The average American home has too much stuff, which isn’t hard to believe since we’re fed constant messages to earn more and buy more. But most of the time, we don’t need more. The more we consume, the more the stuff affects our lives. While some things do improve our lives, a cluttered home does not. Clutter affects our lives in so many unintentional ways. From our mental health to our relationships, habits, free time, and more.
Despite my best efforts to combat it, my own home is included in the statistic of overcluttered homes. As I work, play, and relax at home, I can feel it. The other day, I caught myself singing Taylor Swift’s “Exile” in my head, acknowledging the clutter, “so many signs, so many signs, you didn’t even see the signs.” I see so many signs that we need less stuff.
Here Are 20 Signs You Have Too Much Stuff
1. You Say “I Have Too Much Stuff”
The first step is acknowledging it, as with any problem. Even if you say “I have too much stuff” jokingly with a friend or family member, chances are it’s true, and you know it. Now that it’s front and center, maybe it’s time to pore over all those decluttering tips you collected in your Pinterest account.
2. You Want A Bigger Home
Sometimes, when we feel there isn’t enough storage in our home, or the home feels cramped and tight, we declare that we need a bigger house. Average house sizes for a family of four have repeatedly increased over the years. We don’t actually need a new home; we need less stuff.
The other day, I watched a blogger I used to love on Instagram stories talk about adding onto their already 6,000+ square foot home because two of her three daughters share a bathroom, and she wanted each child to have their own. This isn’t normal. Your children don’t each need their own bathrooms, and you likely do not need a new home or more square footage.
3. It Takes A Long Time To Clean Your Home
Cleaning is a necessary evil of the care and keeping of a home. Love it or hate it, we all must partake at some point. If you find yourself spending a significant amount of time cleaning, tidying, and organizing, you may have too much stuff. The less we own, the less we have to take care of, clean, and put away. A great way to reduce cleaning time is to declutter.
4. There Aren’t Enough Hangers
While putting things away at home, have you said you don’t have enough hangers, storage bins, pencil holders, baskets, or (insert other organizational item here)? Guilty. When we have too many things, we need places to store those items. When you have a fixed space like a closet, only a certain number of items will fit. So if you find yourself going on a Target run to pick up just one more pack of hangers, you may have too many clothes, and it may be time to pare down.
5. You Can’t Park Your Car In The Garage
Perhaps one of the most obvious dilemmas, you may have too much stuff if you can’t park your car in the garage. Don’t have a garage? You’re not off the hook. The same goes for parking a bike in the shed, or placing a tool back in the workshop, or putting the garden cart in the potting shed. When spaces start to overflow and become storage for things not intended to be there, it means our homes are overstuffed. Reclaim the garage for its intended purpose, a home for your vehicle. Perhaps by hosting a garage sale?!
6. Surfaces Are Consistently Cluttered
When a lot of things clutter the dining room table, it is no longer used for meals. If the desk is littered with things, our home office is no longer a place conducive to work. Other problem areas are nightstands, tops of dressers, kitchen counters and islands, coffee tables, and other tables. When these everyday surfaces are cluttered, it’s a sign that the items don’t have homes, and it’s time to clear. Surfaces can be heavy lifters in a home, but aren’t usable until they’re kept clear.
I currently have this trouble with cooking. Our kitchen island has become a drop zone, and because our coat closet is overstuffed and we don’t have homes for many of the things that live on the island, I find myself hating the chore of cooking. Weeknight meals turn into, “here, kids, have this can of soup,” because it has become too difficult to clear the clutter AND cook a weeknight meal.
7. Home Feels Stressful Or Overwhelming
Do you ever have that feeling that you can’t relax in your own home? Like the house is crushing you, everything feels a little overwhelming, and you can’t shake the feeling of stress. A cluttered environment can do that to you. For some, it’s easier to live in a messy house than others, but all of us are affected to some degree by our environment. It’s like what author Gretchen Rubin wrote a whole book about, Outer Order, Inner Calm.
Home really should feel like a sanctuary. A space to relax, engage in creative activities, and recharge from a day’s worth of chaos. If your home isn’t this for you, find some simple ways to declutter and turn it around.
8. You Rent A Storage Unit
There are definitely some times when a storage unit can come in handy. Like when you’re briefly in between homes, selling one and in limbo before you can officially move into your next home. Or if your parents pass away and you’re just not ready to let go of the family heirlooms you inherited and have no space in your home for the four-poster bed and matching dresser set. So you rent a unit until you’re in a stage of grief where you can deal with it. The common denominator here is a fleeting period of time.
If you’re renting a storage space long-term (or indefinitely) because you don’t have enough space at your home, you have too much stuff. Plus, your clutter is now incurring an additional cost. Often, these items are out of sight and out of mind. We forget what we’re still holding onto. If you don’t even remember what’s in there, do you really still need it?
9. It’s Uncomfortable To Invite Friends Over
Or maybe you have so much anxiety over the state of your home that you simply don’t do it. Many of us feel this way, regardless of the state of our homes, because we often fear judgment about our homes, our living spaces not being nice enough or finished enough. But if your anxiety stems from how much tidying and cleaning you need to do before a gathering, you may have too much stuff.
10. Rooms Are Perpetually Messy
Real-life homes have real-life messes. But if at the end of the day, day after day, week after week, the same rooms are left messy and unkempt, it could very well be because there are too many items in your home. When the number of things in our homes is manageable, so is daily tidying and cleaning.
I feel this often in my craft room. It’s the home for things that need repair or don’t have homes yet. It’s a small space that needs constant editing of what I hold onto in order to stay neat and tidy. It’s a constant work in progress to remain clutter-free, but as long as I regularly edit and only keep what I have enough space for, the room is a haven for creativity.
11. You Can’t Find Anything
We’ve all had those days where you’re running late for work because you can’t find the preschooler’s boots, the keys aren’t in the seven different places they logically could be, somewhere is a field trip permission slip that needs signing, and where did those library books run off to?! When we have more stuff than fits our home, clutter happens, and it becomes impossible to keep track of our belongings.
For example, if there are too many keys hanging on the key hooks because you’ve kept all the keys from the previous three homes, plus a few sets you have no idea what they’re for, but you keep them just in case, there isn’t room for your car keys. Then sometimes you leave them on the counter, other times in your purse, and occasionally a kid steals them from the table because they look like fun. Two and a half hours of searching later, and you find them at the bottom of the stuffy basket. True story. Only slightly embellished. It might have been more like 45 minutes of searching.
12. You’re In A Vicious Cycle Of Organizing And Reorganizing
It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me. This honestly feels like my whole life right now. Organizing kids’ clothes, toys, kitchen wares, craft supplies, keepsakes, and children’s artwork over and over and over again. It’s not that I need a better organizational system or to read a few more articles full of all the latest organizing tips. It’s that we have too many kids’ clothes, toys, kitchen wares, craft supplies, keepsakes, and children’s artwork.
There are many better things to spend my time on than organizing, reorganizing, and organizing all over again. It’s like Clea and Joanna from The Home Edit meet Bill Murray from the movie Groundhog Day. It’s time to declutter.
13. You Spend Money On Things You Already Have
This has happened precisely three times in our home in the last year, all related to tools and home maintenance items, which tells me it’s time to declutter and give proper homes to these things. Once with a part for our washing machine, once for a plumbing tool, and another time for a pair of snips. This is not a good habit to get into, and one that could become very costly if we continue.
When you have too many things, they aren’t always stored in the right place, and it can be hard to find them. When we can’t find things or don’t realize what we do have, we spend money on things we already own.
14. Money Seems To Disappear
If you end the month feeling broke month after month and don’t know where your money goes, try putting together a budget or tracking expenses. Chances are, you’re overspending on things you don’t really need. Check the closet to find the missing dollars. You’re likely staring at your money every day in the stack of clothes piled outside the overstuffed closet or the books overflowing from the bookshelves.
15. Unused Purchases Stress You Out
Sometimes we purchase a special lotion or shampoo and don’t use it because it was a treat, expensive, or something to save for a special day. Other times, we stock up. I’ve been guilty of stocking up on too many boxes of chicken stock and then not using them before the expiration date because they got lost in the depths of the pantry.
When unused items pile up, it can be stressful because you spent good money on things that you’re not using. Guilt sets in because now you may no longer need or want those items, but they cost you precious money and take up precious space. Let go of the guilt and let go of those items.
16. You Don’t Know What’s In The Boxes
We all have baggage, and for some of us, it looks like stacks of mystery boxes in a basement, garage, or attic. We don’t even know what’s in the boxes. I have them. In fact, I went looking in them while writing this article, and you know what I found? A really bizarre wedding present that we didn’t have the heart to pass on because we love the gift giver, a box of old home decor from our first house, a mattress pad that doesn’t fit a single bed in our home, and a box of toys I had hidden from the kids in hopes they would forget about the toys so I could donate them. They forgot about the toys, alright, and I forgot about the box.
If I didn’t miss these items, I don’t need these items, and it’s time for them to find a new home and live out their intended purposes.
17. Closets Are Overflowing
Do you know what a professional organizer would do if they came into your home and saw the overflowing closet? They wouldn’t get to work organizing those items. No, they would first have you go through every item, rehome anything that doesn’t belong, and declutter the excess. When the closet flow-eth over, it’s time to clear the space. My motto is that if I don’t have an empty drawer or basket in a closet, I have too much stuff.
18. Papers, Dishes, Or Laundry Piles Start Towering
Sometimes we get into these habits where the papers are piling up, the dishes are overflowing in the sink, and every dirty laundry basket is full. Often, we first think of organizing the papers, tackling the dishes, and doing more laundry. But sometimes, those everyday tasks and items have a bigger problem. Maybe we don’t unload the dishwasher because the cabinet of clean dishes is full. I currently have that problem with mugs. Or we don’t do laundry because the top of the washer and dryer is packed with folded clean clothes, which we can’t put away. After all, the drawers are overstuffed. I see you 22 girls’ dresses and raise you 16 pairs of pajamas.
When we have the right number of things, organized within just the right amount of space to meet our daily needs, the important tasks like dishes and laundry become an easier chore to tackle.
19. Home Isn’t Inspiring Or Joyful
This is a big one and requires one to listen to their gut and inner knowing. If you persistently feel like home isn’t inspiring, relaxing, comfortable, or joyful, it may be time to declutter. When we’re surrounded by stuff, it’s hard to feel peace and joy. The anxiety sets in just by the number of things around you as you traipse through a cluttered home.
For me, this is usually the first and most obvious sign that we have too much stuff. I can feel it in my body before my mind atunes to it, and my mental health suffers.
20. You Thought About Decluttering But Haven’t Done It
I can’t tell you how many times over this last year I have said to myself, “I need to start the decluttering process,” but have yet to begin. It can be overwhelming to take that first step. But it’s time.
Shameless plug, go read my decluttering tips for when you feel overwhelmed article, pick a strategy or an idea that may help, and get to work.
My Decluttering Plan
This winter, I felt incredibly uninspired and anxious about the state of our cluttered home. I mean, it’s not too bad, but it’s enough of an unchecked mess that the cluttered environment is affecting me.
I tend to be the kind of person who makes decluttering most impactful when I gameify it. I’m thinking of doing another minimalism challenge as I did a couple of years ago. It made big improvements in our home. Although I did see a 30 bags in 30 days challenge on social media around Christmas time. Where you pick a month, and declutter a bag a day. Maybe I’ll try that one.
The ultimate declutter goal is to clear enough space in our own home to feel calm and creative before the girls are out of school for summer vacation. That’s two and a half months, I think I can do it.
Pssst…Who’s on board and is going to do some decluttering in the coming months? Anyone?! Bueller?!
