We are obsessed with clutter.
And it's not doing us any favors. In fact, it's holding us back in invisible but damaging ways.
Some days I see and hear the word clutter a hundred times (or more). And it's not because of the circles I run in or the places I hang out.
It just sounds nice though, doesn't it?
Clutter. Cut the clutter. Bust the clutter. Swimming in a sea of clutter.
A few years ago, I didn't see or hear the word much. Was I just not paying attention before?
But hey, I'm all for reducing clutter. However, we should move beyond a buzzword and properly classify it.
Plain and simple, clutter is a form of chaos.
If you're thinking, “Chill dude, it's just a freakin' word,” you're right…to an extent.
But smart people like Emilie at Puttylike and David at Naturally Engineered understand the importance of a label attached to a concept or movement.
Simplifying and organizing life at Value of Simple – with the big goals of liberating our time, money, and talent – is about a movement as well.
Actually, it's a blend of movements synthesized into something new. Something different. Something powerful. (Stay tuned for more on this in an upcoming article).
Understanding the significance of words that define our movement is essential to simplifying, reducing, and thriving among clutter chaos.
Grasping why you should ditch clutter and master chaos will also help you learn how to sell, communicate, and apply better labels to what you believe in.
Two Labels, So Far Apart
What we call things is massively important.
Each word has an emotion, picture, action, or relevance…and it's not the same for everyone. Successful communication and positive action depends heavily on choosing the right words.
What does the word “clutter” conjure up in your head?
Probably a messy closet. A desk with scattered papers. A muddled drawer. Something physically disorganized.
Most people see and touch clutter. It's appealing because it's tangible and always some spare time away from being busted.
The shape clutter takes is evolving (physical to digital) but the concept is not.
The original meaning was “to collect in heaps” or “to form clots.”
And its basic principle is still true. If you don't acquire something, it can't clutter up your life.
Now. What does the word “chaos” bring to mind?
Perhaps a dark entity. A swirling mist of tendrils reaching everywhere. Or pure disorder like a mythological Tiamat.
Chaos is not a single concept or just one type of thing.
It's the umbrella that covers many concepts, pictures, feelings, and actions. This is why we can have a clutter-free life and still be consumed by chaos.
Bringing More Meaning
We increase the clarity and power of our communication when we replace the word clutter with chaos. After all, chaos cuts to the core of what simplifying, reducing, and organizing are all about.
It's about:
- Bringing order to your life.
- Feeling in control of your future and being able to live life intentionally.
- Promoting what's most valuable over everything else that distracts from it.
- Prioritizing what's important over the needlessly urgent.
The best labels are the ones that are least restrictive and most able to evolve.
How do you feel after decluttering anyway?
Decluttering doesn't feel nearly as good or last as long as the physical, spiritual, emotional, or mental rewards that result from removing chaos.
Consider this video game analogy:
Clutter is just a miniboss on the way to confronting the big boss – Chaos. It's the Vile on the way to beating Dr Wily in Mega Man. It's the Dark Link on the way to defeating Ganon in The Legend of Zelda.
Bottom line: clutter busting is not an end unto itself. Mastering chaos is.
How to Apply Better Labels
There is a fixation in places like minimalism/simplicity blogs and productivity hacking websites with reducing clutter. This mania continues through products and services always selling a better way to reduce or simplify.
And hey, that's not a bad thing to promote, educate, and help with.
But you know where they could really be focusing their energy? Helping you find where chaos lurks, evaluating methods to thrive in it, and giving you the skills to master it.
That's what we do here. And trust me; I'd rather not hog the “chaos pie.”
I'd rather people share it and find new solutions beyond the stagnant clutter ones. We can grow the number and type of solutions to our struggles by shifting the terms and communication of them.
So start replacing clutter with chaos.
Start asking people if chaos resonates more and better communicates their problems.
We don't just need to clutter bust our desks, our sock drawer, our closet, our brains, our music collection, and the random things we buy. The act of decluttering is a step on the path to restoring order to our environment. But only through dealing with chaos do we bring harmony to our lives.
Simple Heroes, Community Connectors, and Triumphant Troubleshooters…Speak Up!
Speaking of labels…
I have some labels for the all-stars in our community and all those trying to help us. The Simple Heroes, the Community Connectors, and the Triumphant Troubleshooters.
Being labeled a “Simple Hero” is not a backhanded compliment. People who embrace and display simplicity are my heroes and I want to hear from you.
“Community Connectors” are those of you guiding everyone else to awesome resources outside this refuge of simplicity. I love what I create here and believe there's huge value in it. But this is only a fraction of the wonderful information, skills, and tools to simplify and organize. The “Community Connector” label is honorably applied when a person helps to connect someone else in the community struggling to overcome their issues.
I also want to hear from the “Triumphant Troubleshooters.” Life is not a straight path and troubleshooting it is essential. So when you find (or already know) a good way to navigate the obstacles in front of us, let everyone else learn from your experience.
Chaos Skills
The most important label to understand today is chaos. But simply understanding it doesn't make you good at managing it.
Need some skills to kick chaos ass?
Some of the best ones only come from the Value of Simple newsletter.
This website is a bus helping you get where you want to go and the newsletter is the express pass to get there faster.
Combined, they give you the full road map for a simplified, organized, and money wise existence.
I hope you've enjoyed and benefited from this label crazy article.
I'll stick with the chaos label and I hope you will too. After all, wouldn't you rather focus on mastering chaos than busting clutter?
What are your favorite clutter and chaos analogies? And how important are the labels you apply to the beliefs and movements that define you? Leave a comment and let us know.
—
I really love the David Allen aphorism “When in doubt, clean a drawer.”
Though it seems simplistic at first, it’s really a very deep reflection on what clutter is: a reflection of our ability to control our environments, and ultimately, ourselves.
It’s both advice: (If you don’t know what to do next, or what to do period, or if you just need to ground yourself, clean out a drawer to experience a quick win and a sense of renewed control.) and guiding principle (Concentrate on small concrete actions. You can’t do a project, you can only do actions related to a project.)
I hate clutter. I love nothing better than a clean, flat surface. But I don’t always live up to that ideal. Sometimes I’m too lazy to put things “away”, and sometimes I’m not conscious enough to decide that something’s not away and make a decision about where “away” is. Organization for me comes in bursts of reasserting control over clutter. A little is ok– self-control doesn’t have to be rigidly enforced– but, as I’ve noticed I feel more oppressed by others’ clutter than my own, I strive to be mindful of the ripple effect my own clutter has on other people.
Shanna,
You bring up two awesome items. The first one nailed exactly what I was getting at: that clutter is just one reflection of our ability to control ourselves and our environment. Kudos for nailing in a sentence what took me paragraphs to explain.
You also bring up the point about where “away” is, as in putting something away. This makes me think of the classic kid scenario where he cleans his room, makes it look spotless, and just crams everything into his closet in a giant, chaotic mess. That’s not an acceptable way to put things “away”.
Thanks for adding value to this conversation with some great insight. You helped me look at this from an angle I wasn’t originally exploring.
Oh absolutely… I think this is great, Joel. Anyone can proverbially sweep clutter under the rug, but mastering it involves a tru change in perspective. I definitely would second you on the fact that words matter and accurately defining the problem (chaos vs. clutter) is the first step to finding a solution.
Really interesting post, Joel. It’s funny, I keep writing about “decluttering” on my site in terms of my husband’s and my get-rid-of-a-thing-or-more-each-day project. But the term “clutter” doesn’t feel right — it feels too shallow and insignificant for what we’re doing. Getting rid of the physical stuff doesn’t just give us more space in our apartment. It gives us more space in our lives.
At the same time, though, “clutter” sounds manageable. “Decluttering” sounds like something I can handle, whereas “de-chaos-ing” (or whatever the equivalent would be!) sounds totally overwhelming. I wouldn’t know where to start. Also, a chaos problem sounds so much scarier than a clutter problem!
I do think it’s important to accurately label things and have been working on that for myself. I’ll often keep shifting my phrasing until it feels right for whatever I’m dealing with. I haven’t come up with the right phrase for the process I’m engaged in. There are certainly elements of chaos and of clutter, but neither term hits the deep personal letting-go that’s been happening for me.
Hey Erin,
Looks like you just gave me a new goal: to convince people that “dechaosing” isn’t as crazy and as hard as it sounds in your head. You seem to have the image of chaos that I know a lot of people have…the scary, formidable beast, just waiting to pounce. It doesn’t have to be that way if you don’t want it to. Upcoming articles will show more of the how behind that statement.
Whatever you define as your own label for what you and your husband are doing, keep it up. The letting go sounds super rewarding and I hope the feeling continues for a long time.
I’m willing to be convinced! That’s definitely the image I have in my head. Look forward to exploring a different one!
Agree with Sarah – words matter. How we choose to describe what’s going on in our lives often times determines whether or not we take action at all. When I think of clutter – I think of ‘distractions’ – and that’s the last thing I need.. another distraction.
Great stuff Joel! I read Brooks Palmer’s book, Clutter Busting, about a year ago and it was one of the catalysts for wanting to get rid of a lot of my things and build the tiny house. He defines clutter in many different ways, but the one I like best is that clutter is anything that no longer serves you but you keep around anyway. Clutter can be things, people, relationships, etc.
It’s funny how becoming obsessed with “clutter busting” can become a form of clutter in our lives. I think it’s a lot easy to allow chaos to happen if you’re already in a relatively sparse environment. That’s what I’m striving for: minimizing my possessions to the point where I have only what I need- so when I make a mess (chaos), it’s not really so bad.
Chaos can be a really good thing in certain forms and contexts. At least, I know it has been for me over the past couple of years. It sounds like you’re setting up a great environment to thrive when chaos comes a-knockin’. Hopefully it won’t…unless you want it to.
Your awfully sweet on Brooks Palmer’s book Ethan. I’m going it add it to my library list and, as I read it, I’ll just mentally replace the word clutter with chaos. 🙂
So then, what is chaos?
Hey Amit,
Darn fine question. I’ll be answering that in upcoming articles but it’s going to look very different from person to person.
This post explains exactly why I *HATE* clutter! In my first apartment, I had 2 roommates that just didn’t understand my frustration with the mess – after all, it’s just stuff.
But it’s way more than just stuff. It’s like you said – it’s chaos. When I see lots going on around me, I feel overwhelmed, engulfed by the chaos. It makes it near impossible to relax!
Funny though, as much as I hate clutter, it seems to follow me everywhere..I’m hoping Value of Simple can help me take steps to change that. =)
Hey Kaylee,
It’s my goal to move you past hoping Value of Simple can help you to actually helping you. If the topic of chaos is important to you, there’s some upcoming podcasts and articles that will give you action steps to limit the amount of chaos following you around. It’s definitely no fun when chaos is lurking in the shadows and ready to spring up at any time.
What’s that old phrase . . . it’s best to “just call a spade a spade.” Likewise, it’s important to be very precise about our language. So I’ll buy into the clutter=chaos idea for now.
I tend to clutter my desk and work area because I’m one of those people who need to see what projects I’m working on rather than have them in files or drawers somewhere. However, sometimes the chaos overwhelms me and then it feels really good to get control over the chaos and straighten up.
Looking forward to more posts, Joel!
Hi Bobbi,
Hopefully I was clear that the presence of physical objects in your environment isn’t inherently bad. I know people who have achieved a level of harmony with a ridiculous amount of “stuff” all over the place. It doesn’t stress them out and doesn’t feel like chaos. The mission is to determine what chaos means to each of us and then remove as much of it as we can. If that means adding more physical objects and physical systems to combat it, I’m all for it.
Hi Joel,
I found your site at last. It’s a great site as I’ve said in the email I sent you. I would like to give my two cents’ worth of idea of clutter.
As you have said in your previous reply to Bobbi, “Hopefully I was clear that the presence of physical objects in your environment isn’t inherently bad. I know people who have achieved a level of harmony with a ridiculous amount of “stuff” all over the place. It doesn’t stress them out and doesn’t feel like chaos.”
I agree with you in that because my mother used to clutter our house with things that she said she might use “in the future.” In a way she’s right because if you just broaden your mind, you can make use of them.
1. You can make new things out of them. Making old things to new stuff, it’s like reinventing things for use in other areas of one’s life.
2. You can sell them and convert it to money.
3. You can barter them to a person who needs it and have use of it, and you can use his product and/or services that you need in return.
4. Or you can give them to people who may need them, really need them, either to convert to cash in their own way or use them. Either way, you help alleviate their need for the clutter you have.
There are really lots you can do about them. Clutter can be good or bad depending on one’s perspective.
Joseph
I love your perspective Joseph. It reminds me of the saying that “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.”
If you can repurpose clutter or use it for something like collaborative consumption, it can actually be converted into something really useful. It sounds like your already know this and have for a long time. I’ve only recently come upon this so way to be out ahead of many of us.
I’ve been working recently with a marketing expert who told me the language I use to describe what i do is not correct, so yes I now believe it’s important to label things correctly. But I also think if we look into it too deeply we are creating a cluttered brain, analyzing things too much is stepping away from the simplicity we are all striving for.
Hi Ciara,
You have a point here. But how do we define what “too deeply” is? Or should we not even try since it goes against the simplicity many of us are trying to achieve?
It’s gotta be a *personal* definition – like most words and labels. Once you move beyond “2 = two = ||”, everything is fairly subjective.
Can’t be argued with, can’t be ‘convinced’ – all one can do for somebody else is perhaps show them an alternative perspective. You can change your own definitions and interpretations, but not anybody else’s. 🙂
Maybe “too deeply” is wherever we hit Overwhelm.
I’m now practicing ‘drawing lines’ at how deeply I want to think about conflicting principles: “Do I keep buying Dawn because it works really really well, or boycott another P&G product because I don’t like their politics?” and like that.
Now you definitely have me thinking… how do I feel about this concept of clutter=chaos?
While clutter in my environment does not equal chaos, it is just messy.
But clutter in my head definitely equals chaos, but is it self infected chaos because I am thinking too much?
I am definitely interested in reading more about the concept and how the idea unfolds here.
When clutter builds up around me I tend to feel I’ve descended into chaos. And then it’s time to clear it all out and enjoy the calm of the emptiness. But at the same time I seem to thrive creatively as I build up a new mountain of clutter. (I’m mostly talking about desk clutter here, I’d rather keep the rest of the place fairly clean)
I’m still searching for that balance between too empty and too cluttered.
Hey Sarah,
It sounds like we agree there is such a thing as too empty. For creative folks like you and I, we need some items – physical and digital – that we draw strength and inspiration from. Finding the balance between too empty and too chaotic is for each person to define…and one of the toughest assessments a person can do.
Yes, I have a hard time being my best when in the midst of clutter. I like an organized environment…except in my art studio. It is always a mess and I like working in the environment. I clean it up regularly but a short time later it returns to its original mess.
I do like decluttering drawers, my home and especially my work office. I cannot relax if my environment is cluttered. Great post.
There is already so much guilt of having clutter and last thing you need is somebody else to remind you about that.However if our clutter is met with compassion and understanding, suddenly it’s so much easier to let go. You’re not saying that I’m bad for having clutter, you’re saying that you understand and that you want to help me let go to make space for wonderful things to come into my life. Can you see how different that feels?
Hi Cathy,
I know a lot of people who have no feelings of guilt about all their
clutterchaos. Were you speaking personally about the association of guilt with chaos or just what you’ve observed in others?And yes, I can see the enormous difference between the two framing devices you use in your examples. Rarely do you or the person you’re trying to help get anywhere by saying, “You suck! Stop sucking so much by doing this other thing I’m demanding of you.”
Happy Boxing Day, Joel! (That means it’s the day to put all the boxes at the curb, right?)
I’m really feeling the difference between ‘clutter’ and ‘chaos’! Thank you!!
I had friends help me ‘clear out and organize’ 2 upstairs rooms a while back. They did a marvelous job at that ‘small definition’ job. I can see the floor now!
What I didn’t realize was going to happen, though, was that in abdicating the organization to someone else, I lost *all* track of “what is where”.
6 months later, I have many many boxes pulled out of closets (with open closet space behind ’em) because I had to find something!
I knew which pile it ‘used to be’ in, but not what box it’s in now.
Yikes!
Hi Karen! This just proves that you can be mentally organized without having that transfer over to the physical world. I’ve experienced it myself and imagine just about everyone does in some ways. Now about that Boxing Day and commandeering it for simplifying and organizing purposes…I love it! I bet you could get a movement going around it if you tried.
I’d certainly sign the petition to link Boxing Day to other purposes (like removing boxes of stuff).