I just finished reading Porter Knight’s “Organized to Last.”   It’s a quick and fascinating guide to conquering clutter. 

One of the “ah-ha” moments for me was the relationship between space, stuff, and time.  Loosely decoded: taking up space by leaving stuff out doesn’t mean we will make time to deal with it.

For example, let’s say I needed to mend a pair of pants, so I leave the pants and the sewing kit in the middle of the kitchen table with the thought that if I put everything away I’ll never get around to mending them.   However, what probably  happens is that I would move the pants and the sewing kit several times because I didn’t build the mending project into any time schedule and I actually needed the dining room table to eat on. 

Just because the stuff was out didn’t mean the task got done any quicker, but my dining space was taken up with my mending stuff because I didn’t make time to complete the task.  In addition, I was frustrated every time I had to move things in order to eat.

Instead, envision open space (room to work), stuff in a safe home (so you’ll know where to find it when you’re ready to work on it), and a plan to schedule the time to accomplish the tasks on your list.