I’ve been thinking more about the mechanics of keeping our place tidy and clean, so I was shocked when I saw the headline on Lifehacker:

Keeping Some Clutter May Be More Valuable For Lower-Income Households

Wait, what???? How can clutter be valuable?

The idea seems a bit counterintuitive (particularly if you account for storage space), but it actually makes sense. “Clutter” is typically seen as junk. Crap you don’t need. However, the less money you have, the less you can afford to replace that old stuff you might-but-probably-don’t need.

This idea can manifest itself in a number of ways, including hanging on to old furniture, clothes that don’t fit anymore, or a pile of chargers and cables.(emphasis mine)

I consider ourselves to be upper-lower-income.  And we do hold on to stuff — but only to stuff we will probably need. And that certainly includes a pile of chargers and cables.

For instance, we each just got brand-new Kindles.  My old one is cacked — that’s been tossed.  But what about the charging cord?  It fits my new Kindle.  I can still use it.  So the new ones could get put away and we could just use the old one, but why not take it to work and leave it there?  Or put it into my purse with my spare cell phone charger so I’ll always be able to charge it?

But I won’t throw it out.

Or how about head-phones?  When I got my new phone it came with ear-buds.  So I took my old set and put them away.  Sure enough, when my new ear-buds gave out I could pull out the old set and use them.

Broken stuff gets turfed.  But I cannot call a baggy full of chargers and cables “clutter”.

What’s “clutter” to you?