Lately I’m noticing that some people (including a few “decluttering experts”) have taken the concept of decluttering to such an extreme that they’re actually recommending that you buy systems to store your belongings in so that everything is color- and shape-coordinated. And of course these “systems” cost plenty of money.

I’m afraid the decluttering trend is turning into a mania. It’s one thing to reduce your possessions to a manageable level so that you can live in an orderly, uncluttered home. It’s another thing to require everything to fit in pre-purchased, matching-color containers and shelving. We’re talking entire walls of shelving with matching storage containers that fit into their appointed slots with barely any room to spare.

Does anyone else think this is all getting a little, um, OCD?

Many of us were forced to declutter because of a financial reversal that led to downsizing our life by moving into smaller quarters. So we don’t have the kind of money that a big, coordinated storage system costs.

Take this pantry, for example. Just the rack on the door with its little accouterments costs nearly $130 on sale (reg. $184—eek!)

Then there are the goodies that go on the shelves. By goodies, I don’t mean food, of course: just the matching containers that you put the food in! Here’s a starter set for “only” $168.

When you go from weeding out the old stuff in your pantry and putting the rest of its contents in neat rows to buying hundreds of dollars’ worth of containers and shelves, not to mention pouring food out of the store packages into matching plastic containers, you are officially part of a mania.

And does it occur to anyone that by buying all these containers and shelves that go together, that you are actually adding clutter to your house? You’re also feeding your urge to accumulate, which is what you got you into trouble in the first place.

If you reduce your belongings to only what you find useful and beautiful (a theme I thoroughly explore in The Sentimental Person’s Guide to Decluttering), you won’t need coordinated storage systems. You won’t need to ruin a perfectly good wooden door by screwing an elaborate shelving system into it. And you’ll save a lot of money, too.