Debt and Clutter – one solution for both
If debt has taken hold of your life and you just can’t seem to see a way out then it might be time for drastic action.
Do you feel stressed when you get home and are confronted by clutter? Do feel like the walls are coming in on you? The thing is you probably have too much stuff. Things like too much clothes, too many shoes, too many magazines and too many gadgets.
I have often found myself wanting to scream from the top of my voice, “Why do we need all this stuff?” I don’t know where the line between buying something we actually need and just buying something for the sake of it began to blur. It’s almost like we sleep walk into buying stuff that is completely unnecessary. Help!!!! I’m actually getting a little stressed even thinking about it. How often have you gone to the ATM, taken out $50 gone to buy some essentials and then realising that you have about $7 when you get home? When you try to piece together where the money went you realise that you spent most of it on unnecessary items such as magazines or lottery tickets.
The feeling of regret this brings when you realise that the enjoyment and value that these items bring are very short lived. Sometimes they actually bring negative value for example soda will eventually rot your teeth so in the long run you will pay a lot more in dental costs than the initial cost of the can of soda.
Clutter on a grand scale.
An old friend from college recently got in touch with me. It was great to hear from him. The one thing I remember most about him was that he was a pack rat and a very messy individual. I would dread going around to his apartment because I would have to fight with the half eaten pizzas and beer bottles for a place on his sofa. He also had lots of stuff – things like lava lamps and dozens of magazines scattered about randomly. I passed it off as the typical student lifestyle – one from which my own was not too far removed.
Anyway a lot had happened to him in the last couple of years. One major event was that there was a fire in his house about two years ago. He lost almost everything he owned.
My heart went out to him as he explained what had happened. Anything that did survive the fire was too badly smoked damaged to keep. While he had insurance the amount he received for the lost items was nowhere near what he paid from them. He would find it very difficult to replace all the lost stuff. But then he said something that stunned me and when I think about it makes perfect sense.
He said that there was one huge positive from all of this.
All the stuff that he lost was just that – stuff! old magazines, books, DVDs, computer games etc. He had been meaning to throw out all the stuff for years and in one fell swoop had it done for him. He said that he felt an immense sense of freedom. Yes initially he said he was devastated from having lost so much of his stuff and indeed there were personal items of sentimental value that he lost but when he stepped back on got perspective on the situation he found that.
- I’m lucky to be alive and able to create new photos with my friends and family
- I’m free of all the clutter in my home life that was like an oppressive weight around my neck.
Is that attitude too much like Pollyanna’s? I don’t think so. Ok it’s true that the fire was a traumatic experience and thankfully no one was injured but every cloud has a silver lining. My friend had been set free from all his clutter.
You see the problem was that the clutter was not only messing up his home it also came with a lot of emotional baggage. My friend told me that he would look around his house and he would get very stressed as he did not have the motivation or focus to clear out the clutter. The clutter was effectively crowding him out of his home!
Two years later and he is a changed man. He vowed not to let clutter take over his life again and he is winning the battle. His clean minimalist house almost puts me to shame. He explained to me that he now feels about 100 times freer than he did when he had all that clutter.
So how does all this help you with your debt situation?
Now I’m not for one minute suggesting that you go all Backdraft on your stuff and burn your house down. The 10 years in prison would make the whole process very expensive and lord knows we are in enough debt already without having to pay our debt to society with jail time. Ok so arson is ruled out. What next? Simple really…eBay!
My advice is that you sell everything in your life that is not an absolute necessity. Everything. You need to be ruthless.
The biggest problem is not the physical act of taking photos and putting them on eBay then sending the item to the buyer. No the biggest problem that you are going to have is to overcome the emotional attachment that you have to this stuff. It will take time but once you commit to it you have to see it through because now you are presented with a great opportunity to solve two problems at once.
Two problems solved in one go:
By decluttering and selling all the excess clutter that you do not need you are creating a clean and clear living space for you and your family. No longer will you have to worry about what you friends will think when you invite them over for coffee.
Have you ever seen those house makeover shows that show the before and after pictures of someone’s house? From what I see the biggest problem in most of these houses is the clutter. Sure the décor could do with updating but the majority of them seem to be so cluttered. The solution is obvious really – get rid of the clutter.
So having read about clutter you may be asking what on earth has this got to do with my debt and how will it help me solve it? Well the benefit of clearing out the clutter is that you will get a much needed cash injection from the sale of your items on eBay. Ok this will take time but its going to take you time to pay off your debts anyway and this is a piece of very simple action that you can take to help you tackle your debts.
When you sell an item on eBay the chances are that you are not going to get what you paid for it. Do not let this logic stop you from selling your clutter. The way you have to think about it is ‘How much is it costing me to keep this item?’ The costs of keeping an item come in a number of varied ways but the primary one is emotional. Each day when you return home from work you are constantly reminded what you have spent your money on and that you are in debt. So I say clear it all out.
Why eBay? It doesn’t have to be eBay. It can be any marketplace where you feel that you will get a fair price for your clutter. I use eBay as an example because it is one of the biggest marketplaces in the world.
Strip your home life down to the bare essentials, cut away the excess. Sure it’s going to be tough emotionally because like your debts this clutter has taken time to build up. Above all else and even if you take no action after reading this article I want you to see the causal relationship between the clutter in your house and the debts that you owe. The chances are you incurred a significant part of your debt by buying things that at the time you thought you needed but in retrospect they were not needed at all.
Like paying off your debts clearing out the clutter will take time. Give it time. Give it as long as it takes. You want to build a better brighter future for you and your family? Then act now.
Posted in Intro to Debt Management
May 19th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
interesting points, with todays struggling economy, whatever means there is that can help us stay away or pay off our debt is certainly something that is worth looking into…