If you want a drawer filled with junk, “junk drawer” is an apt name.

If you want a free room in which you can dump all your delayed decisions, create a “dumping room.”

If you want a closet cluttered beyond epic proportions, call yours “the horror closet” and you’ll be well on your way.

The names we use for things matters.

I don’t think this just because I’m a writer and an organizer (though that would probably be grounds enough). I know this because I have seen first hand how negative, undesirable methods of identification of spaces actually encourages their cluttered states. What incentive is there to correct what’s gone awry when the description matches perfectly with the reality?

Consider the difference between the terms “music event” and “Fyre festival.”

Between “clown college” and “university.”

Between “purposeful dumpster fire” and “my dressing room.”

If you stop and think about it, I’m certain you’ll agree that it’s difficult for a “junk drawer” to be anything other than a “drawer for junk.”

The key to living simply requires you to reexamine all aspects about how you’re living, and that includes the ways you’re referring to, and regarding, the spaces in your home.

So if you don’t want a drawer full of junk, start by elevating it in name. Dump it out, sort it out, and then dub it The Utility Drawer. Or: The Pen Drawer. Or: The message-taking drawer.

If you don’t want an undefined space full of clutter, start by proactively (and positively) defining the space. Christen it: The Room Where I Fold Clothes, or: The Reading Room, or: The Room With Nothing In It So Help You Or It’s Our Marriage.

Unfortunately, a name-change alone will not magically edit and organize an area (if only it were that easy). But it may serve as one more source of motivation for you to reclaim or maintain a space.

I can’t remember ever hearing someone say that they had all the motivation they could handle…