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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeart Radio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to limit the stacks of stuff.
Often, a small stack turns into a big stack.
But a stack won't start where there isn't one.
This insight can help you make any space look more orderly.
My family moved into a new house about two and a half years ago.
We threw out or donated a lot of stuff before moving, but plenty of things still made it into the boxes.
As we were unpacking, we found stuff that didn't have homes or still needed to be donated.
So I put some donation boxes in the upstairs hallway.
That's also where I stored some boxes of things that didn't have a home or needed to be put away sometime.
And there, those boxes sat for quite a while.
Curiously, they began to attract other random items.
The piles in the hallway stayed there, slowly growing, and just generally looking like a mess.
Then, a little over a year ago, we took the donations where they needed to go and found homes for things and dumped everything else.
The empty boxes went out with the recycling.
The hallway was suddenly clear.
And then a funny thing happened.
No one has stacked anything in the hallway since then.
Since everything got put away, everything stayed put away.
No one leaves a random item sitting on the floor in the hallway.
If they did, it would probably look so out of place on a completely clear floor that I or somebody else would put it somewhere else immediately.
While stacks of stuff attract more stuff, an empty surface tends to stay pretty empty.
Maybe it is related to the broken windows theory of crime.
The idea is that if people see broken windows and the windows don't get fixed, they figure no one cares.
No one is watching.
More vandalism happens.
Whereas if the windows get fixed, people wind up behaving better.
They know that order is expected.
Now I don't know if the evidence is completely clear-cut on that as a matter of police policy, but I do know that in my house the existence of a big pile of stuff indicates that people don't really care if the stuff piles up.
So people put more stuff there Rather than taking the extra few seconds to find things real homes.
The pile gets bigger.
Whereas if the surface is clear, people think twice before putting a random sock or a broken toy or a piece of trash there.
Someone is going to wonder why there is a broken toy sitting right there in the middle of the hallway.
It gets noticed in a way that it doesn't when it is merely thrown on top of a box of random donations or items with no homes.
So if you would like a space to look more orderly, try clearing off stacks of stuff as much as possible.
Maybe just put the stacks in a box and put the box in a closet.
It doesn't really solve the problem, but people will think twice about creating a new stack.
You might even combine small stacks into one stack, so more space is clear and so it is harder to stack stuff on top of the taller stack.
I have done this with mail and magazines.
If people see piles all over the counter, they just add to it.
But a single stack that's a bit more precarious in height invites a pause.
Do I want to add to this and risk the whole stack toppling?
That moment of pause isn't a bad thing.
Now, to be sure, this doesn't always work.
I try my best to keep certain kitchen counters clear, but certain members of my family will see the empty counter as an invitation to throw their stuff completely across it, as if six other people don't live in the house with them.
But the evidence from my hallway suggests that removing the stacks does have something of a positive effect from a clutter perspective.
So, it might be worth a shot.
In the meantime, this is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura Vanderkam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.
For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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My first guest is Terrence Hilton.
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Luke and Yerin.
We have surprises.
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Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the group chat comes to life.
What up?
You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst.
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Here, oversharing is encouraged.
Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
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