50 SIGNS You Have Too Much Stuff | Do You Have a Clutter Problem?

Hey, welcome back to my channel. And if you're new here, then welcome. My name is Mia Danielle, and I chat all about holistic and clutter free spaces. That's something you're into. Be sure to click subscribe and turn on your notifications because I release new videos every Tuesday. So one of my most popular blog posts, and I've since created a YouTube video about it, is on the subject of this is why you have too much clutter. People really resonated with that, especially, you know, getting into the mindset and some of the behind the scene things that happen that cause us to hold on to too much stuff and oftentimes to reason with ourselves about why we're not letting things go. But, you know, maybe you even found me through that blog post and asked yourself, well, do I have too much stuff? How do I know if I indeed do have too much stuff? So that's what today's video is about. I'm going to do a rapid fire 50 ways to know or 50 signs that you have too much stuff. And of course, if you like what you see here today, be sure to give it a thumbs up. That really helps my channel to grow and it helps me to know what content you enjoy seeing for me. And of course, at the end, if there are some ideas that you have that are not mentioned in this video, I always love it when you guys share that down below in the comments. So without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in to these 50 signs that you've got too much stuff. Number one is it takes forever to clean. If you find that you're spending way too much time cleaning, you're spending maybe hours a day or entire weekends being able to just get caught up on the cleaning and feel like things are put away. You probably have too much stuff. One of the benefits of being clutter free and having a space that's more minimized is that it just it's easier to clean. I used to have it on my Facebook page. I don't know if it's still there. That just says minimalism because I hate to clean. And I think that that accurately sums up number one here. If you have trouble closing your drawers, you probably have too much stuff. Your drawers were meant to be able to slide open and closed easily on the railings. So if you're having to shuffle things around or shove things in and jam the drawer closed in order to get it to be able to close, then you probably have some things that you need to let go of. Now, this one may be a bit of a sign of a personal pet peeve of mine. But in my opinion, if you have sauce packets from fast food places or cups from 7-Eleven or fast food places and straws stored anywhere inside of your home, then you probably have too much stuff and maybe have a little bit of a problem holding on to things that aren't truly valuable. If you have piles anywhere on your floor, equipment piles, paper piles, just stuff piles, clothes piles, any kind of piles on your floor, you probably have too much stuff. If you have previous versions of things after you've already upgraded. I've used the example of a fryer in the past. I know some people who have like three different fryers because they've upgraded twice, but they've never discarded the previous ones that are all being stored up in their pantry. So if you have newer versions of something that you know you're using and the previous versions are still there just hanging out, then you probably have too much stuff. If you have more than one junk drawer, because I'm going to give everybody a pass on one junk drawer. It happens, right? Sometimes we have this collection of miscellaneous things and they all end up collecting into one location. I like to say everything has a category, even the things that don't have a category or categorized as miscellaneous. So, you know, given everybody a pass on the one junk drawer, if you have more than one, then you probably have too many things because you don't have enough homes for the things that you do own that are now collecting randomly in junk drawers. You frequently buy things that you forgot you had. You went and bought some more Pepto Bismol because you forgot that you had it somewhere mixed in with all the medicines in the medicine drawer. Or, you know, you go buy more batteries because you couldn't locate the batteries that you already owned. And then a week later, you find them shoved somewhere. So an indication that you have too much stuff is just constantly realizing that you just bought something that you actually already had. You don't feel comfortable having people over. This is something that I hear a lot of relating to, like, the social effects of clutter is that, you know, people feel embarrassed or feel nervous or anxious with the prospect or the idea of having somebody come over to their house. So it's always like, let's go to your place or let's go meet somewhere else. If that's the case, then you probably have too much stuff. It takes you a long time to get dressed. You have many clothes that you're digging through or you have so many clothes that you're like trying on one outfit and switching it out and trying on another outfit because you're not even entirely sure and confident about the items that are already in your closet. So you're having to try them on. You know, when you have a more minimized wardrobe, whether it's a capsule wardrobe or otherwise, when you actually know the items that are in your closet, you know that they fit you. You know that you have the appropriate clothing for the appropriate occasions that you're tending to go to. Then it's a lot easier and faster to get dressed. You just you grab things and you already know that it's going to work so you don't have to try on multiple different outfits. So if you find that it's taking you like hours or even an hour just to do the clothing part of getting dressed, then you probably have too much stuff. You have to dig to locate things. Enough said. You frequently find yourself grabbing the one you don't like, the thing that you don't like. You know, like you go to grab some hairspray or hair serum and you grab one and you shove it out of the way because, oh, I don't like that one. If you find yourself doing that a lot and grabbing things and being like, oh, no, that's not the one I like. I like something else. You probably have too much stuff. You have to shove to make things fit. You often find things that you totally forgot that you had. Oh, I forgot that I had this thing. I haven't thought about this thing in years. If you find yourself coming across these things more frequently that, you know, I didn't even realize that I had this. You know, you don't know what mail you have or what mail you've received. This often shows up as bills being unpaid or paying bills late because you can't find the thing that was mailed to you. I always like to digitize those. But regardless, if you are getting a lot of mail and you're not sure what mail you've been collecting, then there's a good chance you need to take a look at your paper clutter situation. You have unidentified rooms or rooms that are technically identified but can't be used as that purpose. So this could be the guest room that is not really able to house a guest because there's so much clutter or it's like a whole extra closet in there where you're storing all of your extra clothes, things like that. Speaking of which, you have bags of outdated or outgrown clothes in your attic. This could be like bags of clothes from the 80s that have buttons and sequins and stuff on them and haven't been touched in decades. Then you probably have too much stuff. The idea of emptying a cabinet sounds daunting. You find yourself saying just in case a lot. Like, what if I need it someday? What if I someday decide to pick up bowling again and then I need this bowling bag that I haven't used in five years? I don't know why I said bowling. I'm not a bowler, but you get the idea. Things that maybe you used to be into, but you haven't used for years and you hold on to because, well, what if? You own things you don't know the function of. It could be like a random tool that's been sitting down in your toolbox for years and you have no clue what that tool is supposed to be used for. Or it could be random screws that seem to have fallen out of something, but you haven't found out what that something is in a long time and it's still just sitting there in your drawer or in a little bowl dish that's on the table. All of these things that you just really don't know what it's used for or what it goes with. I understand giving it like a certain period of time just to make sure that you don't find that thing and decide that you need it. But after a certain period of time, then it just becomes excess. You wish there were more surfaces to put things on. If somebody gave you an extra long countertop, you would most certainly find things to sprinkle upon it. You have to move stuff in order to be able to sit. In order to be able to sit on your couch, you've got to move like tons of throw blankets or extra pillows or random things that are on your couch in order to be able to sit on the chair in the dining room. You have to pick stuff up and move it aside to be able to use the chair. You can say, I don't know where that goes about more than two things. You're not sure what's in the back of your fridge. It could be like you have tons of old recipes and leftovers that have foil on them that are in different dishes that have been shoved in the different areas and crevices of your refrigerator to where you barely even have space to put anything new. And at this point, maybe you have no clue what even exists inside of your fridge. It takes you a full day to do laundry or even worse, a full weekend to get through all of the laundry. That's too much for any number of people. There's a 20 percent chance that if you reached randomly in your closet, you would pull out something that doesn't fit. You're not sure if the things that you own have a full set. So Tupperware, for example, you're not sure which ones or if any of them actually have matching lids that you would use. You have shoes and you're not really sure where the matching shoe is for some of the shoes or whatever the case may be. You have tons of things that you're not sure if you have the full set for. You probably have too many things. You don't know what's under your bed. You have decorations that you haven't used the past two years. I say one year is a pass because sometimes your decoration taste changed for a year. But after two years, if you still haven't used those Christmas decorations or whatever seasonal decorations, then at that point, it's just not being used. You have makeup or jewelry that you wouldn't be caught dead in. You've been saying that one doesn't work for greater than or equal to six months. This could be an appliance, a tool, a piece of furniture, something that is just broken and that does not work or does not function. And it's been sitting there and you're constantly having to tell people or remind people, oh, that one doesn't work again with this one. I think that grace periods are totally fine, especially if you're planning on maybe fixing it up at some point. Just, you know, give it a deadline, six months or more. And then at that point, if you have tons of things that are no longer working, then you have too much stuff. You have too many options and frequently find yourself standing there with decision paralysis because you have too many things in the same category to choose from. You're frequently buying more stuff to store your stuff. If you're constantly going out and trying to buy new bins and new organizers and new things to take care of your clutter problem, you probably don't need more storage. You need less stuff. You can't fit your car in your garage. You're frequently losing things, your keys, your name tag for work, your pens, et cetera. You feel overwhelmed in your space. Clutter has been linked to stress and anxiety and depression and just general overwhelm and paralysis in your space. You have a hard time moving around, physically getting around your space because you're constantly stepping over stuff or trying not to trip on stuff or needing to move stuff out of the way in order to be able to adequately utilize your space. You spend an excessive amount of time looking into organizing and decluttering solutions, surfing different blog posts, looking around on Instagram. I call this information hoarding when you are constantly collecting all of this media and ideas, but never actually implementing. You can name more than two unwanted gifts inside of your space. You rent storage facilities to be able to store the stuff that you don't have room for inside of your home. Your kids have toys they never play with. One thing that you'll find is a lot of times, especially with little kids, when they have too many toys, then you'll find that they're not playing with a lot of them because, again, it's like this information overload. So they might choose two or three that they play with all the time and the rest totally get neglected. You sneeze a lot. Clutter tends to mask and hide allergens and dust and things that can cause you to get irritated with the allergies or with your asthma. So if you find that you're coughing more than usual or sneezing a lot, then you might take a look at the clutter around your space. You have no clue where to start if you even were to declutter. You frequently wish that you could stay in a really nice, spacious hotel room because your space is too crammed and chaotic. You find yourself getting really creative in hiding your stuff. Guests comes over and you hide things down in the couch or you shove things underneath your bed. If you find yourself hiding things, then you probably have too much stuff. Your floor is covered with all of your bedding and pillows every night when you go to sleep. It's a good exercise that after you lay down and everybody is going to sleep for the night to get up and walk to the bathroom and look at the floor. How much stuff is now laying on the floor? Dusting sounds like a mountainous task because you have so many picture frames and trinkets. You have bins or boxes that you have no clue what the contents are. You have no workable surface to use. So if you wanted to actually sit down at some kind of a table or counter space and eat or write a list or use that space in any way, you would have to definitely move some things in order to be able to use it because you don't typically have any kind of a standing workable space. You find yourself confused or frustrated frequently inside of your space. One thing that clutter has been linked to is taking away your brain's resources and processing power. So, you know, distracting you from things that you're focusing on, you know, being visual interruptions while you're going about your day. And that can cause a lot of attention issues. It can cause a lot of feeling overwhelmed and distracted on a regular basis, and it can lead to confusion, forgetting what you were doing, where you were going, what you were looking for. And finally, number 50, you feel like it would be impossible to have a dedicated home for all of your stuff. If that feels like an insurmountable, impossible task with your current amount of things, then you probably have too many things. So there are 50 signs that you have too much stuff. Let me know down in the comments if you feel like any of those hit home or if you have some ideas that were not mentioned that you feel are also key indicators of having too much stuff. I'll catch you here next week. Again, if you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up. And if you like more topics on this, be sure to hit subscribe and turn on the notifications. I'm constantly creating content to help you have a more clutter free and holistic home space. Catch you next week.