Clutter gives the illusion of stability. It makes you feel like things are staying the same. There's a mirage of safeness in living under the influence of the past. But then your life becomes a nostalgia act. There's a dullness that ends up finding its way into all parts of your life.
A ways back I worked with some clients that got into the habit of keeping their Christmas decorations up a half a year past the holidays. The didn't want to even consider that the presence of the Santa dolls, the elf figurines, or the wreaths could be clutter.
I was at their home in early-summer. There was an irritability mixed with stagnation in the air. They'd been trying to sell their home for two years. But no one was interested. I told the family about the stale feeling of their home. I said it was worth questioning everything because it could possibly aid in the selling of their home as well as give them peace of mind.
This way of looking at it made them curious and they opened up to questioning their Christmas stuff. I got them to focus on the feelings of each item. They began to sense that having that stuff out was keeping them from enjoying other things that mattered even more, like each other and the space itself.
Some of the X-mas stuff went back into storage. Some of it they realized was no longer special and they donated it. They also noticed that a lot of other clutter had gathered around the holiday items. Clutter is sticky and attracts other clutter. The great thing is the house felt alive again, and they ended up selling the house within the month.