Are You Buried in Clutter?

Now that my kids are grown, I fantasize about giving away all our belongings, buying a beat-up hippie van, stuffing a mattress in it, and driving off—it doesn’t even matter where my husband and I go. (My husband is okay with this, as long as there's a kiteboard strapped to the roof.) Owning nothing, being free, and not being a slave to the dollar has great appeal. Many people imagine this scenario, and quite a few people live it. I feel that pruning my life might just unload my mind.

Along the esplanades of San Diego, a formerly practicing physician has been found gliding on a pair of rollerblades. John Kitchin, nicknamed SloMo, gave up his monied life, walked away from his house and fancy car, and found a basic apartment to live a simple existence. The gliding former physician had tapped into something. It’s a philosophy that embraces the real meaning of life, not the worship of material goods.

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Fortunately, frugal living is having its moment. Modern-day spartans shun consuming more than what is needed. They don’t throw food away, refurbish items from socks to furniture, and never buy new when used is just as good. The concept of less essentially frees the mind.

We have to admire households that are free of stuff. These people do not hoard and collect. They don’t harbor tchotchkes and knick-knacks; they keep things simple and efficient, and they practice this aesthetic innately. Essentially, physical clutter adds to mental busyness and internal chaos. When things are muddled in our environment, things are often muddled inside our heads—all of which can fuel the distress we suffer.

A study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that having too many things can clutter one’s thinking; this confusion renders a person cognitively hampered, bringing on unhappy thoughts. One study presented at an American Economic Association meeting showed that children raised in a clean and tidy home have a leg up on educational and career success later in life. (Somehow, this nifty information is often lost on kids.)

The brother of a friend of mine died at the age of 56. This brother had no spouse or kids, so my friend arranged for his funeral and managed loose ends, including what to do with the brother’s many possessions. The brother didn’t own a home, jewels, or a fat bank account, but he did store old magazines, newspaper clippings, kitchen gadgets, clothes that were too big, and shoes that were too small. It was a prodigious archive that no one wanted. In the end, it pained my friend. While the belongings were important to the deceased brother, no action was to be taken other than dumping the pile.

When Clutter Turns to Hoarding

Noted in a paper published in the journal Behavior Research and Therapy, hoarding is strangely, or maybe not so strangely, linked to obsessive compulsiveness. Randy Frost, a professor at Smith College and the author of Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, has studied the hoarding tendencies of older adults and reported that symptoms are often pronounced in later life. Apparently, we hoard more as we age.

Clearing out stuff can be managed throughout life, not just in old age. When I looked in my closet, I found items I had not worn in five years. And who were the people in some of the photographs in the shoebox? Owning so much useless stuff does clutter my mind.

In Swedish, decluttering is also called döstädning, dö meaning “death,” and städning meaning “cleaning.” Margareta Magnusson’s book, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, shares the idea that we shouldn’t saddle our loved ones with mountains of stuff after we die. It’s painful enough to grieve a loved one’s passing, but the agony of going through someone else’s clutter can make it worse.

We could all benefit from being a little Swedish by following a few of Magnusson’s directives:

For a Clear Mind, Keep Life Simple

Start now. Clear out the detritus now, not later.
Assess. Do you really need twenty of one item? If there are many items of similar use, assess the value of each.
The Simple. Focus on what is simple. Chuck the no-brainer items; this will motivate you.
Ask Yourself. Will anyone want a certain item when you die? (Seriously.) I will argue that no one will want it.

Adapted from the book How to Be Less Miserable. Blackstone Publishing, 2025.