Clearing Clutter - Part 3 - Why Clutter isn't ONLY your Fault
WHY CLUTTER ISN'T ONLY YOUR FAULT
In many ways, it's not your fault you have a lot of clutter. You'd have to spend a lot of time researching to really understand how the corrupt corporate marketers of the world use marketing and psychology principles to manipulate your basic human drives and get you to aquire the stuff they are selling. And you almost have to be as devious as they are to believe the lengths they go to to deliberately reach out to your kids. It's hard to imagine people would use kids on purpose to get you to buy tons of stuff to keep them from nagging you. (Yes, that is an actual explicit strategy marketers use. They call it the NAG FACTOR")
And you'd have to be a super human to resist the social pressures that cause us all to accumulate stuff far beyond our real needs. I became a professional organizer partly because I wanted to be part of the backlash against the culture of out of control addictions to acquisition and debt that caused me to grow up in an extremely cluttered home and get into big trouble with debt early in my career.
How I Got Out of $25,000 in Debt
This is my story of overcoming debt, simplifying and letting go of clutter.
I also got my first credit card in 1978. This was when they first started to be accepted by America. It was so easy to spend and there was no one to teach you how to deal with credit cards. I ended up in the late 80's having to fight my way back from over $25,000 in crippling credit card debt. That was a real lot of money back then. Back then, interest rates were 18% and up. There were no 0% interest offers. My interest charges alone were over $700 per month.
The way I finally learned to manage and control debt was when I worked for Arthur Andersen. As a project manager in an accounting firm, I learned all about budgeting and finance. It was a revelation. I took that knowledge home and created a budget spreadsheet in Excel that finally helped me manage my own money. Instead of filing bankruptcy, I sold nearly everything I owned and moved in with a roomate for a few years. But between that and the discipline of a budget, I finally worked my way out of debt. The experience not only scared me, it helped realize I could let go of stuff and live with a lot less. I learned to always live well below my means and keep money in the bank or mutual funds. I still to this day refuse to carry a balance and live fairly frugally and simply.
But not everyone gets to go work for an Accounting firm and learn what I learned. That's what I love about being an organizer! I get to help people take back control of their lives and their homes. To help them learn to recycle and donate stuff they don't need. To learn how to shop strategically instead of impulsively. I get to be part of the resistance to the culture of "stuff" and part of the movement toward creating sustainable more spiritually fulfilling lifestyles. My dream would be to work myself right out of a job!
Not everyone can afford professional organizing services but most everyone can afford a book! : ) So here are my offerings to save you time weeding through books to find the truly inspirational and great books that help you understand where clutter comes from on a cultural level and why clutter isn't just your fault. It's not just something wrong with you. Our culture and business practices have serious flaws that have led us to led to an epidemic of clutter and waste that is simply unsustainable. These books don't just whine about the way things are but also offer suggestions and ideas on how to get back on track and make things better.
Scott Simon: Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
"We are a nation that shouts at a microwave oven to hurry up." If you can relate to this quote, you may already have Affluenza. The definition of affluenza, is "a painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more." It's like a virus that feeds on our desire to be more, have more, and have life be as easy and convenient as possible.
It feeds on our desire for novelty. We love new beautiful things! So we buy, buy, buy. We can't just leave beautiful things in the store when they are so cheap and easy to take home, right? We stop thinking about what it will really take from us to own the thing, not to mention dispose of it down the line.
Affluenza is not only crowding our homes, it's threatening to destroy our environment. We simply can't continue to live an economic system that profits from promoting the ultimately unsustainable lifestyle centered around the aquisition of things. This book explains the symptoms of affluenza, how it became an epidemic, and what we can do about it. According to the authors,
This books explains the historical, political, and socioeconomic reasons that affluenza has taken such strong root in our society, and offers practical ideas for change. They provide examples of people who have already opted for simpler living.
For more great resources, ideas, & example, check out these free blogs by amazing women who are also driven to help others live a more enjoyable life free of the bonds of clutter.
Frugal For Life It's not about your stuff! My Simpler Life
Juliet B. Schor: The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need
By the author of 'The Overworked American' and 'Born to Buy', this book delves deeper into the marketing, brand consciousness, and breakdown of neighborhoods, and many other factors that have led us to a society based on consumerism. She also describes the backlash Simplicity movement, in which people focus on living and enjoying life rather than working at jobs they hate to support a lifestyle of spending and acquisition.
If you want to understand the factors that influence you constantly so that you can choose your life rather than be unconsciously moved to compulsive and impulsive shopping and spending, this book will shock and surprise you and then ultimately empower you.
Joel Bakan: The Corporation : The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
I love this book. And the documentary of the same title is extraordinary. As I've said many times now, clutter is a direct result of out-of-control, impulse spending. Much of this spending is spurred on through extremely manipulative marketing designed to make us want things we don't need. But why are corporate marketers so aggressive about this? - purely to make a profit for their coroorations. Social ethics and moral responsibility are so often NOT part of a corporation's identity. Their morals only exist where we have legislated them.
They don't want us to think before we buy anything. Do they really care if they are destroying the environment? I'm not advocating that everyone become a radical. Corporations have done a lot of good in the world. But the bigger they grow, and the more they market to children using amazingly devious tactics, and the more we start seeing schools and public art centers being named after corporate sponsors (e.g., the Garden State Arts Center is now the PNC Bank Arts Center), and the more corporations like Coke and McDonalds are fighting tooth and nail with school districts to have the right to take over school cafeterias, the more we have to start wondering: just how far will their desire to manipulate us go? what will stop them? What will the limits be?
This documentary explores the development of the corporation, it's marketing tactics, it's social and environmental impact in the most chilling way of all. Using real video segments of interviews with CEO's, top marketers, and even top business professors. It's utterly amazing and enlightening the things they have to say.
They examine how corporations influence world wide politics, schools, our health and our food supply. I wish everyone could see this movie or read this book. I can't remember when I've been as deeply affected by a movie as this.
And now, it's time for me to get back to work! If you got this far, thanks for reading this. If you've read any of these books, I'd love for you to add your thoughts!
All the best,
Hello from a fellow former Arthur Andersen employee. Great post! Thanks for sharing your experience and insights!
Posted by: Tracy Coenen | May 30, 2006 at 05:58 PM
Ariane,
What a superb post and crucial topic. Human beings seem to have a bit of a tendency toward acquisitiveness, but the gigantic corporate marketing machine pour millions into figuring out how to get you (and your kids who are more and more targeted) to feel like life and you just aren't enough unless you get the next thing "you've got to have". I love Juliet Schore's investigative reporting on this. Her book on marketing to kids is wonderful.
That's quite a story you've got. Hopefully some of us can learn from it rather than though the that same hardship ourselves.
Posted by: Michael@ Awareness * Connection | August 24, 2008 at 03:21 PM