![office-2293223_1280.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmbR2F8yoLuzQNUVZ44pTetrNPJwNS7dZGUmQf762TF8ya/office-2293223_1280.jpg) 

Recently I started looking around the house realizing that there was a lot of stuff that just wasn't needed. Most importantly there was a ton of stuff in my office which had turned it into a storage room vs a workable office. 

In reality I work at the kitchen table most days as there is lots of sunlight, plenty of space to spread out, and allows me to stay in the middle of everything going on in the house while still working. Multitasking isn't really an issue for me so listening to the kids talk in the background doesn't bother me and I have a better idea of what is going on in their lives this way.

But still there is no reason to have an entire room sitting there cluttered with so much stuff that you can't walk into it without stepping over a box. This room looked like it belonged on an episode of hoarders....ok it wasn't really that bad but close enough it was stressful.

Getting my head around purging my office was a process as psychologically and emotionally I was attached to my stuff. But in reality so much of it was things I hadn't even thought to use, look at, and more definitely hadn't needed in years. So this said I wondered why all this stuff mattered to me and then I remembered the old sale trick of let them hold it and they will take ownership of it. Then take it away from them and their brain will literally insist on getting it back. Why are we hard wired like this...who cares, but knowing we are made me understand why I had held onto everything.

I could have just gone in and organized all this clutter. Put a bunch into bins and stored it away in the closet. But the reality is this wouldn't have helped as the clutter would still be there.

We collect stuff for a wide range of reasons, those things you think you'll need one day, or that book you swear you'll get around to reading, or maybe clothes that you really hope to fit into again, or or or. Really what clutter you have or why it accumulated isn't important, but what is important is the psychological impact all this clutter has on you.

>Whether it be your closet or office desk, excess things in your surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information. That’s exactly what neuroscientists at Princeton University found when they looked at people’s task performance in an organized versus disorganized environment. The results of the study showed that physical clutter in your surroundings competes for your attention, resulting in decreased performance and increased stress. Source:LifeHacker.com

Sitting in front of TV bopping around the internet as I normally do while the Wife insists on watching the news at night I ran into an article that reinforced what I had been thinking. My Clutter was actually causing me stress and hurting my productivity.

So the last 4 straight days I have been dealing with the emotional stress of filling trash bags full of crap. Because honestly once I looked closer at what I was holding onto I realized it wasn't really important, it was just crap. None of these items were required for me to live day to day and none of them put food on the table or kept a roof over my families head, so it was deemed Crap.

My Wife thinks this is a little over the top, but my Desk is even up for sale and sitting in the garage right now. Instead a folding table was moved into my office which removed drawers to fill with clutter. This table will be used multiple times during the year when we have people for outdoor dining so it needs to stay clear of all clutter going forward. 

So what of all the crap? Some went to donation, some went to be recycled, some to the trash, and some was inventory that I forget was sitting there and was like found money. But in the end it's all either dealt with or ready for inventory processing. 

In the end I tackled the worst room in our house and now my office is a usable space again that is stress free when I walk into it. Feeling accomplished right now!

So what can you declutter in your life to reduce some stress? I challenge you not only to think about it, but commit to decluttering some part of your life and then post your results. No SBD rewards for this challenge, just the benefits of less stress and the feeling of accomplishment. 

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Image Source: Pixabay