For now.  These two words cause more havoc in our lives than any others in the English language. They alone are responsible for most of the clutter in our homes and offices. We are a nation of mega-consumers. We are constantly bringing new items into our homes and because we are rushed or because we are unwilling to make a decision about where the items will be stored we just put them down on the table counter or floor for now.

We take items from where they belong, use them, and instead of returning them to their homes we just lay them down somewhere convenient for now. Most often in both examples for now becomes forever. Multiply these two examples by the number of average occurrence times the number of family members in the household and you get clutter, chaos and frustration. I called the two examples in this equation the For Now Factors.™ Continue reading →