The collection of stuff is what people are good at. We collect tea cups, bottle tops, baseball cards, rocks, spoons, bells, trains, food or whatever. Collecting is an obsession that often drives us to buy so many things that we don’t need. And a house bursting full of collections can be called nothing but cluttered. The person has collected so much stuff that the over full house becomes one cluttered mass with things sitting on every surface, including the floor.

The best way to combat a collection of stuff, besides medication and an intervention, is to simply get rid of stuff. Get rid of more stuff, and get rid of lots of stuff! If you are someone who is overcome by a slue of stuff resulting in an over cluttered home, it may be helpful to call in the assistance of an unbiased friend. We often grow attached to our stuff and a friend can help us to see the necessity of pruning our collections

Something that will need to happen right away is establishing a clear understanding between need and want. It is okay to want your tea cup collection, but do you really need 100 tea cups? It is okay to have baseball cards, but what good are they in a box? The human need to collect does not have to stop, but collecting should be curtailed before we are consumed and obsessed.

When you start going through your collections, choose a few that you really like and then find a way to have them on display somehow. Find a hutch or curio for tea cups and only keep the amount that will fit comfortably on display. Frame the baseball cards and hand them on the walls. Use your collections as a form of decoration, doing this will force you to prune your collection and will also de-clutter your home somewhat.

Less stuff will equal less clutter. Understandably, no one wants to be without some stuff, but there has to be a limit. The stuff we collect should make our homes and lives more beautiful, not fill it with clutter.