The Real Cost of Clutter | Sandra Lane | TEDxWilliamsport

Sandra Lane discusses the real cost of clutter in our life. Sandra Lane founded her company, Organization Lane, in 2010 with a goal of helping individuals release the excess in their space and life so they can focus on what matters most.

Sandra is a Board-Certified Professional Organizer and Workplace Productivity Specialist. She is the author of the Amazon best-selling book, Ask the Organizer. She is a regular blogger and has contributed to numerous publications including Thrive Global and is working on a second book.

[brianniegemann]

I held on to my departed wife's things for 6-7 years. Then l let her go. I sorted through her belongings a few at a time and said goodbye to them. I stopped whenever the sadness overtook me, then started over when l was feeling better. I buried her last pair of shoes in the backyard. The biggest thing left by now is a shoebox full of pictures. I'm going to send them to a company that copies them onto a dvd. I did the same thing with my father's 900 color slides. I have the comfort of saving all those memories, but they no longer fill a closet. Thanks for listening.

[NostalgiaSue]

This week I gave away my son 1rst bicycle. It was like new. So many sweet memories attached to it. A man with 6 kids that was doing my roof was looking at me putting everything out of my small shed. Spring cleaning a bit late I guess. I asked him if he need a bicycle. His face lid up. Big smile. He said well my little Jack would sure love that. His 12 year old son was in the roof working with him. He said: Oh My he would just have so much fun. I teared up. I finally found the right person to give it to. 30 years I kept that tricycle for a special boy or girl. I pick it up and put it in the back of his truck. I went to get them lemonade and a gift certificate for the 12 year old boy. Before they left we took a selfee together. I gave double what he ask for the job . I made sure to give the boy his gift certificate and tell him how impressed I was of him. I will miss my little bike but it's making new memories with a beautiful family. My memories will never go away.

[virginia_in_the_rearview]

"Clutter comes from unmade decisions". This hit home! It's so true.

[sl-oqfd]

Words of caution and tears: For several years I paraded in the de-clutter movement. Then in several bad decisions during a stressful move, I gave away antique family items that left me gripped in grief and regret throughout all the many years that followed. Never let go of things with which you have deep family or emotional connection when you are unsettled, rushed, moving, under pressure, angry, feeling on-top-of-the-world, flippant.... or in poor health. Your decisions would likely be based on stressful urges to purge the imbalance and chaos you feel in your present circumstances. Decisions out of touch with your deepest feelings and ability to come up with creative, heartfelt and rational solutions that are right for you and your future.

[juliannacalifornia]

I started with one drawer. 5 months later I had gotten rid of 99% of everything I owned, rented out my big house, purchased a van that I turned into a home on wheels, and I've loved every minute since. Things can be anchors. What really matters is people, and experiences.

[tomaszwyszkowski]

When this lady said: Got clutter? I started crying. I grew up in cluttered home and after years of struggling I found minimalism and got rid of all the clutter.(layer by layer). So, I'm finaly free and I can say: No, I don't have any clutter.
We don't realize how heavy the clutter wait on us until we get rig of it and become light and free...

[amandadavis]

"We shop for the thrill of saving money". Oh man, what an oxymoron that totally hit home. Very hard to save money if you are still spending it!!! Great talk, an easy voice to listen to!

[carolkennedy]

CHAOS =can't have anyone over syndrome, caused by the shame, embarrassment, guilt and impacts on every part of our lives and identity. Thank you, Sandra, great talk

[GantsilyoBaguio]

"Look inside of you. Everything you want, you already have." So precious. Beautiful talk.

[dsr]

This lady has excellent presentation skills.
I look at every item I own as inventory to manage. The less stuff I have, the easier my job is.

[DimaRakesah]

Where I live there has been a severe housing shortage for years. Yet repeatedly, when I see buildings going up in the area, it's for storage businesses. We're using our space to house inanimate objects instead of building homes for people.

[makoaify]

I got rid of so much clutter for the past 2-3 years. I even Sold 2 of my prize vehicles. With all that extra money, I booked a month long vacation in california and Washington with my family.

[lisa_gay]

5:46 "Clutter comes from unmade decisions." Wow, this sentence hit me right in the gut. That's what it all comes down to.

[dechinta]

My parents died within weeks of each other after being married for 71 years. They never threw anything away. ALL their stuff came to my house. I've been going through their "stuff" for the past 10 years. It's overwhelming and I'm disabled. So I can relate.

[pagan_suburbia]

She speaks so eloquently and clear….just lovely.

[annphetamine]

I've had over 30 addresses. Every house move was a nightmare I had so much clutter. 3 months ago I moved country and brought only hand luggage. I didn't need any of it

[stephanietedder]

I heard a great comment. “We fill our garage with junk and then park our valuable, expensive cars outside”. I immediately cleaned out the garage of the junk that wasn’t worth as much as the cars.

[kent]

I recently developed a health problem putting my own future in huge question, and really waking me up to the necessity of letting go, both toward "stuff" and even toward people. I almost feel like I can take the first step, but it is still a struggle. Here, I've been the one wanting to keep everything, as though it's a proxy for keeping alive the person attached to an object, or of honoring the associated sentiment and wishes of that person via keeping it. To toss something out is to toss the person out, or so it feels. To hold an object makes me happy, like a bit of that person is with me.

Plus, I am (along with my elderly parents) the end of my once-grand family line, with no wife or children, feeling the weight of so many ancestors and lots of history, all funneling their legacy only to me, including piles of papers and objects going back even 300+ years, and including all the family's intangible history and passed-down stories. Even going back generations, we always kept almost everything, and we still have the full households of stuff of my grandparents from the 1920s-30s on, and my parents from the 50s-70s on, plus practically everything since my childhood. I always had assumed I would have my own kids and family to pass the torch to (that is, to pass on the stuff-burden like generational hot-potato), but that now feels ever more unlikely. Outside of me however, nobody cares, nobody will know the backstories, so in truth the meaning behind it all is really only in my own head, and the objects a burden in the absence of meaning.

I recently was involved with the care of 3 elderly family friends prior to their passing. In each case, their houses were packed full of mementos and photos and sentimental history that meant so much to them. Yet, after they had to leave their homes, each household of such meticulously cared for stuff met the same fate of unceremoniously being heaved into a giant dumpster. It was painful for me to watch, as though "they" as people were being thrown away. Given enough time though, that same fate is inevitable for all of us and all our stuff, however much it means to us. At some point in the future, no one left will remember anything of us anyway, so hoarding to prevent loss is only a poor attempt to postpone the guaranteed end. Why not lighten the physical load it while it's still within our own control to do something good with it? But even with this thought, it's still near impossible to know where to start.

I can see this stuff-management selfishly and disproportionately sucks away so much thought and energy that should be instead others-focused, like what good can I do for someone else with this object, or with this time or this effort? That's all that should really matter in the end, that all the "stuff" is a temporary tool within our life to support us as needed physically and emotionally to ultimately let us manage to do something good for others.

[ADHDDoc]

I gave away our Christmas tree with all the lights and ornaments to our housekeeper--three days before Christmas. I did so because the tree meant so much more to her family. Days after I gave away the tree, I told my wife about it. She was confused, because she thought the tree was still in our living room.

[disneyland]

“Family heirlooms holding you hostage”, I relate. When loved ones die, their “stuff” ends up in my house, because I am the oldest daughter. I don’t want it anymore.