information by going to the magazines web site. Cancel the magazine and have one less item around making you feel guilty about not having time to do everything you think you “really should” do.

Often the cost of paying for a storage unit for clutter is really the high cost of indecisiveness. You don’t have room in your home to put all of this stuff so you pay good money to store and assortment of garage sale quality furniture and miscellaneous items. If they were items you truly valued, they would be in your home. Before paying for storage add up the monthly cost of storing all this stuff for a year and ask yourself if the stuff ultimately justifies the storage fee. Staring at the big fat total for a years worth of storage space should cure a lot of indecisiveness.

My advice is to clear out the clutter.  It eases a little financial stress while creating a more pleasing home environment.

Comments

[SavingDiva]

Great post! I'm currently trying to combat clutter in my apartment by setting up a cleaning schedule. I have a small (about 15 minute) task to do every day...for example, I vacuum once a week on Tuesday. So far, my apartment has never been so clean, and I'm feeling extremely organized!