How clutter costs you money

Clutter isn’t just about  making you stressed out and irritated, it can actually have an impact on your wallet and your bank account!

1. When you can’t find something, you buy it again

This has happened to me many a time.

Before I started keeping things organized, and keeping a loose inventory of what I owned, I would buy another Phillips head screwdriver when I couldn’t find my first one.

Now my tools are organized, in one spot, always put back in its place and never lost.

You also can’t really trust your memory to recall what you have purchased or not.

This is also a big problem when you are out shopping and thinking you need another plain, classic black sweater.

2. You are paying for that space where you live

Where you live costs money. Whether it’s your apartment, your own home, your parents’ home, a dorm room, or a hotel.

If you pay $1000 a month for a 1000 square foot apartment, that’s $1 per square foot.

If you clutter up half of the apartment and cannot use the space, you are wasting $500 a month, paying for what is essentially storage.

3. When you can’t find something, you lose time

And time costs money (although I should mention that time is more valuable than money, as you can never earn back those lost years of being a workaholic).

If you are running late to meet a new client, and you need to find your laptop bag, if you can’t locate it, you are losing out on establishing goodwill with that client.

4. You could be considering buying a larger home or paying for external storage

Many people think they need to move to a bigger house because there is just NO MORE SPACE.

In reality, they probably just need to get rid of their stuff, and they will see that they have more than enough space.

This can cost you in the hundreds of thousands.

You have to sell your old home by paying a real estate agent, buy a new, bigger home by talking to a banker about a second mortgage and spend money moving your family, settling in, and purchasing more furniture for your now too big house.

Unless you are giving up your life and job temporarily, and taking a backpacking tour around the globe, you should never, ever have to pay for those rent-by-the-month storage facilities.

I cannot imagine why it seems logical to pay for storage to house your things.

It’s stuff. Repeat after me: S-T-U-F-F.

Do not squeeze any hard earned dollar out of yourself pay to house things.

5. You pay for it in stress

How about those messy garages we all know and hate?

Picture this:

Your garage is totally filled with junk.

You can’t get your car inside.

It’s winter, and really, really cold outside.

You are paying for it by having to wake up early, scrape last night’s ice off the windshield, and shovel away all the snow, while trying to make it to work on time after cramming a sad little bagel into your mouth while you’re speeding on an icy freeway because you’re late….. again.

All because you have too much junk in the garage.

Don’t let it happen to you.

Related Posts:

• Are you a Happy Victim?
• A Minimalist’s Birdhouse… or is that a Minimalist Bird’s House?
• The Hidden Costs of Having Stuff
• The Consumerist Minimalist
• Why we should all work towards minimalist packaging

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