So there’s this theory called The Broken Window Effect. This theory is a criminological theory of the how neighborhoods deteriorate into vandalism and anti-social behavior.
From Wikipedia:
The theory states that maintaining and monitoring urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism, public drinking and toll-jumping helps to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes from happening.
So, what does this have to do with clutter in your house?
Well, basically, we all have “hot spots” in our homes that just seem to collect clutter. For some of us…. every surface may be fair game for clutter and others may notice that the kitchen counter, the dining room table are the primary targets for clutter.
So, let’s say you do a good job of getting rid of all the clutter on your dining room table and you can finally sit down for a meal with your family. It stays clean and clear of clutter for … two days. And then someone discards the mail on the table. And then another family member {seeing that the surface already has some clutter} mindlessly sets down a book. Then you walk by with your arms full of laundry and you think, “I’ll be right back to get this put away,” but you forget or get busy and it doesn’t get done. Now, within less than 24 hours you have a pile of clutter that, if left unchecked will grow even larger tomorrow.
The Broken Window Effect basically means that once a window in a neighborhood is broken – it breeds more broken windows, more decline in the neighborhood until the whole area is full of broken windows, graffiti, and crime.
In the example I used above, the first family member to set the mail down on the table “broke the window.” Now everyone else feels {subconsciously} that they have “permission” to add to the “broken windows.”
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