One of the first things you’ll learn when you move from your parents’ home and into a place of your own is that no matter the number of possessions you own, the size of your space, and your ability to clean, you will experience the tremendous and utterly depressing problem of Common Clutter. What is Common Clutter? It is a natural result of human nature to leave things where they do not belong and unattended until time takes its toll and your emotional health begins to wither at the knowledge that things are not right in your home. Common Clutter is many things; laziness, repression, oversight, inability, and it doesn’t discriminate. You may own nothing except the shirt on you back, yet you will flood whatever space you may consider you or your own in an unsatisfying, unhappy way. Do not confuse this with hoarding; hoarding is a mental condition with very apparent symptoms that affect less than 1% of the population. Common Clutter affects us all.
How do we observe, categorize, and help the different types of people who experience Common Clutter, and how do we reduce the clutter for healthier, cleaner, and happier lives?
There is in fact, very little research done in the way of scientifically examining Common Clutter. This is a problem; we as a society are horribly unequipped in tackling a common symptom that can have immediate, positive impact on people. Luckily, there are some who are working on the problem, one being famed author Marie Kondo with her book “The Life Changing Method of Tidying Up”. My wife bought this book a few years back, but it was one of the first times I saw somebody try to teach people how to deal with Common Clutter. She’ll show you how to categorize your home into different sections, she’ll teach you a step-by-step method with dealing with messes, and she’ll even help you recognize the different types of clutter you will face in your life. This is a book that has sold over 4 million copies worldwide and continues to grow through client-based business where people train themselves in the “Konmarie” method of decluttering their homes. To say this is not a problem that exists and that wouldn’t resonate people would be wrong. Common Clutter is a very real problem that people are hungry for solutions.
This is a call upon all of the researchers, scientists, and social workers to begin examining willing people on how they live their lives and how they fill the spaces that they call home. We need more specific guidelines and evidence on how to understand and tackle Common Clutter. The stakeholders are literally everyone who lives in a space; knowing how to handle Common Clutter is actually about changing your lifestyle in a happier, healthier direction. There is more than enough scientific evidence to prove that people are happier in cleaner homes, and decluttering can be seen as a move to improve mental health as people often create clutter because of unresolved emotional baggage.
Often not observed is the psychological significance of a clean, organized home. Imagine if you will a space that belongs to you that you enjoy being in, and imagine that every single piece of furniture, tool, photo, whatever it may be had value to you as a person emotionally, or functionally. Perhaps things may seem that way right now, but truly examine every single thing. Is there any good reason you’ve held onto the pair of socks with holes in them? Or the clothes you never wear? Or the dishes you never use? Or the chair you never sit in? Has an item ever taken up space in your home in an unflattering way that it began to make you upset? Did you deal with it right away or did you let it fester? Why didn’t you deal with it? Some people actually can’t answer that question. Things may not always be dirty in your home, but even clean homes can have clutter. People often find it harder than they realize when they are confronted with throwing something away. Suddenly strange attachments or paranoia begin to surface, and you begin to see a whole new light on the problem of Common Clutter. Everyone has their own vice, and everyone can benefit from studies and research into this area from the professional community.
This is possibly the most difficult part of this proposal because so little has been done in the way of researching Common. I will be addressing any databases available to myself and possibly interviewing professionals in the field of psychology who may have done more in this area (hopefully to my discovery, there will be more than expected, or these studies may just be referred to as something else). From there, I will decide whether specific guidelines on clutter need to be created and whether or not more research needs to be performed.
This is a problem everyone experiences, and we something we know deep down within ourselves. But we’ve always guised it as something else like a simple inability to upkeep a house. This is a deceptive way to think of Common Clutter, that it merely equates to keeping things tidy and clean. It is more about our current mental health and how that health is affecting our space. Perhaps there will be more than I expect when I research further into this, but from the research I’ve done so far, it doesn’t seem that way. It’s a strange part of life people just accept instead of truly asking themselves, “What does science say about my habits and my home?” The more we learn, the more we know, and the more we can help people confront the problems in plain sight.
How do we observe, categorize, and help the different types of people who experience Common Clutter, and how do we reduce the clutter for healthier, cleaner, and happier lives?
There is in fact, very little research done in the way of scientifically examining Common Clutter. This is a problem; we as a society are horribly unequipped in tackling a common symptom that can have immediate, positive impact on people. Luckily, there are some who are working on the problem, one being famed author Marie Kondo with her book “The Life Changing Method of Tidying Up”. My wife bought this book a few years back, but it was one of the first times I saw somebody try to teach people how to deal with Common Clutter. She’ll show you how to categorize your home into different sections, she’ll teach you a step-by-step method with dealing with messes, and she’ll even help you recognize the different types of clutter you will face in your life. This is a book that has sold over 4 million copies worldwide and continues to grow through client-based business where people train themselves in the “Konmarie” method of decluttering their homes. To say this is not a problem that exists and that wouldn’t resonate people would be wrong. Common Clutter is a very real problem that people are hungry for solutions.
This is a call upon all of the researchers, scientists, and social workers to begin examining willing people on how they live their lives and how they fill the spaces that they call home. We need more specific guidelines and evidence on how to understand and tackle Common Clutter. The stakeholders are literally everyone who lives in a space; knowing how to handle Common Clutter is actually about changing your lifestyle in a happier, healthier direction. There is more than enough scientific evidence to prove that people are happier in cleaner homes, and decluttering can be seen as a move to improve mental health as people often create clutter because of unresolved emotional baggage.
Often not observed is the psychological significance of a clean, organized home. Imagine if you will a space that belongs to you that you enjoy being in, and imagine that every single piece of furniture, tool, photo, whatever it may be had value to you as a person emotionally, or functionally. Perhaps things may seem that way right now, but truly examine every single thing. Is there any good reason you’ve held onto the pair of socks with holes in them? Or the clothes you never wear? Or the dishes you never use? Or the chair you never sit in? Has an item ever taken up space in your home in an unflattering way that it began to make you upset? Did you deal with it right away or did you let it fester? Why didn’t you deal with it? Some people actually can’t answer that question. Things may not always be dirty in your home, but even clean homes can have clutter. People often find it harder than they realize when they are confronted with throwing something away. Suddenly strange attachments or paranoia begin to surface, and you begin to see a whole new light on the problem of Common Clutter. Everyone has their own vice, and everyone can benefit from studies and research into this area from the professional community.
This is possibly the most difficult part of this proposal because so little has been done in the way of researching Common. I will be addressing any databases available to myself and possibly interviewing professionals in the field of psychology who may have done more in this area (hopefully to my discovery, there will be more than expected, or these studies may just be referred to as something else). From there, I will decide whether specific guidelines on clutter need to be created and whether or not more research needs to be performed.
This is a problem everyone experiences, and we something we know deep down within ourselves. But we’ve always guised it as something else like a simple inability to upkeep a house. This is a deceptive way to think of Common Clutter, that it merely equates to keeping things tidy and clean. It is more about our current mental health and how that health is affecting our space. Perhaps there will be more than I expect when I research further into this, but from the research I’ve done so far, it doesn’t seem that way. It’s a strange part of life people just accept instead of truly asking themselves, “What does science say about my habits and my home?” The more we learn, the more we know, and the more we can help people confront the problems in plain sight.