Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

The Ghost of Clutter Future

Over the years, I’ve been honored to work for several generations of some families. Mothers and daughters, sometimes grandchildren too, even sisters and brothers and cousins. I’m always grateful to be so trusted. It’s also always fascinating to see that as different as people from the same family can be, clutter can definitely be a family trait.

This week, I spent one day helping a mother and daughter to begin downsizing the mother’s large apartment, and the next day working with the daughter at her apartment. She was on fire! I’ve never seen her so ready to let go. She threw out bags upon bags in a few short hours. “Oh,” I said, “It’s the Ghost of Clutter Future.” There’s nothing that helps you let go like confronting your parent’s accumulation.

Once upon a time (in Louisa May Alcott novels), newly married young women struggled to set up a household. They were grateful if Aunt March bestowed a piece of furniture or some hand-stitched linens. Nowadays, by the time most of us are done with our stuff, our kids already have too much stuff of their own, not that they want our brown furniture anyway.

Somehow, no one thinks through the lifecycle of the stuff they bring into their homes, and what will happen to it once we have gone to the great beyond. It’s not a bad idea to take a walk with the Ghost of Clutter Future and look at all your stuff. Ask yourself, realistically, what would your children really want (photo-albums!).

Think about what you use, what you love, and what you would take with you if you had to downsize. Ask yourself what’s going to happen to all the stuff in your parents’ home? In your home? Who will want it? Where will it all go?

I don’t want to give you nightmares—of course, your children may grow more sentimental with age, and I’m not taking my 15-year-old’s advice on whether she’ll want my good china—but next time something shiny catches your eye, remember the Ghost of Clutter-future and walk on by.