Different Types of Clutter - and How to Address Them

What kinds of things do people hoard?
Commonly hoarded items can include clothing, mechanical parts, books, paper (e.g.,newspapers, magazines, mail), medications, toiletries, CDs, DVDs, containers (e.g., boxes, jars, paper and plastic bags) - and, more rarely, animals, waste matter, hair, dirty diapers, and decaying food. Often the items collected are valuable, but the quantity is in quantities greater than what can reasonably be used.

According to the dictionary, clutter is "A collection of things lying about in an untidy mass." That's pretty general. It also means that while some clutter needs to be purged (thrown out, donated, sold), some just needs to be cleaned up and put away. Both of these types will be explained here.

Clutter Categories
From: https://www.thespruce.com/most-common-types-of-clutter-2648000

Click link for information on how to address these Categories of Clutter.

Clutter Without a Home or Storage Space There's a saying that been attributed to Samuel Smiles, Isabella Beeton & Benjamin Franklin: "A place for everything, and everything in it's place." Simple, elegant & easy, right? Not always.

Some of your clutter isn't really clutter, it's "stuff" without a home: mail you have yet to open, books you haven't put on your bookshelf (because your bookshelf is overflowing), or the beach chairs lying in a pile in the corner of your garage. Trash Masquerading as Clutter

Trash Masquerading as Clutter This is the easiest type of clutter to banish. Some of the stuff you have lying around your home is just stuff you need to throw out. Expired foods, magazines and newspapers you haven’t read, mail that needs to be sorted and actioned, and eyeglasses that you are never going to repair are all examples of this type of clutter.

Things get a little trickier if it’s something you haven’t used,like an unread magazine. That’s why it’s important to establish strict rules on how long you will keep things.

Bargain Clutter Can't resist a good sale? Is "free gift with purchase" too enticing to resist? You might be hoarding bargain clutter. Just because something was on sale,or even free, doesn't mean you need to bring it into your home. If you’re never going to wear that lipstick or use that moisturizer is it really a bargain?

Same goes for tag sale and estate sales shopping ( typically referred to as “thrifting”). Even if you get something for a bargain price, doesn’t mean it’s a good deal for you if you’re never going to wear it or use it.

Watch out for bargain clutter at tag sales, antique shops, in gift bags and swag bags and at the mall during sales.

Abundance Clutter Is stocking up your favorite weekend activity? Do you regularly buy new items in triplicate “just in case” you need it someday? You might be stocking up on abundance clutter if you keep large amounts of products around the house that go unused.

Stocking up on items you know you’re going to use may be a good idea. Think: bathroom supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, dish detergent, etc. But avoid “stocking up” on food, clothing and decor. Your taste will change way too often to predict what you'll want to be eating and wearing months from now.

Aspirational Clutter Simply defined: This is the stuff you buy to try to appear a more interesting or skilled person. You might be trying to appear this way to other, or maybe you are just trying to appear more interesting to yourself. Regardless, these items are acquired not because you’re using them or love them but because of what they say about you.

Think of a coffee table book you keep on display but have never sat down and read or the set of golf clubs you bought after one lesson that are now collecting dust. Aspirational clutter is the clutter we accumulate because we aspire to be different than who we really are.

The best way to banish this type of clutter is to think before purchasing. Are you sure you want to take up skiing? If not, then rent your equipment first. Do you really love that coffee table book of rare birds or would you rather buy a book you’d actually read? Stop, think and pause before you buy.

Sentimental Clutter Are you afraid to throw out your baby blanket? Or the crystal vase you received from Aunt Vera? The one you’ve never displayed? Do you have to move your wedding dress out of the way to reach your everyday work clothes? If so, you might be holding onto sentimental clutter.

Sentimental clutter is the hardest clutter to get rid of because you may feel like you’re betraying a loved one or your own fond memories of times gone by.

But fear not: there are methods to help you part amicably with your sentimental clutter. They include choosing just a few items to hold onto as mementos, getting rid of guilt and donation.

Clutterer Profiles or Personalities
From: http://www.oprah.com/home/whats-your-clutter-style-peter-walsh-declutter-tips/all

Click link for information on how to address these types of Clutterer Personalities.

Note: You can be more than one of these!

The Behind-Closed-Doors Clutterer also known as Organized Clutterer Home looks pristine and well organized—until you start opening doors and cabinets to find the hidden clutter. The BCD clutterer, Peter Walsh explains, "lives in some flawless future universe instead of creating solutions that work today."

"With clutter, the great is the enemy of the good," says Walsh. In other words, that injury-inducing hall closet is the manifestation of your shame at failing to live up to your own unrealistically high housekeeping expectations.

Perpetrators: Perfectionists, control freaks, harried working moms, anyone who's time-starved and overbooked; perfectionists.

The Knowledge Clutterer Stockpiles every book he/she has ever read or hopes to read, and/or every issue of Architectural Digest ever published—believing, as Walsh explains, "that if he/she owns the book, then he/she somehow owns the knowledge, even if he/she never reads the book or takes it off the shelf." When he/she encounters an interesting article online, prints it and stashes it in an overstuffed file folder.

The Technology Clutterer Drawers, cabinets, and desk weighed down by a metastasizing tangle of cords, chargers, remotes, and half-full USB drives, many belonging to clunky devices dating to the '90s.

Perpetrators are 20- and 30-something Apple devotees; eBay enthusiasts; grandparents terrified to pitch the cord that connects their digital camera to their computer.

The Sentimental Clutterer/Family Historian Hoards baby clothes, kindergarten papier-mâché creations, and grade school report cards belonging to fully grown offspring—wrongly assuming said offspring will someday want them; stores acres of unsorted boxes of deceased relatives' clothing, tchotchkes, and war memorabilia in attic, basement, and closets.

Perpetrators: Besotted parents; empty nesters; women of a certain age who have suffered loss and/or who feel a responsibility to preserve family heirlooms and history.

The Bargain Shopper/Coupon Clutterer Prides herself on clipping coupons and sourcing online promotion codes; keeps her kitchen, bedroom, and garage stocked with three years' worth of paper towels, mixed nuts, and orange Tic Tacs; spends $10 on gas speeding to three different megastores to save $10 on diapers for children not yet born; "is driven by the misguided notion that 'if I own it, I am better off, regardless of what it does to my space, my finances, or my relationships,'" as Walsh puts it.

Perpetrators: Stay-at-home moms; retirees; anyone with a membership to Costco or Sam's Club.

The Fashionista This one is not from the above article, but it's definitely another Personality. He/She has clothing items from every size and age they have ever been. They are related to the Bargain Shopper, but the clothing items don't necessarily have to be on sale. They can also be related to the Organized Clutterer - because their closet is often a hazard zone. They have piles of clothes that won't fit into their closet or drawers - and sometimes lose track of which pile is clean and which is the dirty pile.

See the section above for more information on clothes.

Links

 * The 6 Most Common Types of Clutter
 * What Kind of Clutterer Are You?

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