I recently had an excellent session with a client. No, she didn’t have clutter in the regular sense, but we had some great discussions around mental clutter, digital clutter and those piles that do inevitably accumulate around the house. As we were talking about each item in turn, I realized something that had never occurred to me before: The common denominator in keeping clutter under control, no matter the type, is limiters. 

What I mean by limiters is the space (seen or unseen) that you allow clutter to occupy. For mental clutter, the limiter might be how stressed you feel or how many “balls” drop before you have to clear your mind on a list, in a journal or through a conversation. You release the space by taking that action prompted by the limiter. For digital clutter, the limiter might be how many times you’re willing to scroll to see all those emails or pdfs. Or the limiter could be forced by a lack of space on your computer. Lastly, the piles of clutter are often the easiest to create a limiter for, but the hardest to realize. If you open mail in a certain place and piles form, put a basket or tray there. Voila! Now it looks like the piles belong there, and your limiter is the size of the basket or tray. In the same way, if piles of snack bags accumulate on your kitchen counter (this might be me talking from personal experience – haha), put a tray there. Voila! Now it looks like the bags belong there and there’s a limiter.

Look around…Where in your life do you need limiters?