How Living in America Causes Clutter

I know, I know, I sound so unpatriotic by the title! Trust me, I am thankful everyday for where I live, the opportunities I have, and am humbled at the privilege of living in America. I have been to other countries where they just DREAM of moving to America. For freedom. For the opportunities. For the opportunity for more.

Although, it is the pure act of living in America, that can cause clutter. It is what we allow our American culture to tell us: what we need, what we should want, and how to obtain it. What we sometimes forget, is that our culture actually may be hindering us from living the decluttered and organized lives that we desire.

Here are some effects that our culture can have on us:

1. “I’m gonna” syndrome: How often do you hear people say, “I’m gonna do THIS”…yet realize that they never have? We live in a culture that is always looking to the next latest and greatest thing. When kids are freshmen in high school, adults start asking the questions “what are going to be when you grow up? What are you going to major in?”

• The unknowns! The thing is, many kids do not know. And it is okay to NOT know. We flood our teens with the idea that you need to have it altogether when you go to college. Are we as a culture pushing them too fast? I don’t know. But we often hear kids saying “I’m gonna do this…” when really, they are walking aimlessly through life, trying to figure out who they are and what they should be.
• So how is this a cause of clutter? How do you filter through all of the opinions and thoughts of what others are telling you, you should be? How many kids you should have? What you should accomplish? How much money you should make? It causes mental clutter!

2. Ideas. You don’t have to look far for ideas in America. Let’s take Pinterest for example. I am going to throw out a disclaimer and say YES, I do have a Pinterest account and I DO enjoy going on that website. But what we have to be careful in, is that pinning can cause more “clutter.” Depending on your personality and who you are, does pinning items add MORE stress to your life? Does it cause you to buy supplies to make a craft or recipe, but then you never end up making it? How many of us have boxes of unfinished projects, thanks to Pinterest? I have now pared down my DIY projects, but ideas via magazines, Pinterest, the internet, friends, you name it, can cause unnecessary clutter. How about you?

3. Acquire and accumulate. In America, there is this continual subconscious idea that we need to constantly acquire and accumulate. Simon Scharme once said “We tend to confuse the good life with a life of goods.” WOWZA! Is that not the truth? Do you run on a “need to have” basis? Do you think that more IS better?

• In your circle of friends, are you constantly asking where someone got something, turning around, and buying it yourself? We have this tendency to think that we will “arrive in life” when we have what everyone else has. It is easy to confuse the good life with material possessions.
• How do you define the good life? Is acquiring and accumulating satisfying to you? It has taken me all too long to realize that constantly acquiring and accumulating is not satisfying for me personally. Because of that, I am continually tweaking our life, to make sure we don’t fall into this very trap.

4. Technology. Can you imagine life without the internet? How would we know how to find a destination? How to fix something? How to communicate? I maybe am a little sarcastic in those questions, yet at the same time, do you wonder? Whatever happened to using a map? Learning how to fix something by trial and error (often times, more error?) What happened to calling someone on the phone or going over TO their house to talk to them?

•  I will be the first to admit that I (heart) email. I send many emails a day. Yes, it is easy. Yes, it is convenient. But is it the avenue I always want to choose? I’m not so sure. Technology has set up this bar system – the bar keeps going higher and higher, and many are trying to keep up with this bar. Buying the latest and greatest technology, only puts the bar higher and higher. When will we ever stop? Can we stop? Will we stop?
• In our culture, we tend to view technology as a ruler and not a tool. Tools don’t have control over you. You control the tool. Rulers do have control – when someone tells you to silence your cell phone or turn it off, we get all up in arms. That’s when it becomes a ruler. It becomes an “i-god” instead of an “i-pod.”
• Are you letting technology rule your life? Are you letting it become more of a priority than you should? What changes do you need to make? When you buy the next step up, are you going to say “no” the next time?
• Technology causes clutter because we as a culture have a hard time saying NO to the latest and greatest. We are trying to keep up with the times, yet the times keep changing. Don’t clutter your life aimlessly running towards a goal with no end – TECHNOLOGY.

How do you see the American culture influencing your life? Do you see ways in which it has caused MORE clutter in your life? Not necessarily PHYSICAL clutter, but mental clutter as well?

What are your thoughts?