Do you have what Don Aslett calls a junk bunker? Here's another quote from his book Clutter's Last Stand:
"We finally reach the day when our clutter is so overwhelming that there's not a single place left to put anything: even the walls are full. It is then that we're most vulnerable to the hidden persuasion of a JUNK BUNKER. That, simply, is an item we can use to store more junk, stacked high and packed tighter. Junk bunkers come in various models, called desk organizers, closet racks, shadow boxes, shoe organizers, gun racks, pen-pencil holders, trophy cases, entertainment centers, china cabinets, jewelry boxes and ring holders, pegboard organizers, and magnets (so what you can't hang on walls, you can stick on your refrigerator.
Once we get that handy-dandy "holder", we're psychologically primed for paraphernalia. It irresistible beckons us to fill it up, There's that seven-story tool box that encourages us to by piles of handsome exotic hardware to fill it. The solid oak knife block with four empty slots, which leaves us no choice but to buy four more knives we don't need. [...] The new shelves we feel compelled to fill with vases and other bric-a-brac. Those two extra rooms we build for just-in-case, have to be filled with furniture.
Have you ever noticed that most of the books and articles on how to move efficiently organize a house, really show how to hang up, hide, file, tolerate, and make decorative use of junk? [...] Consider those vegetable bins to handle refrigerator greenery; they end up taking twice the space and only provide a place for vegetables to rot organized and unseen. Then there is the big pouch shoe holder that attaches to the back of our closet door: the perfect place to put all the shoes we were going to have to throw out. Now and forever they can swing and bounce on the door, nestled down like baby kangaroos. And let's not forget the one or two-story desktop organizer that stacks and divides and stands up all the papers that were all over our desk. Our desk will be just as messy as ever, but the clutter will be vertical instead of horizontal. (And probably forgotten, because having put it int organizer, we feel something's been done about it.)
[...]
Junk bunkers are like a shot of morphine: they ease the pain, take care of the problem for a short time, and then back it comes. Most of them can accommodate only a LITTLE junk, and as they become overstuffed, they also become saggy and ugly and dangerous. They don't sort our stuff in quite the way that would be most useful, or they have too many or too few drawers for what we have/need. Or they tempt us to over-organize things in a way that isn't really functional or realistic, so we don't keep it up. And they collect dust and and are hard to clean. There is no redeeming way to better organized and store clutter! Throw it out or give it to someone for whom it won't be junk."
