Trust the Ones You Have

How confident are you that you can find a particular item when you need it?

There’s a direct inverse correlation between this confidence and the likelihood of overacquiring. The more confident you are that you can find it, the less likely you are to buy excess. On the other hand, if you know you have it but you doubt you can find it (or if you’ve forgotten you already have one, or several), odds are you’ll buy another one. You think that from now on you’ll be better able to find it, but it never works that way, does it? Because every time you acquire a duplicate, you make your space a bit more unmanageable.

Overacquiring feeds disorganization; disorganization feeds overacquiring. Which side do you want to address first?

 

Quick Thought: Buy One Thing

You’ve heard of a wolf in sheep’s clothing–something that appears harmless but is actually dangerous. Some organizing practices can be like that: obsessions in efficiency’s clothing.

How often do you go to the store for just one thing? Never, you say? That would be inefficient, you say, and a waste of gas, so you find a few more items to make the trip worthwhile? Because that’s the organized way to shop, right? Hmm….

This is also what my shopping-addicted and hoarding clients say.

Sometimes it’s a net gain to go to the store for just one thing.