You finally sit down.
And then you see it.
The laundry basket that needs to be folded. The mail on the counter. The thing you need to return. The random object you still haven’t figured out where to put.
You’re sitting down, but your brain isn’t exactly resting.
Don’t forget that.
I need to deal with that.
Where am I going to put that?
I think that’s one of the biggest reasons organization matters.
Clutter isn’t always just stuff. Sometimes it’s unfinished decisions, unfinished tasks, and things continually asking for our attention.
Eventually your home can start feeling like another to-do list.
Can Your Home Actually Affect How You Feel?
Our homes can affect how we feel, and there’s some interesting research behind that.
In one study, researchers had couples give tours of their homes and talk about their spaces. Among the women, those who described their homes with more words related to clutter and unfinished areas also had mood and cortisol patterns associated with greater stress throughout the day. Women who described their homes as more restful and restorative showed different patterns (Saxbe & Repetti, 2010).
The idea of an unfinished home really resonates with me.
Because sometimes you aren’t just looking at a pile of stuff.
You’re looking at something you need to return. A bill you need to pay. Something you need to fix. Something you need to put away. Something you haven’t decided what to do with yet.
The object itself isn’t necessarily the problem.
It’s everything the object is asking your brain to remember.
That’s the kind of mental clutter I want less of.
And I can feel the difference in my body too.
There’s a difference between walking into a room and immediately feeling like ten things need something from me, and walking into a room where I can just be there.
That’s part of what I mean by mental freedom.
I Want Less Clutter, Not Less Personality
I’m not interested in choosing between function and beauty.
I want both.
I like clear countertops. I like matching things. I like designated places for things. And I think we can usually find a way to store what we actually need so it makes sense and still looks good.
Sometimes that means hiding something.
Sometimes the most functional place really is out in the open, so maybe it goes into a beautiful basket, on a hook, or on a shelf where it looks intentional.
Functional doesn’t have to mean ugly.
But organized doesn’t have to mean everything matches either.
Someone else might love an eclectic collection of things gathered over time. Different colors. Different styles. Books. Plants. Art everywhere.
That can be beautiful too.
For me personally, I’ve been wanting less clutter while also wanting more color, pattern, texture, art, and personality.
Those aren’t opposites.
A pile of mail reminds me of six things I haven’t done.
A colorful rug doesn’t.
One is asking something from me. The other is something I intentionally chose because I enjoy looking at it.
Less visual clutter doesn’t have to mean less visual interest.
Maybe organization isn’t about giving our eyes less to see.
Maybe it’s about being more intentional about what gets our attention.
You’re Allowed to Change Your Mind About Your Home
What feels organized and beautiful to you can change too.
Maybe you loved minimalism five years ago and now you want color everywhere.
Maybe you once loved having everything displayed and now you desperately want a clear countertop.
Maybe you’re in a season with little kids where convenience matters more than anything else.
Maybe something you used to love suddenly feels like too much.
Our lives change.
Our families change.
Our tastes change.
Our homes can change with us.
I don’t want my house forcing me to stay loyal to a version of myself from ten years ago.
I want it to support the life I’m living now.
ADHD Changes How I Organize
I have ADHD, and that absolutely changes what works for me.
Research in adults with ADHD continues to find challenges with things like executive functioning and organization. A 2025 study found greater difficulty with organization in time among adults with ADHD, and those difficulties were connected with executive-function challenges and quality of life (Grinblat & Rosenblum, 2025).
That’s the research version.
Here’s the kitchen version:
I can put something somewhere “safe” and apparently make it safe from myself too.
I can start putting something away, notice something else that needs to be done, and suddenly I’m doing a completely different task.
And I can absolutely create an organization system that looks amazing but requires so many steps that eventually I stop using it.
I’ve learned that a good system shouldn’t require me to constantly remember the system.
If I use something every day, I want it somewhere convenient.
If I need to see something to remember it, maybe it stays visible. I can still find a way to make that look good.
And if putting something away takes five steps when it could take one, there’s a good chance I’m making my own life harder.
I’m not trying to force myself to become someone who’s amazing at maintaining complicated systems.
I’m trying to create better systems for the brain I actually have.
And Then There’s the Rest of the Family
Because I don’t live here alone.
I can create the most beautiful organizational system imaginable, but if nobody else knows where anything goes, eventually I’m the one maintaining all of it.
That’s not mental freedom either.
I follow Dawn Madsen, The Minimal Mom, and I’ve always liked her practical approach to reducing the amount of “inventory” we have to manage in our homes. She’s also a fellow Minnesotan, which probably makes me like her a little more. 😂
Dawn talks about our belongings as inventory we’re responsible for managing. The more inventory we have, the more there is to clean, organize, move, remember, repair, and eventually decide what to do with (The Minimal Mom, n.d.).
That idea makes a lot of sense to me.
It doesn’t mean stuff is bad. I like stuff. I like beautiful things.
It just makes me think harder about how much of it I actually want to manage.
I’m working toward something I think of as family minimalism.
Not an empty house or getting rid of everything we love. Just fewer things creating unnecessary work, clearer surfaces, beautiful organization, and systems simple enough for the people who actually live here to use them.
If everyone naturally drops their shoes by the same door, maybe I don’t need to spend six months yelling:
PUT YOUR SHOES AWAY.
Maybe that’s where the shoe storage needs to be.
And yes, I still want the shoe storage to look good.
Convenient and beautiful aren’t mutually exclusive.
That’s the kind of problem I want organization to solve.
Maybe Organization Is Really About Mental Freedom
That’s ultimately what I’m after.
I don’t need a house that looks staged.
I want fewer things quietly demanding something from my brain.
I want to know where things are.
I want putting them away to be easy.
I want systems my family understands.
I want clear countertops and color.
Order and personality.
Function and beauty.
And I want to walk into a room and notice the things I intentionally chose to put there instead of immediately seeing seventeen things I still need to deal with.
Maybe that’s the real power of organization.
It’s not controlling every object in your house. It’s creating a home that gives some of your mental space back to you.
So start with one place that’s creating mental clutter.
One countertop.
One drawer.
One drop zone.
One cabinet that makes you mad every single time you open it.
Instead of asking only:
How do I organize this?
Try asking:
How can I make this space work better for my life, feel beautiful to me, and bring more peace to my mind, body, and spirit?
References
Grinblat, N., & Rosenblum, S. (2025). The relationship between organization in time, executive functions, and quality of life in adult ADHD. Brain Sciences, 15(12), 1262. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci15121262
Saxbe, D. E., & Repetti, R. L. (2010). No place like home: Home tours correlate with daily patterns of mood and cortisol. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(1), 71–81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209352864
The Minimal Mom. (n.d.). Meet Dawn. https://www.theminimalmom.com/meet-dawn