Amy Revell

It's how you live in a home.

You can't live in a display home.

Nobody wants to live in a display home.

And so this benign clutter just comes and it goes, but it doesn't have any kind of insidious implication on the way that you live or the way that you feel.

Now, in contrast to that, malignant clutter really does impact you.

So it might impact your relationships.

I was talking to a client just today who said they don't invite people over to their home anymore because they're too embarrassed about the clutter.

And so this clutter has gone from just stuff to actually creating a barrier in their relationships and in their socialization and in their engagement with their community.

And so this malignant clutter might also mean that you don't go out as often as you'd like to, because either you feel guilty, like I should stay home and I should deal with this clutter or the clutter is significant.

It actually means that you can't find your shoes anywhere.

It takes you a long time to get ready.

Like even having breakfast in the morning might take 45 minutes.

You've got to find the cereal, find a clean bowl.

Like all of the things that are part of everyday life might actually be taking longer because the clutter has now started to impede on other areas.

It's not just a few things out of place because that's life.

But what you do have is stuff that is now creeping.

It might be no longer contained clutter.

So instead of being in a drawer, you might have a junk drawer.

I don't have a junk drawer.

I don't advise you have junk drawers.