Why Highly Sensitive Children Love Their Clutter

Highly sensitives are bothered by clutter.  Clutter stresses and creates a sense of chaos. That is true for highly sensitive adults in any case. Adults are less inclined to be able to ignore items strewn around work surfaces and dumped on the hall floor. However, if my experience is typical, their highly sensitive offspring are less bothered by the mess around them. In fact, many highly sensitive children (HSC) have a huge problem letting go of the stuff they accumulate. It’s enough to make any highly sensitive parent tear their hair out – I’m not alone right? Here’s why.

Common Clutter Items: Highly Sensitive Children

Ever been tempted to ruthlessly tackle your children’s bedroom armed with nothing but bin bags and boxes? From discussions in the Happy Sensitive Kids Community I know that clutter is a common problem for highly sensitive children. Highly sensitive children get attached to anything and everything. And as a result they accumulate STUFF. Such as:

• Everything they have ever drawn, scribbled on or started to colour in.
• Anything that have ever made, even materials that don’t stand the test of time well.
• Any items that were ever given to them by someone special. They remember. They keep.
• Anything gifted to them.
• Special collections – like rotting acorns and conkers, sticks or old screws. I dare you to ask me how I know…..

Emotional Attachment to Things

Highly sensitive children have a tendency to place an emotional value to an item. So to you it’s a pile of rotting acorns, but for your child it’s not just a collection of acorns AT ALL. This particular pile of acorns were lovingly collected with grandpa whilst walking together in their favourite spot. And for this reason they cannot simply be thrown away.

Sometimes the sentiment is harder to determine. My youngest will not let me get rid of a little armchair in his room. He is far too big for it, but for some reason bursts into tears at the idea of letting it go. It was bought eleven years ago for my eldest son when he was a toddler. There’s no reasoning with him about it. He doesn’t know why he feels so upset at the thought of it going. He just does. And so it stays. I am hoping by the time he’s a teenager he will feel less attached to it…..

Emotional attachment is the short explanation of why highly sensitive children struggle to let go of stuff. Remember that these children think deeply. They extend thoughts well beyond the item and look at where it came from, how they acquired it, the memories it stirs up. And how the giver would feel if they got rid of it.

An emotional attachment to things certainly doesn’t facilitate the decluttering process.

2 Decluttering Tips

• Take photos and get a book printed of all your child’s artwork and craft items. It takes up much less space and collects less dust. My eldest found this an acceptable way to keep the memories, but not the clutter from his toddler and early school years.
• Reading tip: these books helped me a lot with decluttering, from physical rooms to email boxes – 

       

Over to You – Highly Sensitives and Clutter

What tips do you have for other parents struggling to keep the clutter in their child’s rooms to a minimum? Do you have a strategy as a highly sensitive to cope with the clutter around you? What top tip do you have on the topic of highly sensitives and clutter?

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