We have lived here for over seven years now. In the large closet in the main bedroom, we have a number of boxes that have not been opened since that move; and some of those were packed some years before that. What is all this stuff? I’m too damned scared to open the boxes to find out after all this time!
What if I don’t want it? Have I wasted 8 years of storage on something that could have been luxuriating in a land-fill? Worse — perhaps — I find something I love and want to show off. But what do I remove to make room for it (the large closet in the main bedroom not being the only place that we have clutter)? I have art projects in there that I no longer want. There are stacks of papers that would bore the most assiduous of biographers. There is who-knows-what. Feeling inadequate, it is good to know I am not alone.
The just-published Research Paper No.52 of the Australian Institute is called “Stuff Happens: Unused Things Cluttering Up Our Homes“. It is the stuff of good therapy.
“[S]urvey findings show that 88 per cent of homes have at least one cluttered room, and the average home has three or more cluttered rooms … Four in ten Australians say they feel anxious, guilty or depressed about the clutter in
their homes … Our research shows that many people – 84 per cent of survey respondents – are in the strange situation of having bought things in order to deal with the excessive amount of things they have bought. Around a quarter had even bought vacuum storage bags – which suggests that the stored items will not be in use for some time. One in five respondents had built a shed or garage to keep or store things, while one in eight had even moved house to accommodate their superfluous ‘stuff’.
Comforting statistics, I’d say.
