Where I tell you it's ok to keep clutter (sometimes)

Just make sure you build a little system around it.

You know how sometimes there’s a certain sort of persistent clutter in your house that just doesn’t seem to ever go away?

The random papers your kids bring home from school. The stack of mail that needs to be processed. The clothes on the floor that are too dirty for the closet but too clean for the laundry hamper. The scraps of material you swear you’re going to use for scrapbooking…but never seem to get to.

This clutter has no home, no place it’s supposed to be…because it isn’t supposed to exist, or so you tell yourself. So it just sits out on top of the dining room table or any available surface, stressing you out.

You will it to disppear. You deal with it once, then it just reappears.

I have a solution for you, if you’re ready for it….

Solution: Give this clutter a container and legitimize it. Yes, that’s right. Accept that this clutter is part of your life and build a system to contain its boundaries. This legitimizes its existence and relieves you of the guilt/mental load of trying to will it out of existence.

I wrote a draft post months ago about how I once solved a clothes-on-the-floor issue, but it didn’t feel meaty enough to publish. Then yesterday I was listening to an episode of KC Davis’ fantastic podcast Struggle Care, in which she interviews professional organizer Alison Lush. They talked about this “containerize and legitimize” strategy, and I realized that was exactly what was interesting about my solution.

Here was my quagmire: