Think for a minute about your BASIC HUMAN NEEDS. Not wants, but needs. Shelter, food and water, clothing, and medical attention when necessary. That's it. EVERYTHING ELSE YOU OWN IS OPTIONAL.
Look around wherever you're at right now. All the things you see, unless they are sustaining your very life, are not necessary. You do not need an eight piece living room set in order to stay alive. You do not need a hybrid in your garage. You do not need forty three pair of shoes. You don't need a laptop. You don't need three hundred music CD's. You might want all these things, but you do not need them to sustain your life.
Every purchase you make can be easily classified into one of three categories:
1. life-supporting
2. life-enhancing
3. life-draining.
Basic human needs are life-supporting. Those purchases are necessary and are NOT (usually) clutter. The home you're buying, the food in your shopping cart, the shoes to protect your feet, the blood pressure medication you require. NONE OF THESE PURCHASES ARE CLUTTER.
The objects that bring you joy and delight are life-enhancing. Maybe you love music so much that your collection of 300 CD's is not clutter to you, because music enhances your life. You don't need them to sustain life, but you desire them for the joy and pleasure they bring to you. The living room furniture enhances your life by it's beauty and usefulness to you, your friends, and family. The nail polish collection in your bathroom makes you happy and smile because it's FUN for you. NONE OF THESE PURCHASES ARE CLUTTER, although as your interests change and you grow and bloom into a more authentic version of you, some or all of what you currently enjoy may become clutter.
The objects that do nothing to sustain or enhance your life are life-draining. The bridesmaid dress hanging in your closet, the baby clothes from your youngest child who's now nine and playing little league, the bulky computer monitor you don't know what to do with, the boxes of left-over supplies from your attempt at direct sales, the ab cruncher machine (like anyone uses those), blue eye liner you wore once last year, files full of papers you don't know if you should keep, mismatched mugs in your kitchen that you use but don't really like. ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE CLUTTER.
And you can get rid of them, right now.
