Have you ever wondered why you have so many notebooks you’ve never used? Or candles you’ve never lit? Or clothes that you don’t wear? And you can’t seem to part with any of these items?

This phenomenon is known as clutter, an overabundance of possessions. Jacqueline Rifkin, assistant professor at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management, asked herself how this accumulation begins in the first place.

“I had a t-shirt that I had bought at a standard retail chain,” Rifkin said. “But in my mind I would wear it on a date night. I would wear it on a job interview. I would wear it to a rehearsal dinner. It was an ordinary t-shirt, but it became this thing that I needed to protect for the perfect occasion—just because I hadn’t worn it previously. I talked to different people, and this resonated with them, too. They said ‘I have a bottle of wine from Trader Joe's, but I've just never opened it. It's been years,’ or ‘I have this cologne that I got for free as an add-on with another purchase, but I haven't touched it because nothing seems special enough.’”

Rifkin had this same conversation with her co-author, Jonah Berger of the University of Pennsylvania, and they decided to get to the bottom of why we avoid using ordinary things, treating them as if they are too special to use. Through the six studies, the two found that forgoing using an item makes it seem more special, particularly when someone believes that they were waiting for a later occasion. As the item starts to feel more special, we want to use it less. As time goes on without the item being used, specialness increases further, which leads to even less usage—which Rifkin calls a “specialness spiral.” The item becomes less likely to be used in ordinary occasions, and more likely to be saved for a narrower set of extraordinary occasions.

While that may seem harmless, Rifkin shares how holding onto these items and generating clutter can become a maladaptive behavior.

“There's been plenty of research suggesting that clutter can be bad for our well-being,” Rifkin said. “It can mess with our ability to get work done. It can mess with our social relationships, and that can cause chronic stress. When it comes to that bottle of wine or the t-shirt, that special situation you are waiting for may never come. Worst case scenario is saving that bottle of wine for so long, it turns into vinegar, or saving the shirt for so long, it goes out of style. You don't even get to enjoy it.”

Fortunately, there is a way out. Rifkin suggests the easiest is this: use your stuff. 

“One thing that we talked about is pre-committing to usage occasions,” Rifkin said. “If I buy a nice t-shirt, I’ll tell myself ‘I'm going to wear it this weekend.’ Setting a specific occasion or a ‘first possible occasion’ kind of commitment can break the specialness spiral. Hopefully, we’re harnessing the knowledge that can help us avoid clutter accumulation, avoid wasting time and money on possessions, and allow ourselves to actually use these things. Wearing that shirt after a few iterations of deciding not to can feel really good.”

Learn more about Rifkin’s findings on how clutter accumulates by reading her article in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.