How Much is Clutter Costing You?

This post is part of the Blog Action Day movement: thousands of blogs talking about the environment on October 15.

While cleaning my house this weekend, I realized something. If I'm paying rent on an apartment and all of this clutter is in my apartment, I'm paying rent to have clutter. I pay $600/mo for a 1 bedroom apartment, which where I live is really cheap, but I work for the management company and do favors for the manager. My apartment is about 600 square feet, so that translates into $1 per square foot. Think about it, that pile of papers that need to be filed is costing me $1 per month or $12 per year. The recycling that hasn't gone out to the curb costs $2.50 per month. The bag of clothing that should go to charity costs another $2.00 per month. Add another $4.00 for the boxes in storage that I haven't looked at for a year. That's $9.50 per month ($114 per year) and I haven't really even started on the stuff that is in drawers and cabinets. No wonder people keep buying bigger houses. As part of Blog Action Day, consider how much space we really need. How much space is determined by our consumer lifestyle?