Accumulating clutter is very simple. Understanding the reasons why we cram our lives with too much stuff and how to stop doing it, however, isn’t quite so straightforward. But one thing is for sure, it’s affecting a lot of us.

A 2007 Australia Institute report titled ‘Stuff Happens: Unused Things Cluttering Up Our Homes’ found that 88 per cent of our homes contain at least one cluttered room. Also, 40 per cent of the people polled reported that their clutter caused them to feel anxious, guilty or depressed.

The poll also showed that our attempts to deal with clutter are often ineffectual and 84 per cent of people said they had bought things in order to deal with the excessive amount of things they already owned. One in five respondents had built a shed or garage to store their excess possessions, while one in eight had even moved house to accommodate their superfluous stuff.

But clearing the clutter often involves more than extra shelves or a large bin bag; it requires us to look deeper into our psyches. As David F. Tolin, an anxiety disorders expert and professor of psychiatry at Yale University, told The New York Times: “It isn’t a house problem, it’s a person problem. The person needs to fundamentally change their behaviour.”

According to Gail Blanke, author of Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, 
Find Your Life (Grand Central Publishing, $23), “Our lives are so filled with junk 
from the past – from dried up glue to old grudges – that it’s a wonder we can get 
up in the morning!”

1. GETTING RID OF THE PHYSICAL STUFF


In determining what to keep and what to throw out, Blanke offers the rules of disengagement: “If it – the article of clothing, the shoes, the lamp, whatever – weighs you down or makes you feel bad about yourself, or if it just sits there taking up room and contributing nothing positive, it goes out.” Everything doesn’t need to go to landfill; some items can be donated (which, gratifyingly, helps others) or sold. One person’s clutter is another’s treasure.

2. LET GO OF REGRETS AND MISTAKES FROM THE PAST


“You can’t move forward into the future when you’re constantly sucked back into the past,” writes Blanke. “So in addition to the socks and lipsticks, you’re going to throw out the old regrets and resentments, the resignation, the fear of failing or the fear of succeeding.” Learning to live without regret frees you to try more things, rather than just those you’re certain you’ll succeed at.

3. LET GO OF THINKING 
THE WORST


We can tie ourselves in knots with our negative interpretations of what other people say or do. Like regrets, these misunderstandings can cloud our thinking, long after the event. Blanke suggests assigning a positive interpretation to any situation, inevitably resulting in a better outcome. “Ask yourself how needlessly unhappy you made yourself, having assumed a negative interpretation,” says Blanke. “Ask yourself how much energy you gave up putting yourself down.”

4. SIMPLIFY YOUR 
DIGITAL LIFE


Leo Babauta, author of The Power of Less (Hyperion, $25), recognises that our digital lives can remain a mess long after we have otherwise decluttered our homes and offices. He recommends starting with a massive purge, followed up with simplifying: delete rather than file; purge regularly; reduce your accounts, including email addresses; simplify your feeds; and clear out your desktop and your inbox, retaining only messages you need to take action on. Babauta’s tips for simplifying can also be found online on 
his blog, zenhabits.net

5. STREAMLINE YOUR 
SOCIAL LIFE

The digital age has not only brought with it exceptional amounts of information; it has also provided social networking tools that fill our lives with more people, friends and acquaintances than ever before, along with the attendant expectation to stay in touch. According to British evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar, the human brain can only manage around 150 stable social relationships (known as ‘Dunbar’s number’). “You can have 1500 friends [online],” Dunbar told the Times Online, “but when you actually look at traffic on sites, you see people maintain the same inner circle of around 150 people that we observe in the real world.”

6. DECLUTTER YOUR
 HEALTH ROUTINES

Many people have found a correlation between getting organised and losing weight. When a person gets rid of their stuff, they feel a reduction in stress, which means less overeating. They also have more time to exercise. Being more organised also assists in keeping good routines. “If you can’t find your sneakers, you aren’t taking a walk,” says Dr Pamela Peeke, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland and author of Fit to Live (Rodale, $27), which devotes a section to the link between health and organisation.

7. CONTROL YOUR FINANCES


“Review your finances at least weekly. To get a sense of control over your finances, you have to monitor them,” says Babauta. He also recommends paying your bills as soon as they come in, automating your payments, getting out of debt by monitoring your impulse spending habits (“if you have to go shopping, go with a list”) and establishing a financial safety net – insurance, a will and an emergency fund are the basics. Selling some of your physical clutter will also boost your bank account.

8. UNDERSTAND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CLUTTER

Organisational change expert Peter Walsh identifies two common types of clutter: “memory clutter – this is the stuff that reminds you of an important person, or event or achievement in the past” and “I might need it one day clutter – the stuff you hold onto in preparation for all those possible futures that could eventuate.”

Each is fine in moderation, but memory clutter can prevent you from living contentedly in the present, and ‘just in case’ behaviour may be an indication of insecurity and anxiety about the future.

At its most extreme, chronic accumulation of clutter is referred to as hoarding. Compulsive hoarding is often practised by people with other diagnosable diseases, including anorexia, schizophrenia and dementia. It is most often found in patients with OCD.

A study by researchers at King’s College London, published last year in the American Journal of Psychiatry, showed that compulsive hoarding tends to run in families and is partly attributable to genetics – not simply to environment.