Everything has a place – at least everything that’s worth keeping.  If you use it, need it, or love it, there is an appropriate place for it.  If you’re not sure how it fits into your life, you will have a much harder time finding the right home for it.  This goes for both items and activities.  Don’t you always find a way to make time for the things that are most important to you?  Your home, like your day, has a limit to what it can hold.  Make sure that there is adequate room for the most valuable things.

You might use your winter coat when you visit your relatives in upstate NY, one week out of the year, and that’s reason enough to keep it.  It is not, however, reason enough to keep it front and center in your main closet, taking up a big chunk of your prime real estate.  It would be more appropriately stored in a garment bag in the coat closet or hall closet (if you’re fortunate enough to have one); or neatly tucked away and labeled in a storage bin somewhere out of sight.  Its easy to apply this principle to cold-weather items, but how much of the clothing in your closet do you wear on a regular basis?  Or how many of the appliances that live on your counter and in nearby cabinets are being used frequently enough to warrant their prime location?

Your home is your retention guideline.  A retention guideline is a boundary that determines how much stuff you can have based on how much space you have to hold it.  You wouldn’t buy a California King-sized bed for an 8x8 bedroom, or try to watch a 3-hour movie in 2 hours, would you?  Your stuff is no different from your schedule or furniture.  It must fit into the space allotted for it.  Embrace this boundary.  It is the key to harmony in all areas of your life.

It is our experience from working with clients that the most valuable result we can provide them with is the ability to see, access, and appreciate their belonging.  Once your life and home are rid of unnecessary clutter, and your belongings assigned appropriate homes, you will find more time to devote to the things of most value, and find more value in the things you have.