Month: March 2025

Have you ever looked around your home or workplace and felt frustrated by the clutter around you? Stacks of paper on the counter, never-ending piles of laundry, and stuff covering every surface — it can feel so overwhelming!

You’re not alone. Clutter has become a major problem in our culture, and it’s even taking a toll on our emotional and mental health. You’ve felt it before, right? The impact clutter around you can have on your mind and wellbeing?

Let’s discuss clutter’s impact on our mental health — and how organization can help!

The Impact of Clutter

It’s not just your friendly neighborhood organizer who says clutter has an impact on your mental health — research shows it, too. Studies have found that when someone perceives their home as cluttered, their cortisol levels increase. What’s cortisol? The stress hormone. 

The key word, however, is ‘perceive’. Clutter weighs on people differently. To some, a stack of paper on the kitchen counter is organized. To others, it’s a taunting pile of agitation.

Understanding how you relate to clutter is the first step in identifying its impact on your mental health.

5-Step Solution to Clutter

Once you better understand your clutter’s impact on your well-being, it’s time to decide what to do about it. This varies for everyone, but there are a few universal steps you can take.

1. Find Your Biggest Stressor

As we’re talking about mental health, pinpoint the space in your home that stresses you the most. Find the low-hanging fruit that will impact your daily life, like the entryway you go in and out of each day or the dining room table that’s always covered.

2. Start Small

Though you might find your overflowing garage or basement is your most stressful space, those are huge projects to start with. Instead, choose a smaller space that will allow you to see results right away. A few examples would be a kitchen drawer, your bedroom nightstand, or a single shelf.

3. Set a Timer

You’d be amazed by how much better you can feel after 15 minutes of decluttering. If you find you have more stamina, feel free to keep going. But remember that something is better than nothing!

4. Sort Your Items

Starting in your small space, go through the items and decide what can be kept, tossed, donated, or recycled. Even in a small space, you’ll be amazed by how much can go, and you’ll quickly begin to feel a little lighter.

5. System Set-up

Systems sound like something big and complicated, but they can be simple, too! Hanging your keys on the same hook every single day is a system. Putting your shoes in the same spot when you get home is a system. Once you’ve sorted through the items in your small space, put them back in a way that works for your habits. Think about how you use the space and decide whether items belong there. If they do, contain them in a way that can help you find them when you need them next.

Support and Resources

As with anything that feels overwhelming, it can help tremendously to have someone at your side along the way. I would love to support you through your organizing journey, but I also understand that there’s a time and place for everything. I’m here when you’re ready to declutter and organize.

Some professional organizers specialize in chronic disorganization, which is frequently related to neurodivergence. If you struggle with ADHD, hoarding, or other challenges, you may find the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD) a helpful resource.

If you or a loved one needs additional mental health support or services, please visit the National Institute of Mental Health website for the resources listed.

Each of these steps could be a blog post on its own, so remember that we’re just skimming the surface now. But remember, when it comes to feeling overwhelmed, it’s best to start small because some progress is better than none.

You wouldn’t expect mental health challenges to disappear overnight or within one week of treatment, so remember that it takes time to declutter and organize your home. Take everything one step at a time, because honestly, it’s the only way to do anything.

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Ready for some hands-on support? Contact me to learn how to work together.

(Full disclosure: This blog post was part of a copywriting package I won during some professional development I did with Business Simplicity Summit . I made a few changes to suit my style, but I want to thank Molly Winters Writing for the generous prize.)

This is Part Two of Become More Organized Without Having to Get Rid of Anything. Read Part One here.

Habit #2: If something will take you less than 2 minutes, do it now. 

Ahhh…the small tasks that seem like such a burden! You know the ones I mean. Making the bed, putting away the laundry, emptying the dishwasher. Chances are you might spend more time rationalizing why you don’t need to do these small tasks than they actually take to complete! I know what you are thinking: yes, there are so many and they add up! Doing 10 two-minute tasks is a 20 minute commitment. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. In time, you will get used to “just doing it now” and it won’t seem like extra effort to become more organized. Don’t let those little things pile up to hours of tedious work. Not only will you have peace of mind, but you will have tidiness of home!

Some 2-minute (or less!) tasks that you can do NOW:

-Put clothes away when they are clean. 

The goal here is to be able to quickly and joyfully get dressed in the morning. You want your clothes tidy and ready to wear. Clean laundry that sits in a basket or on the couch gets crumpled and dusty. The same goes for clothing that is in limbo: you wore it but it doesn’t need washing. These items don’t need a special place (usually on the chair or floor!) in your room. Clothes can either be worn again or they need to be washed. So, put away clothes that can be worn again. Dirty clothes go in the hamper! If putting dirty clothes in the hamper takes more than 2 minutes, have a think about the location of the hamper and make adjustments. Dropping clothes in a basket shouldn’t take any longer than dropping them on the floor. Sometimes you have to get creative! I have clients who keep a hamper in the hallway because that is where the kids get undressed. It works. 

-Handle physical mail as it comes in.  

Flip through the mail and immediately toss/shred the junk. Open the rest of the mail and decide if it is something that you can do in 2 minutes. If so, do it now. If it truly can’t be done now, have a dedicated “to do” bin or file so you can keep track of those important documents and complete them at a later date. The key is to have a system so you can avoid duplicate bills, late fees, or having to dedicate an entire afternoon to sort through mail. 

-Unsubscribe from junk (e)mail. 

A quick Google search will provide you with some resources for unsubscribing from junk mail. Here are some links with more information:

• • • https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-stop-junk-mail
    • https://www.dmachoice.org/register.php

Generally at the top of junk emails it will say “This message is from a mailing list. Unsubscribe”. Clicking that “unsubscribe” prevents you from having to click any links in the email itself (it is not advised to click on links in junk emails) and you won’t have to enter your email address. It’s as quick and easy as clicking delete!

If there isn’t the “unsubscribe” option at the top of the email, you can also swipe to the left from the email list, click the “more” dots in grey, and choose “block sender” at the bottom of the list of options.

I highly recommend this article by the truly delightful (yes, I have met her in person!) Shira Gill for more detailed unsubscribing tips:

https://shiragill.substack.com/p/im-unsubscribing-from-almost-everything

-Take advantage of online banking.

Sign up for auto pay, go paperless, use mobile check depositing (my personal favorite), and the like to streamline your paperwork process. If I had a dollar for every uncashed check I have found sitting at the bottom of a stack of (mostly junk) mail… If you are worried about having enough funds in your account, you can set up email notifications so you will know how much your bill is before auto-paying. (Yes this will add to you email inbox but it is part of making your digital life work for you, not the other way around.)

-Put trash in the trash can. 

If you need to put a comically large number of trash cans around the house, just do it! Look around and see where it tends to accumulate in your house and put a trash can there. Maybe you need one on EACH end of the couch. Maybe you need one by the hamper in your kids room. Maybe you need one by the dining table. Clutter attracts clutter and trash too. As your house becomes tidier, you might be able to get rid of some of the cans. As a side note: I recommend cans without lids to remove another barrier of use. If you are sitting on the couch, you don’t want to get up to step on the lever to lift the lid.

-Have a basket at the bottom of the stairs.

This is a special caveat for you 2-storied home-owners. I know running up and down the stairs can be too much sometimes. Instead, place a basket at the bottom of the stairs. During the day, place any items that belong upstairs in the basket. When you are heading up anyway, take the basket with you and put the items away. 

HHF Perk: Make this a habit and become more organized without having to spend hours at a time dealing with the piles: mail piles, shoe piles, clothing piles, trash piles. If you simply take care of 2-minute tasks as they occur, you’ll notice things don’t really have a chance to pile up. 

In summary, being organized is a habit that takes practice. It is much easier to be organized if you have fewer things in your house and fewer things on your to-do list. An easy way to become more organized is to use up superfluous extras, stop the in-flow of redundant items, and complete quick tasks in real time. If you are struggling with implementing these ideas, you could probably benefit from hiring a professional organizer. A professional organizer will help you become more organized by clearing some space in your house and setting up systems to set you on the path to being a person with organized habits! 

If you haven’t already,  you can read Part One here.