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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to limit the stacks of stuff. Often a

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Speaker 1: small stack turns into a big stack, but a stack

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Speaker 1: won't start where there isn't one. This insight can help

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Speaker 1: you make any space look more orderly. My family moved

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Speaker 1: into a new house about two and a half years ago.

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Speaker 1: We threw out or donated a lot of stuff before moving,

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Speaker 1: but plenty of things still made it into the boxes.

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Speaker 1: As we were unpacking, we found stuff that didn't have

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Speaker 1: homes or still needed to be donated. So I put

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Speaker 1: some donation boxes in the upstairs hallway. That's also where

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Speaker 1: I stored some boxes of things that didn't have a

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Speaker 1: home or needed to be put away some time. And

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Speaker 1: there those boxes sat for quite a while. Curiously, they

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Speaker 1: began to attract other random items. The piles in the

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Speaker 1: hallway stayed there, slowly growing and just generally looking like

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Speaker 1: a mess. Then a little over a year ago, we

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Speaker 1: took the donations where they needed to go and found

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Speaker 1: homes for things and dumped everything else. The empty boxes

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Speaker 1: went out with the recycling. The hallway was suddenly clear,

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Speaker 1: and then a funny thing happened. No one has stacked

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Speaker 1: anything in the hallway since then. Since everything got put away,

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Speaker 1: everything stayed put away. No one leaves the random items

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Speaker 1: sitting on the floor in the hallway. If they did,

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Speaker 1: it would probably look so out of place on a

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Speaker 1: completely clear floor that I or somebody else would put

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Speaker 1: it somewhere else immediately. While stacks of stuff attract more stuff,

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Speaker 1: an empty surface tends to stay pretty empty. Maybe it

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Speaker 1: is related to the broken windows theory of crime. The

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Speaker 1: idea is that if people see broken windows and the

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Speaker 1: windows don't get fixed, they figure no one cares, no

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Speaker 1: one is watching, more vandalism happens, whereas if the windows

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Speaker 1: get fixed, people wind up behaving better. They know that

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Speaker 1: order is expected. Now. I don't know if the evidence

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Speaker 1: is completely clear clut on that as matter of police policy,

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Speaker 1: but I do know that in my house, the existence

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Speaker 1: of a big pile of stuff indicates that people don't

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Speaker 1: really care if the stuff piles up, so people put

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Speaker 1: more stuff there rather than taking the extra a few

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Speaker 1: seconds to find things real homes, the pile gets bigger,

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Speaker 1: whereas if the surface is clear, people think twice before

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Speaker 1: putting a random sock or a broken toy or a

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Speaker 1: piece of trash there. Someone is going to wonder why

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Speaker 1: there is a broken toy sitting right there in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the hallway. It gets noticed in a way

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Speaker 1: that it doesn't when it is merely thrown on top

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Speaker 1: of a box of random donations or items with no homes.

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Speaker 1: So if you would like a space to look more orderly,

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Speaker 1: try clearing off stacks of stuff as much as possible.

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Speaker 1: Maybe just put the stacks in a box and put

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Speaker 1: the box in a closet. It doesn't really solve the problem,

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Speaker 1: but people will think twice about creating a new stack.

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Speaker 1: You might even combine small stacks into one stack, so

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Speaker 1: more space is clear, and so it is harder to

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Speaker 1: stack stuff on top of the taller stack. I have

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Speaker 1: done this with mail and magazines. If people see piles

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Speaker 1: all over the counter, they just add to it. But

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Speaker 1: a single stack that's a bit more precarious in height

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Speaker 1: invites a pause. Do I want to add to this

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Speaker 1: and risk the whole stack toppling? That moment of pause

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Speaker 1: isn't a bad thing. Now. To be sure, this doesn't

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Speaker 1: always work. I try my best to keep certain kitchen

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Speaker 1: counters clear, but certain members of my family will see

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Speaker 1: the empty counter as an invitation to throw their stuff

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Speaker 1: completely across it, as if six other people don't live

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Speaker 1: in the house with them. But the evidence from my

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Speaker 1: hallway suggests that removing the stacks does have something of

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Speaker 1: a positive effect from a clutter perspective, so it might

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Speaker 1: be worth a shot. In the meantime, This is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

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Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at

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Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows.