I saw this Oprah show recently about a family that was literaly up to their knees with junk inside their own home. The mother was dying of a disease and she bought all of these pointless things just to make herself feel better. Her kitchen was an absolute mess and she had all of these expensive things for cooking and baking even though she'd never even touched it. The whole family was overweight and the guest speaker said that clutter makes people fat. He even wrote a book that said, "Does this clutter make my butt look look fat?" There are things that we keep in our lives apparently that make us miserable and create bad feelings and eventually create an unhealthy lifestyle.

Quite daft to buy a crapload of things to make yourself feel better if you're dying, that money is better spent on treatment, and if the disease is truly incurable, traveling the world, going on vacation, getting some good karma, that kind of thing. I should give that book a read, although I hardly have any stuff other than my books, I hate ornaments.

What disease did she have by the way?

I saw a similar show on Oprah might have been the same one but dont remember someone having a disease, but I remember watching one where it was literally falling out the door with junk, it was just unreal. They went in and cleaned the whole house and it took days and days lol. I do agree that a cluttered house, a cluttered mind and it can make you feel miserable. I am not one for keeping junk and if I havent used something for a while then I will bin it or take it to the charity shop.

She had something wrong with her kidneys and was in need of a transplant, but I guess in order for them to have the highest chances of your body taking the transplant, you have to be in really good shape. I think she was just so overwhelmed so she would buy a cooking set or a treadmill, little things that would make her feel better for a few minutes to escape the pain. After they went through the house, she found all of this stuff that she forgot about, but it shows that if you don't take care of the things you have, then you don't care about them~ and if you don't take care of yourself, then you're not caring about your health.

How does clutter make you fat though? I dont get it :-s

Well, here's a clear explanation of why clutter can keep us from losing weight, by Peter Walsh:

Clutter or weight? Weight or clutter? What is the solution? We have to take a step back and look at the total picture. It's a huge mistake to draw arbitrary lines and to put different parts of your life into separate little boxes. Your food. Your career. Your relationships. Your schedule. Your buying habits. Your diet. Consider for a moment that where you live, what you own, how you interact with others, what you eat, and how you spend your time are all intimately linked. You can't change one piece without affecting all the others.

Declutter your mind, declutter your home, declutter your relationship to food. Then watch the ripple effect this has on every aspect of the way you live. Clear out the junk, and in doing so clear out the patterns of thought and behavior that prevent you from living the life you want. If you try to clear the clutter by focusing on the stuff, you will fail to get organized. It's not about the stuff. If you try to lose weight by focusing on the food, you'll never change your body for good. It's not about the food. First define the life you want to live. Acknowledge the issues that clutter that vision. Clean up your priorities. Create a world where those priorities can thrive. Learn how to honor and respect yourself. When you do, the ability to take control of your body will follow.

It's not necessarily about the clutter as in messes around your house, it's mainly about how we clutter the things in our lives.  Instead of organizing everything together, we keep a little bit here, a little bit there, dealing with only one thing at a time.  That's why we shop shop shop, because we're not attending to all of the important issues equally.  It's important not to create an overwhelming situation by cluttering everything together, because you won't be living the life you want to live. 

I dont believe clutter makes you fat :) one of my friends rooms is a total mess you cant even open the door all the way because there's so much stuff on the floor. But he is very clean and showers twice a day and he most definately is not fat, and I'm not the cleanest person ever and my stuff s cluttered all over the place, I'm not gaining weight either.

I don't think clutter makes me fat either, but I can see how it's just another factor of an unhealthy lifestyle. 

I can imagine clutter making you smell bad. Because then you lose track of your drity clothes and your clean clothes and just end up wearing whatever clothes.

My best friend is this way, she'll wait until the last minute to get ready, and then go look for something to wear and can't because everything is in a huge pile!  It's a stressful position to put yourself in, especially if you're getting ready for a date or something.

I think your closet and kitchen should be the most organized, also your bathroom.  Because your bathroom is where you start off your day, it's the first thing you see, and your kitchen should definately be clean and organized cuz that'd be gross.  And your closet, that's where your wardrobe is.  There's thousands of dollars worth of clothes in there, and should be kept neat and organized, that way they'll last longer.  I get a lot more stressed and irritated when my room is messy.  My parents nag at me and I feel like if I don't have time to clean my room, then I shouldn't even go home because I can't stand being around clutter.