I’m guilty of a horrible transgression: I’ve bought way too much stuff to hold all of my stuff. I mean you know you’ve got a problem when you convince yourself that if you just buy more containers all of your problems will be solved. Except that being disorganized isn’t the problem. The stuff is the problem.

Buying everything in The Container Store won’t miraculously turn over-accumulation into order and reason. News flash: it doesn’t. You just wind up with more stuff.

My indoctrination into The Container Store religion started as a freshman in college. During orientation, which happened in July before school started in August, there was a sample dorm room that was open for new students and their parents to view to give you ideas for how to organize and decorate your room. I suspect that the majority of visitors were of the female persuasion.

The room was ‘sponsored’ by The Container Store, which was conveniently located directly across the street from campus. Never mind that the sample room (and my eventual actual room) was so small you and your roommate could lie in your beds, spread your arms out and hold hands. No, the geniuses at The Container Store made the sardine box sized room look like a freaking castle. The matching comforters and throw pillows didn’t hurt either. Or the student discount advertised on the brochures.

And I guess that image stuck with me. It still does. I mean I figured that, no matter what size your home, if you just got enough hooks, containers and divided boxes, you could make it look super cute, organized and better. And you’d win homemaker of the year.

Except, that’s a lie. No amount of organizational stuff can overcome having too much crap.

According to this survey conducted by Huffington Post,* home organization is a stress trigger for a lot of people. A lot of the survey participants said “they worry that their home isn’t clean or organized enough.”

Huffington Post Survey Infographic

47 percent of respondents said that home organization was as much of a stress trigger as unexpected expenses. And the primary source of home-related stress was reported as being clutter.

As we get rid of the crap in the storage containers, we no longer need the containers. We’ve already donated I-don’t-even-know how many baskets. There will continue to be more.

And now these – they used to be in Stephen’s office:

Since we don’t need them, I’m listing them on Freecycle. They are bulky and took up quite a bit of space. Stephen purged the stuff that was in there and now we are getting rid of these ugly things. Score!

Do you have an addiction to organization goodies? I’ve had to swear off of that store. I won’t even go in there. It’s too dangerous.

*I know the Huffington Post is not the pinnacle of hard hitting journalism, but the survey was recent and didn’t seem too far off conceptually.