Instagramitis would have us all believe that each and every item we own needs to be in a clearly labeled bin with a lid, stored only with items of the same color, shape, and size if we ever want to be truly organized. (Looking at you, @thehomeedit, you beautiful pipedream, you.) But being super “organized” isn’t all that useful if you can’t retrieve the object you need right when you need it with minimal fuss.

I’ve recently relearned this lesson while doing laundry. I needed to replace the lint trap on my washing machine hose right then and there to prevent water from squelching out of the washing machine hose and onto the floor.

I had previously stored those little wire mesh socks in my bin of household maintenance items, which also included lightbulbs, batteries, screwdrivers, the felt pads for the bottoms of chair legs, etc.

This assigned home made some logical sense. The challenge though was retrieval. When I notice the need for a new lint trap, it’s usually a few loads of laundry before the urgent, eminent flood level of lint. And at that low level of urgency, I don’t want to be bothered with crossing the basement, taking a bin off a shelf, taking off the lid, and locating the lint traps. So, I would procrastinate changing the lint trap and do another load…

And another.

Until I’d reached critical lint level and water could barely eek out of the lint-clogged washing machine hose.

In my dogmatic days, I might have become frustrated with myself for letting that slide. Nowadays, I’ve leaned into laziness. (I’m still pretty ruthless about procrasticlutter, but a clogged lint trap doesn’t have a huge impact on the feel and function of my home, so I can go easy on myself.)

Now, the jar of lint traps lives right on the ledge of the utility sink, mere inches from the washing machine hose. I don’t procrastinate changing the trap because it takes a minimal number of steps to do so: take off old trap, grab a new trap from the bag, secure new trap, proceed with life.

In general, storage should happen IN something, not ON something. My laundry area would look more organized if I installed a cabinet and stashed my lint traps IN there rather than ON the sink ledge. But I’m all about breaking my own rules when it comes to prioritizing retrieval.

So go ahead, stash your shoes on the floor by the door. Stash your refillable travel-size toiletry bottles in a pocket of your suitcase. Store things near the location they will be used, and with items that they’re likely to be used with, and above all, prioritize retrieval. Even if it’s not picture perfect.