Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff

by Dana K. White

But I kept buying containers, filling them up, and buying more. And my house was worse off every time I did. I was using those containers incorrectly because I didn’t understand their purpose. Used properly, containers are limits. They keep clutter from spreading. They keep stuff under proper control by preventing and limiting the expansion of that stuff. But how? I thought the purpose of containers was to hold stuff. That’s why I kept buying more when the ones I had were full and I still had stuff that needed to be held. I assumed there was a solution lurking just beyond my current organizing abilities. Someday, when I reached that elusive State of Organization, my stuff would all work together perfectly, and I’d be glad to have whatever I already had. But as long as I was using containers incorrectly, I was never going to reach that State of Organization.