Clutter data
This post is not intended to trend or do wonders for my SEO or your attention span, but I want it here as a record. You see, I have undergrads in biology, psychology, and journalism, so I’ve been trained to cite my sources. Which is why, when I say things like “clutter increases levels of the stress hormone cortisol!” there’s always a part of me that feels like I need to prove what I say instead of having you take my word for it. My intention is to use digestible snippets of this post in my social media and elsewhere, and to simply link back here where I cite my sources for anyone who is interested. And if you’re into data, this post is for you too!
“Clutter is a) too much stuff in too small a space; b) anything you no longer use or love; or c) anything that leads to a feeling of disorganization.”
1 – The effects of clutter on cortisol for women
Let’s start with that study I just mentioned, the one from UCLA in 2010. We know that “people's experiences and perceptions of their everyday environments can inform their well-being.” This study was looking specifically at cortisol. A high level of cortisol has “been associated with greater chronic stress, disease progression, and even mortality risk” and “specifically linked with greater psychological distress including symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, poor coping skills, a perceived lack of social support, and compromised relationship functioning.” (Some people report lower satisfaction in their relationships because of misunderstandings, stress, avoidance, and feeling isolated.) Moreover, women living in cluttered homes reported an increase in depressed mood as the day wore on, but for those living in a restorative home, the opposite was true. It was also noted that men’s stress decreases after their workday, but women’s stress tends to stay the same or increase, because they view their obligations at home as stressful. The clutter is a visual reminder of those obligations.
“The results of this study suggest that women's descriptions of their homes may predict their everyday experiences of stress and negative mood. Wives who described their homes as being more stressful (that is, who talked more about clutter and unfinished projects) had marginally lower marital satisfaction. Wives who described their homes as more stressful also had […] an indicator of chronic stress that has been linked with adverse health outcomes. They also tended to show greater increases in depressed mood across the day, consistent with greater fatigue in the evening and a more difficult transition from work to home.” No wonder they say they’re overwhelmed!
“Our largely null results for husbands, contrasted with significant results for wives, suggest that women may be more sensitive to the home environment or may feel a greater sense of responsibility for the home (for example, feeling guilty about clutter); this finding would be consistent with other research suggesting that the home is traditionally perceived as women's domain and ultimate responsibility, even in couples where both partners are employed.” (Women actually do tend to be judged more harshly – see point 2 below.)
We can argue about why that is. Maybe when we view our home as cluttered, it causes us to perceive more stress than when we view it as restorative. Or maybe a restorative home really does help alleviate the effect of the day’s stressors. It could also be that there is an underlying variable that affects both our view of our home and our cortisol levels, such as frustration with gender roles, carrying the mental load, or a lack of self-efficacy (see point 8 below for more on that).
2 – Women are judged more harshly than men for clutter
There was a study in Sociological Methods & Research (actual study here, great breakdown here) that had participants rate how messy a room was, and judge the owner of the room. They saw the same photo, but some were told it was Jennifer’s room, and others were told it was John’s. Interestingly, “men and women respondents do not differ in their perceptions of how messy a room is or how urgent it is to clean it up. In contrast, the gender of the room occupant has strong and significant effects on housework perceptions, moral judgments, perceived social consequences, and allocations of responsibility. Notably, when a relatively clean room is evaluated, female room occupants are held to higher standards of cleanliness, are believed to suffer more negative social consequences when they do not meet those standards, and are generally deemed more responsible for housework across a variety of work–family arrangements than their male counterparts. […] Overall, findings underscore and refine the theory that gendered beliefs and accountability practices are a root cause of gendered behavior in the household.” So men and women perceived the same mess – it’s not that men don’t see the mess, it’s just that they are less to motivated to do anything about it. Also, women correctly perceive that they will be judge more harshly for being messy or having a cluttered home!
3 – Clutter takes up mental bandwidth
According to a Princeton study, “clutter restricts your brain’s ability to focus. It also limits your brain’s ability to process information. Clutter distracts you, saps your energy and keeps you from getting things done.” It also reduces working memory – that’s the one that temporarily holds needed for complex tasks like reasoning, comprehension, and problem-solving, or easier information like remembering a list of three things to do.
One theory as to why clutter takes up mental space is the Zeigarnik Effect: “the power of unfinished business or interrupted or uncompleted activity to hold a privileged place in memory. Unfinished tasks create a cognitive burden, weigh more heavily on the mind, and are more easily recalled than completed tasks.” Clutter being most often made up of items about which you haven’t made decisions yet (whether to keep it, where to store it, etc.), this makes sense. All those objects are competing for your attention!
Environmental/design psychologist Sally Augustin confirms, “The brain pulls from the sensory inputs it’s receiving at any given moment.” So yes, our space has a direct effect on how we feel,
how well we focus and rest, and our overall well-being. That same source also quotes therapist Annie Guest, saying “Well-organized living spaces reduce anxiety and promote calm” as well as creativity.
Reducing the number of decisions helps free up that mental space for things you actually want to do. In other words, reducing clutter gives your brain more energy – because it’s not just about stuff, it’s about the mental load as well.
4 – Clutter has a cumulative effect
We just talked about how clutter creates distractions – you see an object, and you think about where it came from, how it represents a task you have to do, it reminds you of something else, etc. When many objects are in your field of vision, they compete for your attention, which reduces your ability to get anything done.
This study went deeper. “What’s worse is that clutter has a cumulative effect on our brains - that is, the more you are exposed to clutter, the more distractible you become. Since your brain is naturally predisposed to favor order over chaos, constant visual disorganization tires the brain, impairs working memory, and makes it harder and harder to regain focus.” And remember how clutter increases cortisol? That creates stress and anxiety, and those impede learning as well.
Luckily, it turns out that decluttering really does help cure the problem, by boosting memory and focus. A study by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners showed that “the visual distraction of clutter increases cognitive overload and can reduce our working memory. In 2011, neuroscience researchers using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and other physiological measurements found clearing clutter from the home and work environment resulted in a better ability to focus and process information, as well as increased productivity.” There is also less mental fatigue with less clutter. So keep in mind that the benefits of a tidy work environment aren’t just subjective! It helps support your brain, your health, and your mood.
5 – Clutter negatively affects your health as well
Still quoting that study by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, “a chronically cluttered home environment can lead to a constant low-grade fight or flight response, taxing our resources designed for survival. This response can trigger physical and psychological changes that affect how we fight bugs and digest food, as well as leaving us at greater risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. (…) And surprisingly, it doesn’t go away when we finally get to bed. People who sleep in cluttered rooms are more likely to have sleep problems, including difficulty falling asleep and being disturbed during the night.”
We’ve also long known that there is a link between clutter and weight. “Multiple studies have found a link between clutter and poor eating choices. Disorganized and messy environments led participants in one study to eat more snacks, eating twice as many cookies than participants in an organized kitchen environment. Other research has shown that being in a messy room will make you twice as likely to eat a chocolate bar than an apple. Finally, people with extremely cluttered homes are 77% more likely to be overweight. Tidy homes have been found to be a predictor of physical health. Participants whose houses were cleaner were more active and had better physical health, according to another study.”
“Research does indeed show cluttered home environments negatively influence the perception of our homes, and ultimately our satisfaction of life.”
6 – Kids play more with fewer toys
A study in the Journal of Infant Behavior and Development showed that kids play twice as long, and in more creative ways, if they have fewer toys. “Playing in an environment with fewer toys and noise helps eliminate disruptions and may positively affect the neurodevelopment of attention skills, which are important to cognition as well as problem-solving, sequencing and communication skills. (…) Young children who play in environments with fewer toys tend to display sustained levels of attention, increased imagination, perception and cognition, and motor coordination.”
7 – Clutter makes your life go faster
Sounds crazy, right? It’s from a study in Nature Human Behaviour.
“We observe that scene size and memorability dilate time, whereas clutter contracts it.”
The researchers observed that when participants looked at a cluttered scene, they underestimated how much time had elapsed. This could mean that living in a cluttered home makes time seemingly go by faster, and feeling like your life is slipping away from you would also track with the perceived lack of autonomy exposed in point 8 below. Conversely, memorable scenes go by more slowly – we can live in the moment when we have quality time doing what we love, with the people we love.
8 – How many people are disorganized?
In the 2022 State of Organizing Report, a white paper published by MaxSold, a survey found that 43% of respondents feel disorganized, and for 69%, staying organized is a key challenge.
About 83% of respondents said that some areas of their home occasionally get disorganized, especially the kitchen and storage spaces, but most people do declutter them periodically. People who see themselves as organized were more likely to declutter promptly. Meanwhile, “disorganized people report worrying more that clutter means they are losing control, avoid decluttering for as long as possible, and only do what is necessary to get on with other tasks, when compared with organized people.”
From the 2022 MaxSold State of Organizing Report
From a behavioral psychology point of view, here are four fields of study related to professional organizing: a sense of home and psychological home; attachment to possessions; indecision and procrastination; and finally, well-being and positive psychology (how and why individuals flourish). Some people will be more affected by one aspect than others, but all of these show up in my sessions. It could be someone who feels at home because they are surrounded by objects they love; a mom who can’t let go of her older child’s baby clothes; a retiree who just doesn’t know where to start to tackle the clutter; or a young professional who values organizing because of how good it makes them feel to have a tidy home.
I presented place attachment as a positive thing, but it can become dysfunctional in a situation where someone has become too attached to a home that has become unsafe, or in a case of forced relocation. As for possession attachment, while it is perfectly normal to see items as extensions of ourselves, it can go too far. Clutter has negative impacts on people’s lives, creating tension between family members, social isolation, depression, and safety hazards. It also has a strong negative impact on feelings of security and comfort in our home. Let’s look at the next point to learn more.
9 - The dark side of home: Assessing possession “clutter” on subjective well-being
In this study, the authors showed that clutter can “undermine the comfortable everyday experience of ‘at home-ness’ people take for granted until clutter and disorganization erode their ability to find things, move safely throughout their home, and use spaces as intended.” So having too much stuff can get in the way of everyday activities, like cooking, cleaning, or even moving safely through the home. Clutter absolutely has a negative impact on our enjoyment of home and our subjective well-being. It can “create disconnectedness from important dimensions of at-homeness.”
The thing is that our possessions are a big component of our identity. “Possessions are used to distinguish self from environment, distinguish self from others, manage changes to identities, and as one ages, promote a sense of continuity across the life span. […] Attachments to material objects solidify not only the interconnection between self and objects, but also between self and home.” Our possessions help us create, express and remember who we are; they make our house a home. As we get older, then, our attachment to our possessions might deepen, which would make leaving home even more distressing. We know that “allowing older people to take cherished objects with them to new residential settings contributed to their sense of connection to cherished memories and relieved stress associated with having to part from familiar home spaces.”
But “these normal possession meanings, if taken to extreme, can become maladaptive, especially when clutter accumulates to a point in which it threatens to interfere with daily life functions within home environments.” Among participants to the study, a common theme was feeling “engulfed” and “overwhelmed” by the clutter around them; they felt “trapped.” The researchers found that “clutter is often an insidious and seemingly harmless outgrowth of people's natural desire to appropriate their personal spaces with possessions that reflect self-identity and remind them of important people, places, and experiences in their lives. However, when clutter becomes excessive, it can threaten to physically and psychologically entrap a person in dysfunctional home environments which contribute to personal distress and feelings of displacement and alienation. [The] findings revealed negative impacts of clutter on a person's life (e.g., tension between family members, social isolation, depression, and safety hazards) can detract from the normally positive benefits of psychological home and exert a direct negative impact on subjective well-being.”
Another interesting point to me is that there are “five positive dimensions of at-homeness that can become replaced by negative dimensions when home environments are compromised. These dimensions are: 1) rootedness, or the ability to conduct normal routines, replaced with disconnectedness, including bodily discomfort, loss of mobility and accessibility; 2) appropriation, or feelings of autonomy and control, replaced with imposition, loss of autonomy, or dependence on external assistance; 3) at-easeness replaced with uneaseness, when residents' life worlds are called into question by personal, social, or environmental elements; 4) regeneration, or the restorative powers of home, replaced with degeneration, or disruptions caused by personal, social, or environmental changes; and 5) warmth replaced with coldness, when the ‘spirit’ of home devolves into raw material space.” I think this is important because it lets us know which aspects of at-homeness are most important, and why, which makes it easier to create a home that is more welcoming to us.
10 – Procrastination and clutter
Another study showed that tendencies such as delaying and avoiding unpleasant tasks (like decluttering) can culminate in one’s lifetime, and clutter leads to reduced quality of life, satisfaction with life, and negative self-image. While everyday forms of procrastination lead to everyday forms of clutter, as one ages, chronic procrastination and clutter can lead to not-so-average kinds of distress and identity, impacting well-being. This means that older adults are particularly negatively affected by their clutter! Chronic procrastination is also correlated with personality variables like low self-confidence and self-esteem; increased depression, neurosis, self-consciousness, and anxiety; and forgetfulness as well as maladaptive disorganization. This is not to say that procrastination is causing this, but that it, and clutter, are correlated with these negative outcomes. Procrastination is essentially making yourself feel better in the moment (by delaying when you tackle the difficult thing), but it does not help you in the long term.
11 – Materialism and well-being
A new study published in 2020 examined this link. Studies have consistently shown a link between materialism and lower levels of personal well-being (including life satisfaction, family relationships, and leisure). That is because you cannot meet the psychological needs of autonomy, competence, relatedness, mental space, and awareness by buying more stuff! People who adopted a minimalistic lifestyle reported a feeling of freedom and liberation: “not only from their possessions, but from societal expectations; from the monotony of routine; and from the trap of the hedonic treadmill” (the endless cycle of buying something and expecting it to make you feel better). They also reported saving time, mostly from not having to clean or organize so much.
All this allowed minimalistic participants in that study to align their actions with their values and authentic selves: spending more quality time with their family and friends, spending money on experiences rather than possessions, being more ecofriendly, not being tied to a boring routine, etc. When they did buy something, it was a thought-out purchase that added joy or value to their life.
Minimalism provided a sense of control and ownership of their environment, as well as the ability to maintain control. “Almost all participants conveyed the belief that what is happening in one’s physical space (the external world) is reflected in one’s mental space (the internal world) and vice versa.” It also provided competence, for example by allowing people to easily find what they were looking for, or fixing broken items instead of buying new ones.
“Many participants identified the idea of saving ‘mental energy’ as a benefit of minimalism that promotes well-being. Participants reported this was due to having fewer choices to make and not preoccupying the mind with trivial matters. It’s almost like saving your brain energy by reducing the things that you have to actually think about.” The researchers noted that cluttered homes and classrooms could therefore be detrimental to attention, cognition, and learning.
Participants reported a heightened awareness, and enhanced reflection, mindfulness, and savoring as a result of minimalism. One said, “I would much rather buy something that’s really nice and well-made that I can appreciate and savor and just have one of those rather than have lots of things that are kind of a bit cheap that I don’t really engage with.”
“In addition to the absence of stress and anxiety, all participants reported that their minimalistic lifestyle was a catalyst for positive emotions, in particular joy and peacefulness. Positive emotions appeared to stem from the other benefits of minimalism: autonomy, competence, mental space, and awareness.” One said, “I’m just not the same person I used to be… I’m very peaceful and calm and very happy.” Another said, “A lot calmer. Definitely a lot calmer.”
It could be that clutter had a direct effect on participants’ well-being, or it could be that feeling more autonomous, aware, or competent as they cleared the clutter made them happier. Either way, the benefits of decluttering are undeniable!
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
Organizing with brain-based challenges
I completed a certificate from NAPO University that makes me a Brain-Based Conditions Specialist. What does that mean exactly? NAPO uses “brain-based conditions” as an umbrella term to refer to “anything that causes a person to have ongoing difficulty or challenging differences with cognition, emotion, socialization, or behavior.” So this means that I can better serve clients who have ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, dementia, a stroke, a TBI… Basically, anything that would interfere with executive functioning.
I wanted better training for a few reasons. Some people in my household are neurodivergent (perhaps a better term would be that we are neurodiverse); among other things, I am a Highly Sensitive Person, and one of my kids has a diagnosis of ADHD. I know that not every brain works the same! I want to understand better so that I can keep improving the services I provide. One thing you have to know is that…
Clutter isn’t laziness – it’s overload.
I listened to an episode of the podcast Even the Dog has ADHD, with my KonMari® colleague Caroline Thor as a guest. She said that “having neurodivergent minds means our environment isn’t just background noise – it’s our whole nervous system.” I can absolutely relate to that! There is a feedback loop between my outer environment and my inner world; they mirror each other. I need a calm environment to fully relax, and likewise, inner turmoil will create a messy environment.
Many people get an ADHD or autism diagnosis as adults, especially women. And then there’s the brain fog of perimenopause! If you are dealing with working memory limits, task paralysis, decision fatigue, problems with executive function, or neurodivergence in general, you know exactly what I mean.
I love working with clients who are neurodiverse, even if you don’t have an official diagnosis. I help you find solutions that work for you, to help you regain control of your home and make day-to-day living easier going forward. It could be as simple as body doubling and accountability, or more complex targeted solutions. You can book a complimentary consultation to find out more.
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
DOOM piles
Have you heard of DOOM boxes or DOOM piles? The acronym stands for “Didn’t Organize, Only Moved.” It does a good job at conveying the feeling that these piles of stuff have upon us! Doom piles are typically piles of clutter that are gathered up and stashed out of sight before company arrives, then often remain where they were hidden instead of being dealt with. (This reminds me of Andy Warhol’s time capsules, but without the deliberate curation.) By extension, doom piles also refer to piles of clutter that accumulate over time anywhere in a house, even if they don’t move.
A doom pile often forms so slowly that you don't notice it. It's little bits and bobs of clutter that aren't dealt with in a timely fashion, so they just sit there. Typically, it forms because making a decision about an item takes more mental energy than just dumping it on top of a pile. After a while, a sort of clutter blindness sets in: our brain stops seeing them, which makes us even less motivated to deal with them. But they still drain our energy, and the pile starts to feel insurmountable. If we stash the clutter out of sight when company comes over, we are even less likely to deal with it later on! I have helped many clients deal with such piles, boxes, bins, and bags of random items they had stashed away.
Conversely, some doom piles can form all at once. For example, I helped a client deal with an entire doom closet in which everything had been stashed when they redid the floors in their house - then they simply never got around to taking the things out of the closet again, because it was too overwhelming.
Doom piles represent unmade decisions and unfinished projects, and the more they build up, the more overwhelming they become. It's hard to focus when this pile, which is really a to-do pile, is in the way! It can also negatively affect our confidence because we may think less of ourselves for not being able to deal with it or for not having a tidy, company-ready house.
Studies show that living in a cluttered environment increases our levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and this is especially true for women (more on that here). Even if we don't consciously register clutter, or choose not to deal with it, our mind still perceives it as an irritant, and it will drain our energy.
Dealing with doom piles
It's important to deal with our things! We deserve a nice, peaceful environment to live in. It helps our home function better, it helps us feel better, and it can even save us money by ensuring we don't misplace important items in the doom pile and end up buying duplicates. Keep in mind, too, that cleaning is easier without the piles; otherwise, we can dust or vacuum around items, but we can never actually clean an area properly if it is cluttered.
The best way to tackle a doom pile is to be mentally prepared to deal with the items - set a timer for 15 minutes and see what you can accomplish in that time. You can put on some music if it helps you. Create clear categories as you go so that you know how to deal with items you find. Examples would include "trash/recycle", for things that will obviously be discarded; "relocate", for items you want to keep and that actually belong elsewhere (put them in a basket and then redistribute them when the timer goes off); "donate"; or "act on" (I'm thinking mainly of important papers you might come across, or maybe a broken item you want to repair). However, one category of items may be the most important: "decide". This is for things that came into your life and that you haven't made the conscious decision to keep, yet you haven't discarded them either. This is what I mean by unmade decisions: you need to decide if you actually want to own and care for that item, and if so, where it will live! This is the toughest part because it requires actual decision-making.
If even making these categories as you go is overwhelming, consider the Doom Diamond method, in which you only make four categories (representing the four points of a diamond figure): trash / action / items with a home / items without a home. Throw away the trash, take the action, return items to their home, then… make those decisions about items without a home.
Preventing doom piles when possible
A good way to avoid doom piles is the one-minute rule: if it takes less than one minute to do something, just do it now instead of putting it off. Corollary: when handling an item, don't put it down - put it away. I also recommend doing a reset every evening as well as setting aside some time weekly to deal with items that have come in and started to pile up. Make sure you deal with your mail, permission slips from school, etc., at least weekly.
Notice where things tend to pile up and see if you can set up systems to help you with those specific areas. For example, maybe you could use a tray on which to drop your keys and the mail near the front door, or a shoe rack in the garage. I'm a big fan of having a landing zone near your front door, which is also useful for things that need to go back out of the house (packages to return, library books, etc.). And make the conscious decision to reduce influx at the source: unsubscribe from unwanted mail, refuse freebies that you are not excited about... And always think about where any new item will go before acquiring it.
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
Simplify
You know how there are some concepts that seem obvious if you’re very familiar with them, but to someone else, those concepts are not at all clear? I’ve had that experience recently when saying “less is more” and I was reminded that some things need explaining. I am going to use some client examples in this post, and I want to make it *abundantly clear* that I would never shame anyone; I am using these examples precisely because *they are so relatable*.
Some people have a lot of clothes. So many clothes that the baskets never empty, the clothes never all get put away, and there are always piles of stuff in the laundry room. Most often, these people feel overwhelmed by their laundry. And all too often, their reasoning is that since they have so much trouble finding clean clothes and putting together an outfit each day, the solution must be that they need *more* clothes. They are very taken aback when I tell them that the solution is actually that they need to *get rid of* a lot of clothes!
The shortest, least complicated way to get dressed is to have fewer options in our closet.
Shannon Leyko
Let’s take the example of socks. I worked with a not-atypical client who had three drawers full of socks in her closet, plus a few bins of orphaned socks elsewhere in the house. The drawers had the intention of order (lights, darks, and hosiery), but everything was pell-mell inside them, and there were many orphaned socks and strays in the wrong places, along with some mismatched socks paired together out of desperation. They had taken over too much space and were a thorn in my client’s side each day because it was so hard for her to find what she wanted!
Now, how many socks does one person need? It depends. I mean, I would say that since there are different seasons, it is absolutely appropriate to have wool socks that you only wear in the winter and cotton socks for the summer. Life also presents different types of occasions, so sure, you might need knee-high stockings, black dress socks, white crew socks, ankle sports socks, and a pair of ugly Christmas socks thrown in for good measure. I’m all for variety!
Here’s what happened with this client: Even when I pointed out socks with holes or stains, my client did not want to get rid of them or thought she would need to replace them, because she was in a scarcity mindset. The remedy was easy, if a bit tedious: sort through all the socks, pair them up properly, then organize them by type/length/color. From that point on, not only were they easy to find, but she could see what she had at a glance! At the beginning of the session, she was afraid that she couldn’t get rid of any knee-high stockings, and that was because she genuinely couldn’t always find a pair when she needed one. But once we were done, she had enough to wear a different pair every day for almost three weeks if she had wanted to, and that is when she was able to let go of the excess.
Order allowed her to simplify, and simplifying made her life easier.
Let’s use another example inspired by a different client. Imagine doing a load of laundry and ending up with (among other things) 43 socks; after putting some order in things, you determine that you have 11 orphans and 16 pairs, each of them different. Now imagine instead doing a load of laundry and ending up with 14 socks, comprised of 7 pairs, 5 of which are identical. Isn’t sorting (and putting away) the second load so much easier? The way you get there is by having fewer socks, doing a load every week, and buying bundles of identical pairs whenever possible. David Tennant gets it!
And when this client realized that even if we did match all the orphaned socks that had accumulated, the drawer wasn’t spacious enough for them, her reaction was to say that she would need to purchase more storage. And I said that actually, her storage was fine, it was just that she had too many socks! It just felt like it wasn’t enough because they didn’t get put away properly once they were clean, and again, that’s easier to do with fewer socks.
Because here’s the thing: The fewer items you have to manage, the less energy it will take from you – and therefore the more energy you have for important things. You can pare down to the essentials, switch to only one sock color, limit the number of special-occasion socks, and simplify both your closet and your life.
By the way, it’s easier to keep up than it is to catch up. That’s why clients hire me to help them catch up – then they are set up for success!
Here are some tips for success: It’s not about how many socks you can fit in your space or how many you could afford to buy; it’s about how many will make your life more manageable. To translate this more broadly, build a system that meets you where you are today. Which routines feel easy? Which routines (or spaces) do not serve you? What drains you and what would you need to feel better about it?
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
Do we really have 300,000 items in our homes?
You’ve probably heard that number being floated around: the average household contains 300,000 items. But does it really? It turns out I have a bit of inside information, as well as some thoughts, so here we go!
That number actually comes from a NAPO colleague of mine, Regina Lark, who was quoted in the LA Times in 2014 saying that the average house contains 300,000 items. I attended one of her webinars last month, where she explained that when asked, she said that she got the number from the UCLA’s 2012 book Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century – which I happened to be reading at the time! And then, try as she might, she was never able to find that reference, although she is convinced that she did read that number somewhere and did not make it up. I also could have sworn that it was in that book, but when I looked for it, I couldn’t find that figure either. However, her quote has since taken on a life of its own and is, to this day, being repeated everywhere as truth, probably because the LA Times is an important publication.
So, the book was published after UCLA conducted a great anthropological study with 32 American families in 2012, and they talk a lot about their methodology. They did count objects, but it was more of an estimate: they made educated guesses about certain groups of items, and they only ever counted items in plain sight – meaning that anything that would have been in a drawer, in a cabinet, or behind something visible was not counted. Here are some figures from that study, along with a quote that will not surprise you: “Middle-class America has the most possessions per family in history.” Households surveyed had an average of 438 books and magazines, 139 toys, and 39 pairs of shoes per family (again, these are only visible items). In home offices, the lowest number of plainly visible non-paper objects was 21, and the most was 2,337. In the garage, it ranged from 50 to 650. Having more items on one’s refrigerator (magnets, papers, etc.) was correlated with having more objects in the home. But there is no total anywhere in sight!
Now, here’s where my opinion comes into play. Let’s be generous by rounding up and saying that a person lives for 30,000 days. From those days, we wouldn’t really count childhood, so there’s maybe 25,000 days left? Let’s say the average household has two adults, and they are acquiring objects not just for themselves, but also for their 2.5 kids. Okay. So with my rough mathematical model here, those adults would have to acquire (while never discarding!) about 12 items each day in order to have 300,000 by the end of their life, right? So it would have to be an even faster rate of acquisition in order to have that many items while their kids are still living with them, as in the UCLA study. I’m not counting perishable items like groceries or cleaning products in this tally, and I wouldn’t be counting every last piece of paper either, since the UCLA anthropologists didn’t.
Speaking for my household, we are not acquiring items at nearly that rate. Sure, there are isolated times when I will buy a lot at once. For example, in one shopping spree, I could buy several outfits for my kids to go back to school as they grow, along with school supplies. But on an average day, I am not buying anything. And regardless of how much I buy, I do get rid of some items along the way (like the kids’ clothes that have been outgrown, plus the school supplies that get used up).
All this to say that while I do not have any idea how many items are in my household, and while I’m sure the number would seem very large if I were to learn it, I don’t think it’s anywhere close to 300,000!
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui
Feng shui is an Ancient Chinese practice of arranging environments to balance qi (life force) as well as promote health, harmony, and prosperity. Now, I’ve always been on the fence about feng shui – some aspects of it seems like woo to me, yet other aspects just seem like common sense. For example, I don’t believe in good or evil spirits that would, respectively, enter or flee a home if they see a mirror near the front door. That being said, I do think it’s very useful to have a mirror by the front door, were it only so that you can take a quick look at yourself before you set out for the day (and fix your appearance as needed!). Mirrors are also useful to reflect light, and they can be aesthetically pleasing focal points.
All this to say, I read a very interesting book recommended by a colleague of mine: Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, by Karen Kingston (that is an affiliate link). This book seemed particularly interesting to me because it explores the relationship between clutter and feng shui / life force. Clutter certainly does stop the flow of energy in a room – and maybe you would phrase it differently, by saying that it’s your eyes that can’t travel around the room freely, or that you feel stuck or weighed down in that room, or it makes you feel anxious and you can’t breathe properly, but I think that it adds up to the same.
Here is an excerpt: “You are energetically connected to everything you own. When your home is filled with things that you love or use well, it becomes an incredible source of support and nourishment for you. Clutter, on the other hand, drags your energy down and the longer you keep it, the more it will affect you.” The author also talks about the fact that clutter takes up a lot of mental energy, even as your subconscious mind tries to suppress it, and so you feel more energetic with less clutter – that is definitely something I have seen with clients, and I talk about it often on social media!
Karen Kingston goes on to define four categories of clutter: things you do not use or love, things that are untidy or disorganized, too many things in too small a space, and anything unfinished. It’s an interesting way to categorize it! The first category clearly overlaps with core tenets of the KonMari Method™. I certainly agree that things that are messy come across as clutter (even if they can be put away easily), and I’m a big believer in the container concept – meaning that the size of your space tends to dictate how many things you can comfortably keep. As for unfinished projects, they are one category that I always name as a source of clutter! I think I would add categories such as things that bring back bad memories, things that are tied to decisions you have been putting off, etc.
(On a side note, I strongly believe in the importance of choosing objects that you love. For example, you might have a kettle that you use frequently, but you don’t really like it – maybe it’s ugly, or water doesn’t pour out of it properly, whatever the reason. I encourage you to invest a bit more and buy a kettle that you love! Loving your everyday objects truly elevates your experience and makes you happier overall.)
This image was created by Klub Boks for Pexels.
In this book, the author also talked about bagua, or the concept of specific areas of a room or home being associated with aspects of your life such as health, prosperity, or relationships. The more cluttered a specific physical area is, the worse you will be doing in that figurative area in your life. According to this theory, the rear left corner of a room would be associated with knowledge. My instinct is to say that’s woo. And yet, I now realize that in my home office, that is precisely where I keep my bookcase of reference materials and dictionaries! I feel like this is something I’d like to experiment with, maybe by making the “travel” area of my home super inviting!
Have any of you thought about the relationship between feng shui and clutter?
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
What to expect when working with a professional organizer
Are you overwhelmed by clutter in your home or workspace? Do you find it challenging to keep things organized and in order? If so, hiring a professional organizer may be the perfect solution for you – getting organized is an investment in your home and in yourself. In this blog post, I’ll walk you through what to expect when working with a professional organizer, helping you to understand the process and how it can transform your space.
1. Choosing your organizer
Just like you wouldn’t hire an electrician or financial planner without checking their references, you’ll want to make sure you hire an insured, trained professional when it comes to organizing your home. Members of NAPO abide by a code of ethics and have received education in the field; they offer professional, confidential, and non-judgmental services tailored to your needs. Likewise, KonMari® Consultants have completed supervised training and have been certified by Marie Kondo. Amélie is one of only a handful of people in the world to be a member of both organizations! If you suffer from specific challenges, you might want to turn to the ICD. You can also look up an organizer’s reviews.
What to consider:
- What type of qualifications are important to you?
- Is there a personality type that meshes best with yours?
- What style of organizing are you most drawn to?
- Can you form an idea of who this organizer is based on their website or social media presence?
2. Initial consultation
Before any organizing begins, a professional organizer will typically schedule an initial consultation. This meeting (which can be on the phone, online, or in person) allows you to discuss your challenges, goals, and expectations. During this time, the organizer will assess the scope of your project and discuss potential strategies, timelines, and pricing.
What to prepare:
- Have a list of your organizing challenges.
- Identify any specific areas you want to focus on.
- Be ready to discuss your goals and vision for the space.
Photo by Sarah Brown for Unsplash.
3. Decluttering process
The first essential step in organizing is decluttering. Your professional organizer will guide you through deciding what to keep, donate, or discard. This can be an emotional process, so having an expert by your side can provide motivation, guidance, and support – though the final decision is always yours. Plus, an organizer like me can remove donations from your home and drop them off where they will be used, greatly simplifying your to-do list!
Key tips:
- Do NOT tidy up before your organizer gets there!
- Prepare some boxes or sturdy bags for carrying donations.
- Be honest about why you’re keeping certain items; understand that it’s okay to let go of things that no longer serve you.
- Embrace the feeling of liberation that comes with decluttering.
4. Hands-on organization
Once decluttering is complete, the fun part begins: organizing! Your professional organizer will work with you to create functional and aesthetically pleasing systems for storing your belongings. This might include everything from labeling bins to rearranging furniture and buying organizing supplies.
What to expect:
- Selecting organizing supplies based on your needs and budget.
- Using space-efficient storage solutions, including racks, bins, and specialty organizers.
- Customized systems that are easy for you to maintain.
5. Education and empowerment
A good professional organizer will not only help you organize your space but will also empower you with skills and strategies to maintain the organization over time. They’ll teach you how to create effective organizing systems that work for your specific habits and lifestyle.
Learning components:
- Practical tips for daily maintenance.
- Strategies for preventing clutter accumulation in the future.
- Recommendations for ongoing organization systems.
Photo by Luisa Brimble for Unsplash.
6. Follow-up support
Many organizers offer follow-up support and check-ins to ensure you’re still on track. This could include additional sessions to tackle new areas or to refine existing systems. Having ongoing support helps maintain motivation and accountability.
What you might experience:
- Scheduled follow-up sessions to reassess and adjust your organizing system or reset things.
- Resources for ongoing support, such as articles, workshops, or online communities.
- Encouragement to keep the momentum going after the initial project.
7. Realistic expectations
Remember that organizing is a process, not a one-time fix. It may take time to see the full results, depending on the extent of the work and your ability (as well as that of other household members!) to adjust to new systems. Professional organizers understand this and will work at a pace that feels comfortable for you.
Important points to consider:
- Be patient with yourself and the process.
- Celebrate small achievements along the way.
- Understand that developing new habits takes time.
Conclusion
Working with a professional organizer can be a rewarding experience that transforms your space and your mindset towards organization. By understanding what to expect, you can embark on this journey with confidence. From initial consultations to ongoing support, a professional organizer is dedicated to helping you create a functional, serene, and clutter-free environment.
Ready to take the first step? Reach out today and begin the process of reclaiming your space!
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
Gifting without the clutter
We all want to give gifts without creating clutter for the recipient. And when we come across something we just know they will love, it’s like everything falls into place! But what if we simply don’t know what to give them? I’m thinking of someone whose gifts from his father have consistently missed the mark for the last 20+ years, and I’m sure we would all like to avoid similar situations!
This photo was taken by Jess Bailey for Unsplash.
It turns out that gifts must actually fill two purposes: please the recipient, but also please the giver. The recipient might prefer meaningful or practical gifts, while the giver will often focus on the “wow factor” when the recipient unwraps the gift, instead of on the pleasure the recipient will have when they use the gift in the weeks, months, or years to come. The giver will also want to find a gift that aligns with their own tastes and values – someone who reads only fiction will not instinctively be drawn to gifting self-help books or biographies, despite the recipient’s own preferences.
One thing that my family has always done, and that is apparently controversial for some, is to create wish lists. Some people are completely opposed to the idea because to them, surprising the recipient is part of the fun. However, research actually shows that recipients are happier when they get what they wanted in the first place! And isn’t that what giving should really be about, making the recipient happy? We always take the time to write our own wish list and to ask our loved ones what they would like. (An online wish list has the added advantage of avoiding duplicate gifts, which are disappointing for all parties involved.)
As adults, my husband and I have reached the point where there aren’t always many material possessions that we want. Our wish list will therefore include items like an experience: a restaurant meal, concert tickets, a spa treatment, a magazine subscription, a class or workshop, or even a weekend getaway are all possible options. Experiences often make people happier than material goods, anyway. Creating a wish list is itself a joyful experience, because we go through the anticipation and visualization process of getting those things we really want.
With our children, I like to encourage decluttering before the holidays, which not only helps create more room for incoming presents, but can also help our kids verbalize what they would want. They might get rid of a toy because it is broken but ask for a replacement, or they might decide that they want more building blocks of a specific brand because they enjoy them so much, or they might realize that a certain type of toy has been outgrown and is no longer interesting to them. (We donate all items that are still in good condition, which is why I prefer doing this before the holidays so that other kids can enjoy them then, but of course decluttering after the holidays is still a great idea!)
This photo was taken by Valentin Petkov for Unsplash.
When it comes to giving items to people we don’t know very well, or at least not well enough to ask them for a wish list, I like to choose things that are overall crowd-pleasers and that don’t create clutter. Some favorites include gourmet food or gift cards (to a restaurant, a favorite store, or something fun like the movie theater). These are usually superficial enough that they can be enjoyed by most people (or regifted, at worst), and they do not create clutter. That being said, research shows that something with even broader appeal could be better (say, a gift card to Amazon or Target or a Visa gift card, so that the recipient can get what they really want).
Finally, I will leave you with some words from Marie Kondo: “The purpose of a gift is to be received.” If you receive a gift that underwhelms you, make sure to thank the giver for their kindness, because it was indeed nice that they thought of you. You can try using the gift to see if it grows on you, but if it doesn’t, do not feel obligated to keep it! The giver would not want to burden you with it. Feel free to pass it on to someone else who could use it.
By the way, you can see my previous blog post with ideas for Advent calendar options that won’t create clutter!
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
MYTH - “Your house must be perfect”
When people find out that I am a professional organizer, I typically get one of two responses. It’s either “I really need you in my life” (yes, please – click here for your complimentary consultation!) or “Oh, I bet your house is perfect!” And, about that latter statement… no, it’s not. But as I keep saying, there is a difference between having a tidy house (as in, picture-perfect at all times) and having a house that is *easy to tidy*. I aim for the latter because that’s what I feel is realistic.
Here's what I mean by that. Once you declutter and organize, all your things will have a home. Of course, your house still will get messy at times because, well, you live there, and you use your stuff! But if those items have a designated home, then when you want to put things away, you can do so quickly, so your house can look neat again without too much effort. But if your house is cluttered, those items don’t have anywhere to go, and that’s really the issue that I try to address with my clients.
Resets are important
Everyone needs to “reset” their home, myself included. It might be a nightly reset, like making sure the dishes have been washed and the kitchen counters are wiped clean each night. It could be weekly, like picking up toys and vacuuming, or doing the laundry that has piled up. It could be quarterly, like assessing your wardrobe when the weather changes every season or setting up the garage based on your needs for the next few months.
Sometimes, we need to do more than a reset – it might need to be a complete overhaul, because our life changes. Looking at my pantry, for example, I remember a time when it was used only to feed two adults; then we had to store jars of baby food and boxes of Mum-Mum crackers and rice puffs; now, it has school-safe snacks and other sundries that the kids access themselves. It works because we zone everything, and rezone as needed.
This is not my guest bedroom, but I like this photo because it does show proper zoning, with a defined zone for sleeping and one for sitting and working on the laptop. Photo by Pixabay for Pexels.
Zoning a room
Let’s bring this together with a real-life example from my own home: the spare room. When my husband and I first moved into the house, this room was strictly a guest bedroom, with a double bed and two nightstands. Eventually, we had kids, and the room that I had been using as a craft room (sewing supplies, wrapping paper, etc.) had to become a child’s bedroom, so we relocated the craft supplies to the guest bedroom. This meant trading the bed for a Murphy bed, which takes up very little room when not in use, and setting up the sewing machine on a sturdy folding table, which can be put away in the garage when we have guests. Eventually, during the pandemic, it doubled (tripled?) as a home classroom, with the sewing machine set aside on the floor and a laptop on the table instead. Fast-forward to today, and it’s also the music room, currently holding a marimba as well as a drum set, plus an electric guitar. Oh, and did I mention it’s where I do my ironing?
As you can imagine, this room has A LOT of stuff in it! But it works for us because we use all those things, albeit at different times. And yes, we do have to move them out of the way temporarily when we have guests, so our “guest bedroom” is certainly not Pinterest-worthy! But it is organized because we’ve set up the items there in zones and we kept only what we used. And, let’s be honest, because we have a contingency plan for where to temporarily store those items when the room is used as a guest bedroom! It is perfectly functional for our lives at the moment, though it’s not “perfect” at all.
Hi there! I’m Amélie, a professional home organizer in San Antonio, Texas. I help people like you declutter their home, organize their belongings, and simplify their life. I love cleaning out a closet and removing a carload of donations from a home! My goal is to help you create a functional space that will make your life easier and more peaceful.
Interested? Check out my personalized services or book your complimentary consultation!
Minimalism
As I start my journey into professional organizing, I’ve noticed that there’s a chasm between what the word “minimalism” means and what the general public envisions. I bet some of you are already picturing a monk’s room, devoid of all material possessions. While that may look peaceful to some, it can lack warmth and comfort, not to mention that it is not at all practical for most people! However, I’m here to say that what you’re thinking of is actually asceticism, not minimalism. The Oxford Dictionary defines “asceticism” as “severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence.” That’s not what I preach.
I like the way Joshua Becker, of Becoming Minimalist, defines it: “Minimalism is the intentional pursuit of the things we value the most and the removal of anything that distracts us.” This essentially means that it’s about removing clutter from your life, whether we’re talking about clutter that is physical (my specialty) or not (overloaded schedule, for example). He says that “minimalism isn’t about removing things you love. It’s about removing the things that distract you from the things you love. It’s about living more by owning less.”
You see, removing distractions allows you to focus on what is most important to you. You own your stuff, not the other way around! When you aren’t distracted by clutter taking up your mental bandwidth (what we might call “visual pollution”) or by objects taking up your time (maintaining them, cleaning them, putting them away), you are then able to focus on what you actually want to do.
I’m aware that some people are vehemently opposed to minimalism, because they see it as “just another boring product wealthy people can buy”. However, to me, that’s missing the point. It’s really just criticism of a certain aesthetic that, granted, we see often, but is not minimalism per se. Minimalism will look different for every household, but to me, it always seeks to improve one’s life by simplifying it.
Of course, that’s easier to say when minimalism is a choice, but it’s not pleasant when it is forced upon us. Did you know that over 60% of Americans can’t deal with a $500 emergency? And that was BEFORE 2020 hit!
In Quebec, where I’m from, I often heard the concept of “voluntary simplicity,” which doesn’t seem as widespread in Anglophone culture. It’s essentially about mindfully choosing how we spend our money and being satisfied with less. In an article titled “The Voluntary Simplicity Movement: A multi-national survey analysis in theoretical context” (published in the Journal of Consumer Culture), Samuel Alexander and Simon Ussher say that “the Voluntary Simplicity Movement can be understood broadly as a diverse social movement made up of people who are resisting high consumption lifestyles and who are seeking, in various ways, a lower consumption but higher quality of life alternative.”
In my line of work, I’ve seen that the initial effort (decluttering, organizing, and changing habits) is time-consuming, but the rewards are reaped later and are well worth it. Don’t let people scare you with tiny living and drastically down-sizing, because that’s not at all necessary! Simple living is the way to go.
If you want to read more on the subject, in addition to Becoming Minimalist, I also recommend Be More with Less. That blog is run by Courtney Carver, who created the fashion challenge Project 333, which I believe was the original capsule wardrobe. If videos are more your thing, there’s the lovely Minimal Mom on YouTube. And let’s not forget Minimalist Baker, whose food blog has recipes call for 10 ingredients or fewer, 1 bowl only, or 30 minutes or less to prepare.
As always, I’m available to answer your questions on the topic!