Have you ever looked around your home and thought to yourself, “Boy, I sure do have a lot of stuff“?
You’re not alone. A survey by the National Association of Professional Organizers reveals that 54% of Americans feel overwhelmed by clutter and 78% have no idea what to do with it.
Folks in New Orleans, Covington, Mandeville, and Slidell are no exception.
Experts believe that it’s human nature to collect items as a way to protect ourselves from vulnerabilities. That’s what we do with stuff.
But, the relief we feel when we collect more and more stuff is fleeting, according to Bev Hitchins, the founder of Align, a decluttering service based in Alexandria, Virginia.
“People gather stuff to protect themselves,” Hitchins told the BBC. “It’s an illusion though. It doesn’t make them happy – it’s a cover-up. We get so busy maintaining stuff, keeping it, making sure there’s a place for it. It’s not greed. It’s trying to fill up a hole that’s so big it will never be filled.”
So, what can you do to avoid falling into the same trap as millions of people across the country? It comes down to freeing yourself from certain material things in order to have more time and mental energy for the parts of life that matter most.
How you can get started with a Bin There Dump That residential-friendly dumpster
The minimalist movement is nothing new; however, we’re not even suggesting that you go to that extreme. You don’t have to upheave your life and get rid of all of your worldly possessions in order to pull free from your “stuff.”
We suggest a more realistic approach, which we’ll discuss in a moment.
It all starts with preparation. You should go into your “cleansing period” knowing how and where you’ll get rid of some of your things. That’s why we recommend you rent a dumpster from Bin There Dump That. We have 5 residential-friendly size dumpster bins to choose from. Just set up your delivery and pickup times and we’ll take care of the rest.
Why you should rent a bin before tossing away your stuff
Humans are great at making excuses, especially when we’re embarking on a journey that we’re a little resistant about. If you don’t rent a residential-friendly dumpster bin before you start your cleaning project, then you’ll likely say to yourself: “Well, I have no place to put all this stuff, so I can’t toss it away.”
If, however, you do have your bin put into place on your property, you’ll have no excuse but to start tossing things away. In fact, over time you might start making a game out of it – you’ll see how close you can get to filling up the bin with things in your home that served no real purpose.
The game plan for freeing yourself from “stuff”
Now it’s time to talk about the 1-year-plan.
Here’s how it goes:
Sift through all of your possessions around your home. Make note of the things you’ve not used, looked at, or acknowledged in the past year. (Hint: if you can’t remember the last time you used something, just assume it’s been a year).
These items are likely just taking up space and weighing you down. If it’s been more than a year since they’ve been put to good use, do you really need them?
Doubtful. This includes clothes in your closet that you never seem to wear, trinkets on shelves that only seem to be collecting dust, and so much more.
You might not toss away a lot during this first round, but we’re talking baby steps here. Once you wrap your head around this cleaning project, you can step up your game: toss out anything you haven’t used in the last 6 months.
Minimizing the materials in your life can be stressful – but at least you’ll know where to toss away your stuff
We’ll be the first to admit that tossing away some of your possessions isn’t easy. We’ve all fallen into the trap of holding onto things that serve us little good, and then growing an attachment to those things.
But we want to help simplify the process for you. By providing flexible delivery and pickup times for our residential-friendly dumpsters, we like to think we’re doing a part to help our fellow neighbors across Southeastern Louisiana avoid the effects of the Stuff Paradox.
There’s nothing wrong with holding onto a few sentimental items in your life. But when your possessions start consuming your living space, a change has to be made.
Contact Bin There Dump That today to learn more about how we can help you make that change.