I think there’s a really significant connection between clutter and money. That either goes
unspoken or it tends to fall on deaf ears and here’s why I believe that.
For the last several months, my wife and I have been methodically decluttering with great
intention.
And not because our home is cluttered—I mean one look at our apartment and anyone
can see that we don’t keep a lot of unnecessary stuff lying around.
However, we’re still decluttering in preparation for our son as we know there will be some
things we’ll need as our family grows.
And last week, we were decluttering. Which as a result we filled up that trash bag right
there, which I should probably drop off at Goodwill today.
But we came across an item, well several items that we don’t really need right now, and
I remember saying to my wife: “hey, just get rid of it and if we find that we really
need it later, we’ll just go get one.”
Now as I think back on that statement—you know they say hindsight is 20/20—I’m realizing
that that is a privileged thing to say.
Why?
Well, just think about it, you have to have a certain level of financial stability and
confidence in order to make a statement like that in the first place.
You have to believe that you can afford to get that thing later IF you actually need
it.
Now hear me out for a second.
I am extremely grateful that my wife and I are in a position to make a statement like
this. And that’s because we sacrificed and got out of debt early before we got married.
For context, we paid off just over $40K combined. I had $23K in student loans that I paid off
in 12 months and my wife had a little over $19K in car debt that she paid off in 13-14
months.
Now we did this for a few different reasons that I can get into another time, but mainly
so that we can have financial stability and confidence.
However, I understand—well we both understand what it’s like to truly think “but what
if I need that” and to know that deep down it’s coming from a place of financial instability.
And if you can relate to this in any way let me know comments because these are real feelings
I don’t think are talked about enough.
Now of course there are tons of other excuses we give when decluttering to help us justify
keeping things we don’t need.
Such as it is a gift, the item was expensive, a collectible or the “what if” excuse
is a big as well. What if, and then fill in the blank.
But, if financial instability happens to be the underlying emotion you feel in any of
these scenarios. Then I would like to gently and compassionately suggest that you focus
on your finances before you focus on your clutter.
And for the next few minutes, I’m going to give you the tools to do that.
It’s very important that I say this right off the bat: personal finances are personal.
That doesn’t mean personal in the sense that you can’t talk to someone else about
your money.
Especially if you’re married, I think you and your partner should be talking about money
often in my opinion.
However, making your finances personal means focusing on your situation and not worrying
about anyone else’s situation.
Trust me when I tell you, the comparison game is a very slippery slope and it’s in your
best interest that you don’t lose yourself in that darkness—despite how normalized
it is in our culture and society.
And instead, block it out completely.
Forget about keeping up with the Joneses.
It doesn’t matter if your friends earn more money than you.
And who cares if others perceive you as being “too frugal” or “cheap.”
The only thing that matters is how much you have and how you can use what you have to
reach your goals.
Debt will always make it difficult to reach financial stability. Because having payments
and owing someone else money, every month, is the quickest way to feel like you never
have enough money.
And believe it or not, this also negatively impacts the clutter in your life because it
keeps you second-guessing your decluttering decisions.
Leading you to believe that you need to keep things “just in case” because maybe you’re
unsure that you’ll have the money to buy it later IF you end up needing it.
Now speaking of paying off debt in combination with decluttering. Of course, some people
can make progress on both areas at the same time and end up paying off debt with the money
they make from selling stuff they don’t need.
However—and I’ve talked about this before in other videos—selling unneeded items will
only get you so far. And often the act of selling itself creates yet another roadblock
and excuse for us to cling to as to why we aren’t getting rid of something.
Maybe we’re having a hard time selling an item for the price we want and therefore we
decide to keep it until someone is willing to pay what we want for it.
It gets messy trust me!
So if you desire to experience more simplicity in your home, but you’re struggling to get
rid of stuff and selling it isn’t working like you’d hoped.
Then here’s a question I want you to think about, and with complete transparency, this
question will lead you towards focusing on your money before your clutter.
But you can make that decision for yourself.
Here’s the question.
If I had 3-6 months of living expenses saved, and no unnecessary monthly payments, would
that reduce mental stress and help me be able to tackle clutter with a different perspective?
Comment below your answer if you care to share. Because I’d love to have a bit of a dialogue
with you.
Now in my Clutter To Clarity Quick Guide—which is a free download you can grab on my website,
covering the 5 rules to living a completely clutter-free life.
Just go to ronaldlbanks.com/quickguide.
But rule number #4 is all about finances and I give you a host of other questions you can
ask in the context of yearly, monthly, and weekly.
So consider grabbing that as well.
See, if your goal is to own less, and experience all of the benefits of doing so. Which I assume
it is since you’re watching this video and presumably others on my channel as well.
Then don’t just focus on your clutter. Take some time to also focus on your finances as
well.
And to help you get started the right way check out this video here for a complete guide
to frugal living or perhaps this one find out exactly what my wife and I don’t buy
to save money.
Keep growing on your journey, and always stay true to you. Peace!