What is Clutter?

Simply defined: This is the stuff you buy to try to appear -- to others and yourself -- a more interesting or skilled person.

Think of a coffee table book you keep on display but have never sat down and read or the set of golf clubs you bought after one lesson that are now collecting dust. Aspirational clutter is the clutter we accumulate because we aspire to be different than who we really are.

Here, I've written more about how to spot aspirational clutter and how to stop accumulating it read more about aspirational clutter

There's a saying that been attributed to Samuel Smiles, Isabella Beeton & Benjamin Franklin: "A place for everything, and everything in it's place." Simple, elegant & easy, right? Not always. Some of your clutter isn't really clutter, it's "stuff" without a home: mail you have yet to open, books you haven't put on your bookshelf (because your bookshelf is overflowing), or the beach chairs lying in a pile in the corner of your garage.

This is the type of clutter that is going to take some extra steps and time to deal with; here are 2 resources:

• How to Organize Anything
• Maximize Storage Spaces

This is the easiest type of clutter to banish. Some of the stuff you have lying around your home is really just stuff you need to throw out. This is why every single guide to organizing (Clothes, Garage, Kitchen Cabinets, Kitchen Pantry, Shoes) I write for this site begins with a "decluttering" phase. Decluttering is sorting your things and trashing or donating what you no longer need or use. 

Decluttering Resources:

• How to Declutter Your Home A room-by-room guide to decluttering every room in your home and on your computer, too.
• 5 Tips to Stop Hoarding Clutter If you have a hard time throwing things out, this guide will hold your hand, and offers 5 tips to help you trash that junk.