An average American has over 300,000 individual items in their home. The accepted lifestyle of accumulation has lead to a series of problems nobody is talking about. Your stuff stops you from living your life.
People go on the defensive when I point out all the ways stuff hinders instead of helps their life. You’re conditioned to prove your status, wealth, and maturity based on the items you own.
It’s hard to get people to realize their stuff is a problem when nobody around them sees it as a problem. Everyone sees stuff as just the way it is. Your garage is filled with stuff, your attic is filled with stuff, and every nook and cranny of your living spaces is filled with stuff.
In most houses the stuff is organized and put away, giving off the illusion of a tidy house, but in reality the stuff is surrounding the resident constantly. Stuff stops you from living your life in many ways.
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You Say No
If you have too much stuff than your house is always in dissaray. There are so many mom quotes that placate a messy house. Quotes dismissing the mess are a way to relieve the guilt that comes with never being able to keep up with the item overload.
Because your house is a mess you say no when your kid asks if their schoolmate can come over after soccer practice. Your stuff stops you from living your life because you cancel Friday game night after a hectic week leaving you too tired to clean up. You say no when your friend asks if she can crash at your place instead of paying for a hotel because your bathroom is too embarrassing to let her shower in.
The stuff creates mess that is a never ending cycle of cleaning. It feels impossible to maintain your house because you have too much stuff.
MESSY TO MINIMALIST
E-COURSE
I help regular people become minimalist so they can use their newly discovered time, money, and energy towards creating the life they didn’t know they wanted.
Financial Strain
Accumulating stuff costs a lot of money. If you are always buying stuff that inevitably goes to live in the back of a closet then your budget will always feel strained. You spend the money because you think the item will fill a void which is not the case.
Once you’ve spent the money on an item and you realize you don’t actually need the item, you will refuse to get rid of the item until you can sell it for some impractical price. It is very difficult to recoup money paid for used items because people don’t want to buy used in order to save $5. People want to buy used in order to save 50%, in which case you’re down 50% on your pointless purchase.
At some point your stuff will no longer fit within the walls of your home. 10.6% of all U.S. households rent additional storage for their stuff. In fact 4.5 billion dollars is spent annually just on storage units in the United States.
Stuff stops you from living your life because you spend small amount of money over and over instead of saving up larger amounts of money.
Mental Block
When you have a lot of the “right” stuff you try to convince yourself that you should be happy. You drive the right car, carry the right purse, wear the right shoes, these are the things that supposedly make you happy.
If you spend your time trying to be happy living the life other people expect you to live, you take away your ability to focus on what you actually want. Feeling gratitude for what you have does not mean you should stop focusing on what you want.
Your stuff stops you from living your life because you equate the stuff to success. When you let stuff be the benchmark for success you stop exploring your true desires.
Stuff Stops You From Living Your Life
While you’re thinking about your stuff overload there will be a lot of feelings about how you got into this situation. Let go of the guilt you feel for accumulating so much stuff.
Turn your focus towards what you actually want out of life that has nothing to do with stuff. Purging your over accumulation of items will be easier if you have a goal in mind. The goal isn’t reducing your stuff, the goal is the life you can live with less stuff.
Live the life you want instead of the life that’s expected of you.
Messy to Minimalist
If you need pratical support to pivot from expectations to experiences, I teach a course that can help. Learn the three justifications you’re using to hang on to unnecessary stuff. Get practical room by room advice on eliminating your clutter. And even uncover how to create the life you didn’t realize you wanted.
It’s never too late to stop living a basic life. Stuff stops you from living your life to the fullest. I’m excited to help you on your journey from stuff overload to living your best life.
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