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Blog: Clutter-Free Forever
 Saving for Security/Identity
Saving for Security/Identity We continue looking at the psychological reasons we clutter; today it's security. How many times have you heard someone say, I need to keep this because I may need it someday and I might not have the funds to buy another one at that time. To some of us this may seem reasonable. However, when we look at the psychological and physical cost of keeping things we no longer need we may think differently. If you have an object that once was useful but is no longer needed, you'll understand the other side of the story. A client of mine sold her home but kept her electric lawn mower when moving to an apartment. The mower took up valuable space in her small outdoor closet. She didn't have a lawn but she kept the mower in case she bought another house. She's been living in the same apartment for ten years and still has the mower taking up space. While she could have sold the mower to the new owner of her home she now has no potential buyers. She now realizes that she doesn't want the responsibilities of another home but the lawn mower is so old no one else wants it. Now she is discarding it and beating herself up for wasting so much space for so long, not being able to sell the mower or even give it away. She feels guilty, an emotion that causes other psychological distress. In addition, she has paid the cost of storing the mover for ten years. We did talk about the now and I reminded her that she now has reclaimed the space in her outdoor closet. So we cleared out the whole shed painted it and put shelves in it. She now has a place to put her Christmas decorations. We did purge some ornaments and lights she no longer needs in her smaller space. She began to get the idea that giving up things one no longer needs can be freeing. So if you have a closet filled with three sizes of clothes you can no longer wear or perhaps a lawn mower you don't use, try and see how free you feel when you let the stuff go! Ccfld4/4/08
posted on: 4/9/2008 8:00:00 AM by Frances D'Amato
category: Clutter
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Clutter-Free Forever
by Frances D'Amato
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About Frances:
Frances L. D'Amato, M.A. M.Ed. is an Organizational Psychologist as well as a working artist. She founded the Tree Group in 1981 and has been helping Organizations reduce clutter and streamline systems for more efficient management. About ten years ago she expanded her focus to include individuals who work at home and then individuals who need help decluttering their homes. Frances works with the individual to discover the meaning of clutter and develops a process to allow people to let go and live in a more clutter and stress free environment.
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