For many of our clients, a major obstacle to decluttering is the What Ifs: What if I need this next year? What if I am suddenly unable to afford socks ? Another way to refer to the problem is that they have a squatter living in their house - a tenant who pays no rent, and his name is Justin Case.

Why is it that some people are able to donate their 3rd potato masher without a second thought, and others seem be in a chokehold by Justin Case?

After working with hundred of clients, I’ve come to the conclusion that the tendency to hold onto things that they don’t need, use, or love, out of the fear that they might need it someday, often comes from being deeply affected by events outside of their control at some point in their life.

Such as: the sudden death of a loved one, a period of poverty or even homelessness, or developing a serious illness or disability.

There are many rational arguments to make against keeping unused or unloved things, and most likely, they’ve heard them all from well-meaning friends and family trying to help them declutter:

If you keep all the things you might need, you won’t be able to find it even if you did need it.

It costs nearly nothing to buy another potato masher at Walmart. You have money to buy whatever you need.

However, people are not rational creatures. I have found that clients can gain insight by developing a daily practice of gratitude.

And by gradually accepting that they have received everything that they needed in life up to this very moment, or else they wouldn’t be here. They have survived it all - pandemic, politics, recessions, family drama, jobs gained and lost, relationships ending and beginning. Is there any reason that would not continue to be the case?

It’s called trusting the universe. It’s deeply accepting that they have always and always will receive what they need. Maybe not what they want. But what they need.

And that saving the 2nd or 3rd potato masher not only has no impact on the big stuff in life - health, safety, friends, or family - but that it robs them of having a peacefully decluttered home in the present.

They can start to trust that the universe will continue to provide all the material things they will ever need, and then letting go of what they don’t need becomes a daily practice.

And Justin Case will soon be evicted.