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It's just a bandaid. When I was growing up, the 'holding pen' was the top of the dishwasher, and it lived in a constant state of entropy. The mail and bits were piled into a mountain that would fall when bumped into.

The solution is simple: deal with things when they come. Stop putting everything off until 'later.'

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That's what the point number five is about: "Is cleaned out regularly—ideally daily, at most weekly—, so that it doesn’t become a storage area."

> deal with things when they come

Sometimes it's not practical. You can't deal with everything in the morning because you will be late for work or school. You have to push certain things later and it's ok - as long as "later" is something specific like 6 PM every weekday.

I get that, but we had the same 'plan' but often failed to do so for the a lot of the same reasons we don't often deal with things the first time. I guess if you can make sure to stay on top of it better, it wouldn't be so bad

If you can't deal with the mail until 6pm, don't bring it in from the letterbox until 6pm. The key is to reduce the number of times you have to touch the thing. Ideally to one time. Any strategy of "putting stuff in a pile to deal with later" just results in piles of stuff unless you are very disciplined. And if you're disiplined, you deal with stuff as it comes not later.

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