I’ve written several times about minimalism. I genuinely believe having fewer things, or fewer good quality items you love, can profoundly change your life giving you time and space to do the things that are important to you.

 

I do not have a garage, loft or basement, so storage is premium real estate. Do you not have enough storage, or do you have too much stuff?

 

Here are nine signs that you have too much stuff

You can’t find anything

If you constantly lose things or spend extended periods of time looking around for items, you have too many things.

 

One of the principles of minimalism, or just good homemaking, is that everything should have a home, and once used and finished with, it should return to its home. If you don’t have space to provide the item with a home, it will likely get plonked down in a random place. Get surrounded by other items and moved a few times. Then, when you need it, it cannot be found.

You’re always organising

This could be put another way – that you feel you are always tidying.

 

A quote from minimalist Courtney Carver hits the nail right on the head

 

“If organising your stuff worked, don’t you think you’d be done by now?”

 

Every physical object in the home requires care: cleaning, fixing, and storing. The more stuff you have, the more maintenance you will do on these items. Also, if you can’t find anything, you’ve likely disorganised things to try to find them.

 

Organising is just a temporary fix, and “organising” can also be construed as a different word for tidying.

Horizontal surfaces are covered in items

“Dinners ready. Do you want to sit at the table?”

 

Looks at table. Covered in paperwork, random items of clothing and some shopping from last week.

 

“Let’s sit on the sofa”

 

Is there any recognition regarding the above scenario?

 

Horizontal surfaces are magnets for items that don’t have a home or that you don’t know what to do with. So, you pop it down and think about where it could go. Then, it ends up staying there until the next “organisation.”

 

Also see – having to clear the stuff off the bed, before you can get into bed.

You have to tidy up when someone comes to visit

A little tidying here and there is no issue if it takes 10 minutes. Things are out of control if you run around like a headless chicken for hours and stashing stuff in cupboards, under beds, and even in your car.

You can’t vacuum the floor

If you put off vacuuming because there are things in the way, lying on the floor. Things do not have homes, and the floor is being used as another horizontal surface (see above).

Cleaning on a Saturday takes all day

Because you can’t clear up or clean as you go, due to stuff being in the way, it then requires the whole day to sort the stuff and then do the cleaning. This commonly happens when people come to visit (see above).

One room is a dumping ground

This makes it generally unusable, as again, there is no space, too many items, and nowhere to put them. Using the room for storage or to get something out of the way is a “temporary” solution, which commonly snowballs into a useless room. When someone comes to stay, all hell breaks loose, and the room must somehow be turned into a bedroom, which means piling things in corners, stashing items under beds, and again in your car.

You can’t park your car in the garage

This one is self-explanatory. Similarly, if you can’t take one step into your shed, it’s not a usable space, being used for its intended purpose.

You can’t start projects

You can’t start decorating a room or redesigning your garden because there is stuff everywhere; all you do is move things from one place to the next. I have been here. I once decorated a room by moving all the stuff into the middle of the room, but I had to be a contortionist to get through gaps and manage to paint tight areas.