Does living with excessive clutter affect your health? (bursting, depression, swollen)

[John23]

I know a few people who live in small apartments that have a tremendous problem with clutter, boxes lying around, never being organized...just alot of "stuff" lying around.

Everyone has stuff lying around, but this is what I'd call moderate to severe. It never seems to end. I've known them for a long time, and it never gets better.

I wonder how much it can affect your health/mental health to live in that kind of environment.

Have studies been done to show what it's like to live with moderate to severe clutter? Does it increase depression, or feeling tired, with low energy?

I've never been a 100% organized, but to me it would be very tiring to live like that every day. It would make your place look smaller than it is....to wake up to it and come home to it everyday...I dont know.

[yellowsnow]

My experience with this screams yes. I believe it is a disease. There are people who just can't throw anything away and the problem becomes unmanageable. The people become so overwhelmed; they are just paralyzed and can't do anything. Their usually worthless possessions rule their lives.

I have family members with this problem. If we go in and clean it all out for them, they are initially relieved but sad to see their stuff go. They might NEED it some day. But you can go back in 6 months and they will be right back in the same situation. They are happy to have it become manageable. But they seem to be unable to change. For years I heard this was related to people who lived through the depression but now I'm seeing it in younger people too.

Sometimes they are quite angry about losing all the stuff. But when asked, this person couldn't think of anything she had needed that wasn't still there. So they know they don't need the stuff but they can't throw it away.

This has turned me into a minimalist! I don't ever want to be like that.

[cynwldkat]

You may be right about it being like a disease. It drives me crazy too. I've also had to help others clean out so many unnecessary items because they just can't seem to part with things---I just call it "stuff"!! Things that are important like the "memories" I can understand. My thinking is....if you haven't used it in the last six months lose it! Of course there are always exceptions to those rules but that's a basic guideline!! I had one friend that had boxes of books she would not part with. She said she might need them for research someday or just might want to reread them. The books somehow got mold in them. It did cause physical harm to her. So I guess my answer to your question would be "yes". There is a possibility of both physical and psychological harm.

[Laura707]

I had a friend that kept her house in shambles. She bought a bus load of old clothes once and had it unlaoded in her living room where it stayed. Papers on her kitchen counter stacked 1 to 2 feet high. She couldn't sleep on her bed because it was piled high with clothes, had boxes upon boxes of old papers (light bills, car payment recipes) that were 20 to 40 years old. Over the years she has bought bigger and bigger houses to hold it all.

I always felt like she did it to keep people from coming over. She had the lowest esteem of anybody I had ever met. She was depressed although she would never admit it or accept treatment for it.

My house is cluttered, to much stuff for the size and I know it. I can have it picked up in just a few minutes but when I do, I have it all cluttered again within a hour and that is without trying! I find a certain amount of clutter comforting... I am uncomfortable in a spotless, everything in place house... Don't know why......

[GreenMachine]

I think it is a compulsion. I also notice that people who collect things and can't throw them away are often controlling... I have a family member who can't throw away anything. She keeps the most inane things, like plastic and paper garbage bags, win corks, and glass jars. Her home is like a museum, containing the entire history of her life, old files from where she used to work, old computers, old answering machines and cell phones.

I have another friend like this too, and she also cannot throw anything away. She goes to flea markets and get things and puts them in her basements. Usually she gets it because so-and-so may need it. Her house has four bedrooms, two of which you can't hardly get into. Her kitchen table is full of stuff, vitamins, newspapers. Her kitchen counters are hardly visible. Her medicine cabinets are full to bursting. You can dig through them and find layers of stuff, aspirin and hydrogen peroxide from the last century. Under her sink, paper and plastic grocery bags pile up. Her floors are covered by layers of pieces of rugs, her wall covered with pictures, pieces of cloth from india. Old friends have died, and she keeps their things, old clothes, spices, wine glasses. Her closets are bursting with clothes that she stopped wearing twenty years ago. Let's not even talk about the refrigerator.

I feel depressed around these people. I hate being in their homes, because there is nothing to enjoy. Nothing is comfortable. I can hardly move around. I can't find a decent pan to cook in the kitchen or a spot on the counter to chop onions. It's so frustrating. And you can't help them. You can't throw things away because they get mad. You can't reason with them. They have an excuse for keeping everything. Someone might NEED it one day. (Controlling, see?) When I'm around these people, I want to run.

greenie

[songinthewind7]

I cannot stand clutter and I don't like going into other peoples houses and seeing it either.
It's depressing, makes me irritable and drains my energy, mentally and physically, looking at situations like this. Don't know how these people stand to live in clutter but I know plenty that do.

[songinthewind7]

Originally Posted by GreenMachine

I think it is a compulsion. I also notice that people who collect things and can't throw them away are often controlling... I have a family member who can't throw away anything. She keeps the most inane things, like plastic and paper garbage bags, win corks, and glass jars. Her home is like a museum, containing the entire history of her life, old files from where she used to work, old computers, old answering machines and cell phones.

I have another friend like this too, and she also cannot throw anything away. She goes to flea markets and get things and puts them in her basements. Usually she gets it because so-and-so may need it. Her house has four bedrooms, two of which you can't hardly get into. Her kitchen table is full of stuff, vitamins, newspapers. Her kitchen counters are hardly visible. Her medicine cabinets are full to bursting. You can dig through them and find layers of stuff, aspirin and hydrogen peroxide from the last century. Under her sink, paper and plastic grocery bags pile up. Her floors are covered by layers of pieces of rugs, her wall covered with pictures, pieces of cloth from india. Old friends have died, and she keeps their things, old clothes, spices, wine glasses. Her closets are bursting with clothes that she stopped wearing twenty years ago. Let's not even talk about the refrigerator.

I feel depressed around these people. I hate being in their homes, because there is nothing to enjoy. Nothing is comfortable. I can hardly move around. I can't find a decent pan to cook in the kitchen or a spot on the counter to chop onions. It's so frustrating. And you can't help them. You can't throw things away because they get mad. You can't reason with them. They have an excuse for keeping everything. Someone might NEED it one day. (Controlling, see?) When I'm around these people, I want to run.

greenie

You said this so well. I had someone mention to me one time that she wishes someone would come by and clean her house. I told her I would be more than happy to help her. Unfortunately, we had different ideas on what 'cleaning house' was. She was talking about vacuuming, dusting, etc. and I was talking about clearing her place of clutter. We never got her place cleaned up because she didn't want to get rid of anything.
I didn't understand why she wanted to keep used baggies and whatever and she doesn't understand why I wanted to trash and get rid of things. Oh well, it takes all kinds.

[GreenMachine]

Originally Posted by songinthewind7

You said this so well. I had someone mention to me one time that she wishes someone would come by and clean her house. I told her I would be more than happy to help her. Unfortunately, we had different ideas on what 'cleaning house' was. She was talking about vacuuming, dusting, etc. and I was talking about clearing her place of clutter. We never got her place cleaned up because she didn't want to get rid of anything.
I didn't understand why she wanted to keep used baggies and whatever and she doesn't understand why I wanted to trash and get rid of things. Oh well, it takes all kinds.

That's another thing. How can you clean a counter or talbe top that is covered with old newspapers and magazines that no one will let you throw away? You CAN'T keep the place clean. And be careful of what you eat -- you have no idea how many decades that can of peaches has been there. And watch out for that swollen can of beans that is all rounded and tipping over on it's side-- that one has botulism in it.

Greenie

[CosmicWizard]

IMO, clutter aint all bad, and neatness ain't all that it's cracked up to be. There have been times when my desk appeared to be very cluttered, yet there was a great degree of organization in my apparent disorganization and clutter and I knew where everything was located. After cleaning up the apparent clutter and getting things organized, I couldn't find a damn thing.

It's kind of like driving in NewDehli India. To my western way of seeing things it seemed like total chaos, yet it works quite well for the Indian way of seeing things. I had the impression that the most important accessory on a car in India is the horn. It's OK if the brakes don't work or the lights are out...but you gotta have a horn. In India, I saw fewer accidents on what I perceived as the hopelessly chaotic streets of New Dehli than I see along a seemingly well ordered American city street.

BTW, I'm not a clutter freak to the point of not throwing things out. I'm constantly getting rid of stuff, but I am reluctant to keep things neatly organized to the point of obsession. IMO, the people who teach getting organized workshops and write books on getting organized are obsessive organizers.

blessings.....Franco

[GreenMachine]

Originally Posted by NewAgeRedneck

IMO, clutter aint all bad, and neatness ain't all that it's cracked up to be. There have been times when my desk appeared to be very cluttered, yet there was a great degree of organization in my apparent disorganization and clutter. After cleaning up the apparent clutter and getting things organized, I couldn't find a damn thing.

It's kind of like driving in NewDehli India. To my western way of seeing things it seemed like total chaos, yet it works quite well for the Indian way of seeing things. The most important accessory on a car in India is the horn. It's OK if the brakes don't work or the lights are out...but you gotta have a horn.

blessings.....Franco

NewAge,

I think we're talking about extreme clutter, pack rats. It's an obsessive-compulsive disorder and there is nothing healthy about it....In severe forms, it can disrupt a person's life, intrude on neighbors, and ruin social opportunities.

Greenie