In Julie Morgenstern's book Organizing from the Inside Out, she coins the term “yo-yo organizing.” This concept is similar to the yo-yo diet habit, where you try one diet after another, often with some temporary success, only to fail in the end. Just as yo-yo dieters often gain more weight than they lose, yo-yo organizers often tackle the clutter in their homes with zeal, only to eventually end up with more chaos and clutter than they began with.

What goes wrong? Why do so many diets (and home-organization methods) fail? According to Morgenstern, the problem is that most of the books and methods focus on external solutions to problems that can only be solved internally. You cannot buy your way out of the chaos — organizational systems work only to the extent that the person who is using them has taken a customized approach to their unique situation, abilities, and personality.