Total clutter madness

[Bender]

Kevin Rudd's bid to tackle inflation by encouraging people to save rather than spend has hit a hurdle with the news that the average Australian home has three rooms cluttered with unneeded items.

That leaves at least a couple of rooms uncluttered and Australians are expected to go on a massive spending spree to fill them up. The banks have selflessly offered to help Rudd's cause by raising interest rates in a bid to stop people having any money to spend. However, as a community service they are willing to lend people more money for vital items such as plasma TVs or coffee makers.

A report, Stuff Happens: Unused Things Cluttering Up Our Homes, by the Australia Institute, http://www.tai.org.au/documents/downloads/WP111.pdf, reveals 88percent of homes have at least one cluttered room. People move house, add rooms to their homes and buy storage containers for stuff they never use. They then buy storage containers for their storage containers and soon no one can find anything; not that they ever look for it, because they never need it anyway. Four in 10 Australians are psychologically affected by their clutter, the report says. Clutter makes people depressed, anxious, guilty and embarrassed, though that's nothing that a few self-help books, a stress ball, an executive toy and a meditation DVD couldn't fix. "One person interviewed said that at one stage she actually wanted her home to burn down in a bushfire - it was that cluttered," said the report's author, Josh Fear. People who have lost all their possessions in fires have been known to describe it as a liberating experience. However, as a solution to the clutter problem, fire does have its limitations. Arson carries a sentence of two to eight years, which can be distinctly unliberating. Plus, before you know it, your cell is cluttered with drugs paraphernalia, weapons and al-Qaeda literature and you're back to square one.

Consuming is all-consuming, a mass compulsion that has the world by the short and curlies, which, incidentally, are on special for $3.99 a packet at Spotlight. "It's a little like the obesity problem," Fear said. "Most of us would prefer to have less clutter, just like most of us would like to be slimmer and fitter than we actually are." The two phenomena are closely linked. Depression caused by clutter leads to eating, and exercise bikes can be hard to reach in a cluttered room, forming a vicious cycle. Eating and shopping are more or less the same thing - both are attempts to fill the great big hole left in our lives when we stopped believing in God and the baby Jesus. Dancing baby Jesus dolls are of course available from all good online stores, with edible versions to be released soon.

The clutter problem is terrible in Europe, where people have so much stuff that they literally can't see where they're going. Britain's Transport Office issued a warning last week about the dangers of truck drivers cluttering their windscreens and dashboards. The Times this month reported that truck drivers in France had been seen "steering by ear" - putting one wheel on the road's white line and following the noise, leaving them free to watch a DVD, play a computer game or read. An Italian driver was stopped in France with a 17-inch flat-screen monitor attached to his dashboard, and a Polish vehicle was stopped with its windscreen obscured by flags, an open laptop and a kettle on the dash, roadtransport.com reported. "Clearly this has a large bearing on road safety," said a government spokesman for the department of stating the bleeding obvious. He would have continued with his statement except he couldn't find the bit of paper for all the stuff on his desk.

Decluttering experts suggest people should start small - by going through a drawer and asking themselves key questions about each item, such as: "Does this add value to my life?", "When was the last time I used it?" and "Do I have duplicates of this item?" If something is deemed superfluous it should then be ascertained whether the item could be used by someone else, recycled or trashed.

Truck drivers going through drawers and asking themselves hard questions should of course always keep one ear on the road.

SMH Jan 08

[Bender]

As a person with a house full of minimalist stuff, I can so relate to some of this! Going to get busy selling on ebay soon.

[baloo]

That reminds me, I have 2 or 3 VCRs sitting in a closet. Does anyone want one ? I think they're piled on top of the Laser Disc player.

[Possum]

OR I have about 40 kids videos....can deliver

[Scrummy Mummy]

I am DESPERATE to find time to de-clutter my house.

Perhaps if I didn't come on here I would find it.

[canuck]

quick cure live on a boat

currently we are minimalist. although it is starting to grow the dangers of living on land

[baloo]

I've been meaning to eBay a lot of the junk fantastic stuff we have lying around the palce but I just can't get motivated. I wonder if a eStore would work on this forum. Place your non-commercial ads for free, sort out payment between yourselves, forum members reserve the right to take the piss out of things you own....

[Bender]

We seem to have a house full of technology: 2 people, 4 computers, 4 printers, mountains of other computer & network stuff, 3 TVs, 6 DVD players (yeah, go figure), more stereos, clock radios, CD players etc than rooms in the house, thousands of CDs & DVDs, books, magazines, kitchen stuff, etc. At the moment we have so much excess furniture we can't get the car into the garage (but that's mainly because I'm waiting 'til my back gets better before moving it). And yes, we have plastic storage crates full of smaller storage crates.

One major achievement - we transferred all videotape to DVD and chucked the (hundreds of) tapes out - but we still have 3 VCRs.

[canuck]

hmm do we have an address? we own nothing here remember the JI guy needs money

[slinky]

Back when I first met Mr. S, he took great pride in the fact that he could move everything he owned in the back of a pickup truck [smilie=gnigni.gif] Now, I have my doubts as to whether it would all fit in a 40ft. sea container

[Aliya]

Mr Ghana recoils in shock every time he comes to my place, says I am squeezed to the gunnels which I think is true hence my selling orf of stuff. Am in a very "declutter" mood at the moment and working out how to keep my favourite stuff (have to work out what that is because it all is my favourite stuff and then clear it out. A 40 foot container is about right at the moment sob.

[BoD]

"Squeezed to the gunnels"? Sounds more than a little uncomfortable

[Aliya]

It is, still have to jump from peice of furniture to peice of furniture...

[Fresh Mint]

I've been meaning to eBay a lot of the junk fantastic stuff we have lying around the palce but I just can't get motivated. I wonder if a eStore would work on this forum. Place your non-commercial ads for free, sort out payment between yourselves, forum members reserve the right to take the piss out of things you own....

Sounds a great idea, actually. One of your few,

[Possum]

One persons junk is anothers.....

[Fat Bob]

regular clear outs at my place. Just give it to the maid. Try to do it once every 2-3 months.

Oh, and about to sell old camera before buying new one. YIPEEE!!!!

[daffodil]

New non-clutter strategy coming up for me too.

Horrified by the sheer amount of stuff I amassed whilst in Singas, ,most of which just isn't the go in a Paddington terrace!

[Bender]

This is an old thread, but in my case still totally relevant. We've reached the "too much stuff, not enough house" stage, and sooner or later something's gonna give.

I've started selling stuff, so far using free websites, and there's been a good rate of success. But I'm going to ramp up this selling thing over the next few months in the hope that we'll start next year in a state where the house doesn't look like it's a hoarders den.

In the meantime, I saw this article this morning. To me, it's admirable, but perhaps a bit extreme. I still like having "stuff". What do you think?

[Pinklepurr]

I could not imagine decluttering to that extent...that is extreme, and like you Bender, I like "stuff" it makes me feel at home. Minimalism is so totally against my cluttery lifestyle, speaking of which I need to clear out big time but just can't do it.

However Mr PP could easily do it I think, nearly nothing in our house that clutters it up is his. He moved in here many many years ago with only what would fit in his little Corolla hatch and no doubt could move out with pretty much the same,or indeed less and most of that would be clothes.

[baloo]

I always plan to get rid of junk just before a house move. Then it's just after we moved because yoou never know what we will need.

I'm still lugging around a VCR that I bought in Japan in 2000. It's been moved internationally 3 times and house 5 times.

I have a pile of CPUs, memory, hard disks just sitting around. Can't throw them away because I have plans on building something with it, but when I get around to it I know I'll just upgrade my existing PC and demote my current one to the spare parts bin....

Maybe we should have a Singaporum Car Boot Sale.

[Scrummy Mummy]

Yes! I'm in the process o de-cluttering now and will have piles of books/CDs/DVDs to sell soon.

It's very therapeutic though.

[Fresh Mint]

The problem comes from people who think they can sell their old stuff. As soon as you apply a value to stuff you neither use nor need, it becomes clutter. If you don't apply a value to it, it becomes junk.

Just give it away and be done with it.

[Bender]

The problem comes from people who think they can sell their old stuff. As soon as you apply a value to stuff you neither use nor need, it becomes clutter. If you don't apply a value to it, it becomes junk.

Just give it away and be done with it.

No way! I've already funded my next overseas trip by selling stuff that I, and the buyers, applied a value to.

[Beesknees]

Oh how topical. I've got stuff that I no longer need (clothes and homewares). I've not come across a charity shop here yet - I assume there is such a thing in Singapore?

[baloo]

Agree with Bender. I used to just throw stuff away. I've now discovered phing.com in Singappore and I've managed to sell most things I have listed.