Later

"Later is the best friend of clutter." - Peter Walsh

This is quote is so true. When you procrastinate dealing with items, they become clutter fast. There are two ways to remedy this for any given category:

1. Get into the habit of completely dealing with items as soon as they appear. OR

2. Create an organized system that allows you to procrastinate responsibly.

EXAMPLE:

I am currently working with a client that has bags and boxes of old mail in her garage. This is because whenever they pick up the mail, they leave it in their car. Then when they need to use the trunk, they take everything in the car out (including the mail) and set it in the garage so they can go do whatever it is they need to do. My recommendation to this client was to either (1) deal with all their mail every time they pick it up (i.e. throw away junk, file important things, read letters, & look at bills and put them on their desk) or (2) create a mail system by the front door (i.e. obvious trash goes in trash, bills go in the bills basket, and everything else goes in another basket).

Now, some people need option 1 because they will never go through the baskets. And other people need option 2, because they will try to go through all the mail each time, but then give up when they are in a rush. And maybe you need more baskets, or less baskets, or maybe a mail system on your desk. But the two options are still valid. For every category of frequently incoming items, you either need to go through them completely as they come in or create an organized system so you can procrastinate responsibly. But whatever you do, don't just set everything down and lie to yourself by saying you'll deal with it later.

Comment below: What category do you find frequently piling up?

If you want to learn more about Peter Walsh. Check out his website.