I am personally a Bible believing Christian. And as a declutter coach, though it would be interesting to look at the connection between my faith and what I am most passionate about.
If you come from another religious background, are unsure of the Bible, or currently struggling with your ideas about God, let me give you a disclaimer: I will be using the Bible to look at how God talks about clutter (a.k.a. worldly possessions), so if you don't believe in the Bible (or God at all) this may not seem accurate or relevant for you.
However, I encourage you to read until the end because my goal is to encourage us all, no matter what we believe, to look for the spiritual implications of clutter as well as the practical. I encourage you to look at your personal faith and/or your religion's teachings to see what they say about living a more clutter free lifestyle.
And if you have no interest in spirituality at all, don't forget the hundreds of practical reasons to live clutter free such as finding mental peace, escaping chaos, being kind, growing wealth, making your house a home, and just having the ability to do your flippin' taxes.
For those of you who are Bible believing Christians, I hope looking at the Bible's stance on the issue of clutter will encourage you to look more intentionally at everything you own and start taking some bolder David against Goliath type action.
Now after that muuuuch longer intro than normal, let's get into it.
So, what does God have to say about clutter?
1. Clutter is better hoarded in heaven than in your garage.
I find it so great that the Bible's most famous "stuff" verse starts with the most practical reason ever. Jesus basically says, "Yo! It's gonna get ruined and stolen if you just hoard all that clutter at your house. Let me store it in my insect proof, high security warehouse. I got you."
That verse pretty much explains itself. So let's move on.
2. Clutter is where the heart is.
The very next verse there in Matthew reminds me of the saying, "Home is where the heart is." But that truth comes with a harder one, which is that home is often where your heart is, because that is where your stuff is.
I think that Jesus in this verse was trying to tell the crowd & his disciples (Matthew 5:1) that the more you have, the less your heart has space to love God and others (The greatest commandments - Matthew 22:36-40).
3. Put your money where your faith is.
I think the clutter implication here is that if you spend most of your time working for money so you can buy more junk, you are serving money rather than him.
The capitalist society that most of us live in tells us that we need to work hard so we can have nice things. But the more nice things we have, the harder we have to work to clean, replace, protect, and use that stuff... so we work more. The more you have, the more you serve money.
This principle does not apply only to rich people who have lots of nice cars, houses, and toys. This applies also to the poor family hoarding anything they can get for cheap and the middle class family with an RV and storage unit they don't really need.
I also want to note that this does not just apply to cluttered people either. If you are a super minimalist but care more about your investment accounts and your travel savings than you do about God, than you also are serving money.
4. When there's clutter, command the inflow to stop.
I had no idea when I started writing this post that I would actually find a story about clutter in the Bible... but here it is.
So the context for this verse is that Moses and the people are building the Tabernacle and the people, "whoever is of a generous heart" (Exodus 35:5), were asked to bring precious metals and other materials needed for it's construction and decoration (items listed in Exodus 35:5-9).
And then something strange (and hilarious) happens in chapter 36, the craftsmen come to Moses like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, we got way too much clutter piling up here. We need you to tell all these over generous people to stop donating stuff." And Moses looks around at the construction area and is like, "Yeah that's a lot of stuff, I think you're right!" So Moses has the command spread around to everyone and "so the people were restrained from bringing." Guys! There was so much stuff that they had to be commanded to stop bringing more!
First of all, this is a great lesson on the power of generosity. Give well to God. I dare you. See what happens.
The main decluttering lesson I get from this funny story though, is that when clutter starts piling up, you've got to find the source of the problem and command the inflow to stop. Moses commanded the people to stop bringing more. Figure out how you can command your clutter to stop coming in.
Side note: I just watched this helpful video by The Minimal Mom on YouTube that may help you figure out how to stop the clutter creep.
5. Don't save your clutter, save your soul.
The context for this verse (read Luke 17: 20-37) is that Jesus is talking to some Pharisees and explaining what the coming of the kingdom of God will be like. Jesus in this verse is staying that when the kingdom of God comes (a.k.a. when Jesus returns), if you are on top of your house or in the field (or for us modern peeps, if you are in your yard or out running errands), that you should not turn to go inside or boogie towards home to get anything out. Just look to Jesus.
Jesus is trying to show us the low value of our possessions compared with eternity. Your clutter (and even your more important possessions) are not worth dying for. Save your life, and let your things go.
A helpful everyday application of this principle is to remember that your things are in your life to help you live well now and to help you in your path to salvation. If your clutter is hindering you more than helping you in either of these areas. than it's like running into your burning house to save a kick-knack... it's stupid and deadly.
Application
The four lessons we learned from this little Bible declutter dive were:
1. Clutter is better hoarded in heaven than in your garage.
2. Clutter is where the heart is.
3. Put your money where your faith is.
4. When there's clutter, command the inflow to stop.
5. Don't save your clutter, save your soul.
Now what are some ways you can apply those principles to your decluttering & "stuff" management?
- How can you have less stuff to get destroyed and stolen?
- How can you save more treasure in heaven?
- How can you keep heaven where your heart is rather than in your bank account, closet, or garage?
- How can you put more money into your faith?
- Have you been generous with your possessions or money lately?
- How can you start giving more?
- How can you command clutter to stop coming in?
- How can you prepare your home and heart for the coming of Jesus so you won't be tempted to turn back towards your clutter?
How are you going to start taking some bolder David against Goliath type action against your clutter this week?
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I'd love to know what you thought of this post. Leave me a comment below with your thoughts. BONUS POINTS for sharing other Bible verses that talk about what God says about clutter or other religious/spiritual teachings that address ideas about clutter.