A recent article on the clutter ‘phenomenon’ in many American homes reminds me that clutter has a few lessons to teach us about wealth, production, and markets. The author points to wealth as a culprit of sorts. With increasing wealth, we can now acquire more of the goods that were once lower priority and financially out of reach. The fact that we can do so is good. It’s also bad, apparently because we can be overwhelmed by the volume of possessions we have to manage.
Acquisitive behavior is not a problem in itself—it’s a happy marker for the fact that incomes and living standards in our society —even for the poor—have risen . Add to that the difference that technology and quality changes contribute, whether in TV’s, washers, autos, computers and refrigerators, etc., and we are all better off today than in earlier times. In the United States, for example, there are 754 television sets for every 1,000 people, higher than anywhere else in the world.
Better and cheaper goods mean we have also gained the luxury of flexibility-consumers can change their minds, or replace or buy duplicate items, regardless of the item’s wear, age, or usefulness.
It’s also the case that larger numbers of consumers can afford new rather than used goods. Once upon a time, it would have been common to be the fourth or fifth owner of a ‘new’ bicycle, dress, suit, or item of furniture. Today, in the United States, it is far more rare.
Mass manufacturing, including the flows of information, technology, stages of production, labor, and materials back and forth across borders means that, worldwide, more goods are available to more people, more economically, than ever before. All of this contributes to the consumer society.
The problem with all this abundance? Once acquired, much of the stuff we obtain stays acquired, instead of being passed down to others, gifted as used, or resold in secondhand markets. Some of us are, figuratively, drowning in all of our stuff. Be it old newspapers or shoes and handbags, these are things we can’t bear to discard, and don’t get around to organizing.
Not to worry. If wealth and markets are the cause of acquisition and clutter, they also provide many solutions.
Enter the clutter reduction/organization industry, with its many market choices. Teams with trucks will clear your stuff out and haul it away—you don’t have to lift a thing, and self-storage facilities will lease you warehouse space, or on-site containers, to enclose the rampant junk. Other businesses offer closet organizers, including the possibility that you can shrink some of your bulky, fluffy stuff to a fraction of its size by sealing it in a plastic bag and sucking out all of the air. Unless your Space Bags spontaneously burst or reinflate , you could double or treble the amount of stuff you now store.
For those who want a more psychological approach, there’s clutter counseling . While recovering, the clutter addict can also hire a feng-shui consultant . If you want to keep all your junk and still live in harmony with the universe, this could be the route for you—the market is happy to serve.
Do-it-yourself types who are attracted to feng shui, but unwilling to pay for professional consultation about the streams and eddies of mystic energies flowing through their rooms can try duct-shui instead. One trip to the home center for a few rolls of duct tape promises to solve the consumer’s clutter problem; failing that, they can still get ideas for seasonally appropos—though perhaps not so mystic—Halloween costumes.
Is wealth a blessing, or a curse? It’s a blessing. We are better off wealthier, and with more goods, than not. The benefits of a consumer-driven economy materially benefit almost everyone. If we sometimes lose track of what to do with it all, entrepreneurs will cheerfully turn our problems into market opportunities.
Still, sometimes simplest is best. If all else fails, go to your nearest Target for a really quick market solution. Purchase a “Bless This Mess” wall plaque. Duct tape to wall. Finished.