Reddit reviews Lighten Up: Love What You Have, Have What You Need, Be Happier with Less

From Peter Walsh's book Lighten Up - Love What You Have, Have What You Need, Be Happier with Less (taken from an article about the book over at LifeHacker):

> ...work out how much each square foot of your home is worth and then see how much of that space is unused due to clutter. Simply take the current value of your home (make a rough estimate; you're not trying to come up with the exact selling figure for real estate purposes so just obtain the general ballpark figure), and determine how much each square foot is worth.
>
>
> Value of your home ÷ Square footage of your home = Value of each square foot
>
> So, if you live in a $250,000 home and it's 2,500 square feet, then each square foot is worth $100
>
> The value of each square foot of my home is: ___
>
> Now let's calculate how much of your home's space is occupied by things you don't use. Walk around your home and make a rough calculation of how many square feet are unusable because of the clutter. Don't forget the basement, closets, and garage:
>
> The number of square feet in my home that are occupied by things I don't use: ___
>
> Now let's find out how much that wasted square footage is worth:
>
> Value of square footage × Square feet occupied by things you don't use = Value of unusable space
>
> Are you surprised at the value of the space you're giving up to things you don't use? Is it a big waste of space? A colossal waste of money for space that is lost to you and your family? Every month when you pay your mortgage company, a decent chunk of that money is paying for storage in your own home.

Now, some folks in the Comments section made the point that of course you're going to store stuff in your home--that's part of what a home is supposed to do, let you store things. But in the case of hoarding, stuff accumulates in areas of the home that aren't supposed to be used for storage. The hoarding renders those spaces--bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, etc.--unusable. Thus, you wind up effectively paying a mortgage (or rent) for spaces that you can't use. It's equivalent to going to a hotel, renting four rooms, and using only one while the other three collect dust--a waste of money.

So, for example: if you're renting a 900 sq ft apartment at $1000/mth, that's $1.11/mth per sq ft. If you have 200 sq ft that's been given over to hoarding, then $222 of your monthly rent--nearly a quarter of your rent--paying for space you can't use. That's a big chunk. Ideally, no more than 10% of your rent would go to paying for storage, and none of your usable space would be compromised.