The Cost of Clutter How Does Clutter Affect You? What Level of Clutter is Realistic? Money: When we don’t have bills and financial papers organized, bills can get lost, causing us to accrue late fees. Replacing lots items, and buying duplicates of those we didn’t realize we already had, can also carry a cost that adds up quickly. Stress: The most obvious toll that clutter takes is added stress on one's life. Here are some examples of stress clutter can cause: Having guests over becomes an embarrassment, or an event that takes all-day preparation. Each room carries visual reminders of all the work that needs to be done in the way of cleaning. Using your home for activities like scrapbooking or yoga becomes difficult or impossible without taking significant time to clear the space. According to the principles of Feng Shui, clutter drains you of your positive energy. You can actually feel it. A cluttered home, rather than a haven from stress, is a big stressor in itself, and intensifies the frustration and exhaustion that an already-stressed person feels. What’s a Realistic Level of Clutter? For most of us, especially for parents of small children, it’s not realistic to maintain a home in perfect order every moment of each day. While it’s inspirational to thumb through catalogs that show beautifully furnished rooms or walk through a wonderfully un-cluttered model home, holding oneself to such high standards of neatness may not only be unrealistic, but can cause additional stress. For example, if you find yourself nagging or resenting other family members for the minor messes that they make to the point that it strains family harmony, you may need to relax your standards. But knowing the toll that clutter takes, how much clutter is too much? While we know that piles of clutter can cause stress and a perfect home may be unrealistic for some people, the level of tolerable clutter may vary from person to person. Here are some guidelines to follow to help you decide where you should draw the line on clutter: Company: Do you like to have your home neat enough to have drop-in company? Are you happy to be company-ready after 15 minutes of cleaning? Organization: Is your home organized enough that you can generally find everything you’re looking for without having to search? Sheds and outdoor storage can help you clear the clutter from your yard, basement or garage. Consumer Guide understands the ongoing battle between your storage spaces versus your outdoor tools and toys, and we're ready to help you find the shed or the storage space to get things stored away. Even though it's hard to find space for larger tools and machines, it's the little things that can be the greatest eyesores. Smaller storage containers can hide your everyday tools and still leave them easily accessible. Clutter can be a chronic source of stress. The stress of being surrounded by clutter often isn't realized until the clutter is removed and we feel the relief of being clutter-free. Clutter bombards the brain with excessive visual stimuli, creating stress. Clutter makes it more difficult to relax or to focus on anything because clutter is an irritating distraction. Even those who seem oblivious to their surroundings are aware of everything in their environment on a subconscious level. Your brain is constantly filtering messages from all your senses. The more clutter, the more overwhelming the thought of removing it - but looking on the bright side, the greater the sense of relief that will be felt when it is gone. The thought of removing clutter may be so overwhelming that it may seem easier to ignore it. Trying to ignore clutter is stressful because you can't really ignore it. Not taking action to clear clutter fosters feelings of helplessness. Taking action, even if it only involves committing ten minutes of your time each day to organize, is empowering and relieves stress. Clearing clutter can be a catharsis. It is very important to store and organize all of your belongings. Clutter can add a lot of stress into everyone’s lives, and makes it very difficult to find the things you need. Buying a storage shed may be a simple task, but it is one that can truly take stress away from your life and the lives of your family.   Think of the items you have lying around your home or yard that you need, but don’t need out in the open. These may be gardening tools, outdoor toys, or virtually any other items. Imagine how much better you’d feel if they were out of your sight where they belonged. That in itself is a great reason to buy a storage shed  as soon as possible.   There are models that you can build yourself, or purchase depending on how much time you want to spend on the project. After it is installed onto your home, you can begin thinking of how you want to organize the items in your lean-to storage shed. Many people like to labels the shelves and walls so they always know where everything belongs when they are finished with it.   Buying a  storage shed is a great idea for people who are short on space.  De-cluttering your life can be achieved with the organization a  storage shed can provide.