Clutter Rage

While I was studying in Australia years back, my family shifted to a smaller house due to the fact that the previous one was too big for them. See, the thing is that in this smaller house, there was no designated room for me and whenever I came back to visit, I would have to bunk in with my little brother.

However, to remedy this problem when I decided to come back for good, they used some random space and "created" a room for me. Therefore it goes without saying that this "room" is super tiny which by the way was fine as I did not have many possessions due to my dislike for clutter and useless things. What I had to store my possessions were 4 layers of drawers, about 8 layers of shelves and a 1.5m horizontal pole to hang my more formal wear. This was enough, or should I say, this was way more then enough. I still had loads of space.

Fast forward a few years. Just got hitched. Enters the wife. A.K.A Junior Shopping Champion 7 years in a row and professional hoarder. Get this straight, in her house, she still has an entire room, bigger then mine filled to the brim with stuff. I kid you not what I say that there is no room to maneuver in there. So anyway, when she gained a PR status in my room, I gave her 1 out of 4 of my drawers, 2 of my shelves and half the 1.5m hanging pole which i thought was pretty generous considering that was all the space I had. No entire room to fill my stuff with. It started out well, no boundaries crossed....for like 2 weeks.

Like algae or weed, boundaries began to disappear, what was mine became hers and what was hers was still hers... which brings me to my eventual clutter rage.

Clutter Rage T-5mins: The wife was taking shower while I sit quietly on my bed reading.
Clutter Rage T-4mins: I take a breather and looked around the room and felt a super uneasy claustrophobic feeling. (Not exaggerating)
Clutter Rage T-3mins: It comes to my realization that she has overtaken my room with too much stuff. She was using 2 drawers, 3/4 the hanging pole and most, if not all my shelves. The tiny walking space I had was now filled with countless shoes and shoe boxes.
Clutter Rage T-2mins: I do not know why but like the hulk, rage started to build and boil over. How could she be so different from me.
Clutter Rage T-1min: My brain starts formulating ways to make her get rid of all that stuff...I was about to explode with rage.
Clutter Rage T-0min: The wife eventually emerges and I tell you, last warning man.... All hell broke loose.

Anyway, to cut the long story short, in the end, we came to a compromise...well, more like I came to a compromise. She had to clear the walkway of her shoes and boxes, she gets to keep the shelves and drawers.. and she could only buy new stuff if she has given or sold her older stuff away.

Till this day, I still do not understand the need to have more than you require. You only have a pair of feet, which you can only wear a pair of shoes at any given time. Why do you need a dozen dozen pairs - not a typo...but really a dozen dozen pairs, like 144. Don't even get me started on clothes and handbags.. I might break my monitor with my fist..(Perhaps I should go for anger management classes.)

I mean, to have a measure of safety, the maximum we should have is a backup pair of each type of shoes. For example, 2 sport shoes, 2 formal shoes, 2 sneakers and 2 flip flops which in my opinion is already 1 too many.

Clutter never serves any purpose, it just goes to show that we are not using what we have efficiently enough. It takes up space, which in turn take up money which come in the form of having to have an additional room just to store things that you might or might not use.

We should learn to maximize the use of any products and reduce clutter in our lives. I assure you that we will feel more free, more refreshed and less stressed up. Take a look at your stuff this weekend, are they things you use, or are they things that you never use but keep just because you think that you might use them.

Don't be mistaken, I love my wife to bits. I would tolerate most things but not everything. Sometimes you compromise but sometimes you have to fight for what you believe in. She might not see the benefits of cluttering now but I'm pretty sure that I will change her mind one day.

Do you have the same circumstances? I'm quite sure in many relationships, there are collectors and throwers. Would love to hear more about how you deal with it or if you managed to convince someone that clutter = BAD.

Remove clutter and feel the difference.
P.