There are a lot of hidden costs of clutter. Whether it’s at home or at work, keeping organized is not only proven to increase productivity, but it’s also cost-effective. Keeping on top of Needs vs. Wants helps keep unnecessary things from piling up in your home and office spaces.
Let’s take a look at how clutter impacts our lives when we don’t manage it:.
- Experts have determined that every square foot of clutter in a home is likely to cost $10 every month. As a whole, Americans pay billions every year for self-storage units — often spending more on rent than the value of the items they are storing.
- Clutter is a productivity killer. Even people in the most organized settings spend on average one year of their lives searching for misplaced items. I can only imagine how much time each square foot of clutter costs.
- Clutter gets harder to fix the longer you wait. All the rules of procrastination apply to cleaning clutter; waiting until you feel inspired might be too late.
- One out of seven Americans has an entire room devoted to storing things they do not use. This is where the Needs v. Wants analysis comes in. If that piano is ginormous and just serves as a table, see if you can give it to someone who actually plays — or else start using it!
- Keeping yourself organized instead of paying someone else to do it, or buying storage units, will protect your bottom line in the long run.
Eventually, the monthly costs of storage units and professional organizers can seem necessary to keep a mess under control, but those expenses could be going towards a retirement fund, 529s, or an emergency fund.
At JHA, we can help you establish a regime of organization — and we’re bursting at the seams with referrals to help you with whatever plan you make. Contact us to learn more.
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