Ok, time for a reality check. You can’t ever stop stuff coming into your home. No matter how much clutter you process, there will always be some more coming in. Whether it be the unwanted mail that comes through your letterbox or the packaging from a new toy, just think of all the stuff that you have flowing in and where it all comes from. The only way to counter this flow is to process it all as it comes in. But of course this isn’t always practical. After all, you can’t stand by the letterbox all day waiting to snatch the mail from the postman.

When you have a leaky roof you strategically place buckets to catch the water. Before those buckets overflow you empty them out. The same idea should be applied to stuff that comes into your home so that you can process it in a manageable way and know where exactly it is all kept. Most of the time we leave stuff lying around randomly and then wonder why we are disorganized and lose things. For letters and paperwork you can have an in-tray. For shopping bags you can have hooks or a specially defined place in the hallway. For magazines you can have a rack in the living room. By having these buckets in place you can keep track of what is coming into your home and how much of it there is. Then you can process at your own pace. Go round your home now and see where you can add buckets to collate stuff.