Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several friends and aquaintances say that they are feeling compelled to sort and weed through their homes.

Of course, it is spring and, for some of us, spring cleaning can feel like a biological imperative.  Others of us are moving in the near future and want to prune our belongings before we pack and move them.

However, a recent blog post by iconoculture.com suggests that the recession is the reason many of us are cleaning out:  “The troubled economy has prompted a need for empowerment, and [people are] finding that the acts of cleaning, organizing and decluttering the home can provide that much needed sense of control.”

Whether or not the economy is driving our need for decluttering and organization, I am so glad that people are taking the time and energy to exert control over their things.  I think – in our culture, where we are so good at consuming and accumulating – it’s very easy for our things to control us.

“The cost of a thing is the amount of…life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”  – Henry David Thoreau