A system and method of flexible holding storage during messaging includes determining one or more properties of a message, the message to be stored in a holding storage area of a messaging system, determining status of one or more candidate holding storage devices, determining one or more storage selection rules, adjusting the one or more storage selection rules based on information associated with the status of the one or more candidate holding storage devices, and selecting a holding storage device for the message from the candidate holding storage devices based on the adjusted storage selection rules and information associated with the properties of the message. The one or more storage selection rules express preferences among the one or more candidate holding storage devices. In some examples, the system and method further include sending the message to the selected holding storage device.