The people of Denmark have once again topped the charts as the happiest people on earth. Americans ranked 23rd.
Interestingly, Americans own and consume more than twice as much as the Danes. The average home in the US is 2,330 square feet while in Denmark it's 1,884. The US home, on average, has 350,000 items in it!
The size of an average US home has doubled in the last 30 years, while the average number of people living in each household has decreased by half. We continue to consume and collect more and more things and thus require more and more space.
If you would like to be happier in your life, you could consider living more like the Danes and scale down the amount of things you own. You spend a lot of time and money maintaining and storing all of your things. By scaling down the amount you own, you can spend your time and money doing something you'really love.
Getting and staying organized becomes much easier when you scale down on the things you own. You can live more comfortably using less space if you're organized. Think about the amount of utilities, land and items a 5,000 square foot home consumes as opposed to that of a 1,500 square foot condominium. If you make the choice to live in a smaller space, living comfortably becomes possible if you are organized.
As a professional organizer, the top two questions I get asked are, "How do I figure out what to get rid of?" and "How do I know I won't need that item again?"
My answer is: Find all the things in your home that are not useful or meaningful and get rid of them. If, at some point, you decide you do in fact need that item, you would easily be able to find another one on Craigslist, Ebay, or one of the online free markets across the US.
Let's say you get rid of an unused bookcase by selling it on Craigslist for $40. Let's say that one year later you actually need a bookcase. Within a week or two you will be able to find a used one. Most of time, you will find one that suits your needs better than the old one. In addition you'd have saved or spent $40 over the last year, and you would not have stored an unused bookcase.
You can let go of everything in your home that is not useful or meaningful if you are willing to trust that the items you need will be available to you when you need them. When you take this step, I am willing to bet that your level of happiness and the amount of money in your bank account will both increase!
Sources: Statistics Denmark. 2008. Denmark in Figures 2008. Available at http://www.dst.dk/asp2xml/puk/udgivelser/get_file.asp?id=12750...sid=complete. "Average" (taken as typical) Danish home is 110 sq. meters, or 1,184 sq. ft. Demographia. 2006. Second Annual Demographic International Housing Affordability Survey. http://www.demographia.com/dhi2006.pdf. (2200 square feet for new American home in 2006.) |
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About the Author :
Heidi DeCoux is the publisher of Life Made Simple e-Magazine, a professional organizer in Minneapolis, and creator of the Fast-Filing Method home office filing system. Heidi energizes her readers' by simplifying their homes and schedules. For more info, free tips, and to receive her FREE Report:The Fast ... Easy Way to Get Organized and Stay Organized Forever, visit ClearSimpleLiving.com.
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