Why having so much stuff is making us ill
Relentless consumerism is affecting our mental health. As we approach National Clear Your Clutter day on 13 April, Closer investigates how to swap possessions for inner peace…
Dresses bulging D out of wardrobes, drawers that won’t shut and attics piled with boxes – our homes are drowning under swathes of “stuff”. We determinedly hang onto everything from CDS to old mobile phones, while still amassing more belongings.
The average home is estimated to contain 300,000 items, from paper clips and pens to socks and books. And, according to a recent survey, nearly a quarter of us have a bedroom stored with excess clutter.
ANXIOUS
Another survey reveals that while women spend over eight years of their life shopping, 55 per cent of women’s clothes are never worn – and a typical child owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 of them regularly.
The impact of our relentless appetite to accumulate goes beyond wasting hard-earned cash. Too much stuff, it seems, is making us ill, and clutter can have profound effects on our mental health, raising our stress levels and making us anxious.
Ambi Mistry, a specialist in consumer psychology, tells Closer, “Clutter is definitely linked to stress, partly because it confronts us with a constant reminder of what we need to do, whether that’s time spent cleaning things, tidying them, replacing batteries or just deciding which outfit to wear. It also affects our wellbeing – if your kitchen work surface is covered in stuff, for example, you’re less likely to enjoy cooking a decent meal.
GUILT
“Numerous studies have shown that clutter at home can significantly impact our mental health. It can decrease productivity and promote guilt, because unused possessions remind us of abandoned projects, or old clothes remind us we’ve gained weight. All of this can lead to stress, anxiety and unhappiness.
STREAMLINING
“Holding onto ‘stuff’ weighs us down mentally and can also make us cling to the past, instead of focusing on the present. In contrast, we instantly feel calmer in more organised environments. It’s not good for the environment either, to be buying so many things.”
So, why do we amass so much stuff? Ambi explains, “We’ve grown up to believe that our possessions are a measure of our success and that everything from our shoes to our sofa tell the outside world who we are. Trends are also changing faster than ever – partly thanks to social media – and online shopping makes it easier than ever to purchase, so we buy more and more products to keep up.
“We’re constantly bombarded by messages about new products that are supposed to fulfill us, and we are encouraged to think that buying these things will improve our quality of life, but really we just end up with a suffocating amount of stuff.”