What Your Clutter Is Trying to Tell You: How to Read the Hidden Messages in Your Home

Discover what your clutter is really trying to tell you. Learn how to decode the hidden messages in your home, make intentional decluttering decisions, and create a space that supports your life today—not someday.

You may be thinking, "I already know what needs to be decluttered—I can see the piles." And yes, the clutter is visible. But what if your home is actually giving you clues about why things aren't working, not just what needs to be dealt with?

Here's the thing: decluttering isn't about randomly getting rid of stuff for the sake of getting rid of stuff. At its core, it's about making your home more pleasant and functional for you, as opposed to simply using it like a storage space. It's about problem-solving, not purging.

If you're heading into your second act and keep getting tangled up in what to keep, what to let go of, and where to start, it's time to become a detective in your own home.

Decluttering Is About Making Your Home Work for You

I've always loved books. From the time I started working, I loved that I could buy all the books I wanted. But in my small room, there wasn't space to display them. They ended up in boxes stacked in the corner.

When I wanted something to read, I had to shift these boxes and sift through the contents. It wasn't joyful. I'd forget what type of book I'd hoped to read. Sometimes I'd pull out a few, but if they didn't interest me in that moment, I'd feel grouchy about all the work I'd gone through—and I still didn't have something I wanted to read.

My mother would tell me that someday I could have a room just for all my books. It was a great vision for the future, but at one point, I realized that because the books were packed away, they didn't feel like mine. They weren't part of my life. They were just stored.

Eventually, I got bookshelves. When the books were on display, I could better see what no longer interested me. I decluttered some and gradually bought others that felt more in line with my current interests.

The lesson? What we keep and how we store it should support how we live today—not someday.

Reading the Messages Your Home Sends You

Instead of just picking up an item and wondering what you should do with it, pause and ask: Why is it in the spot I found it? There's a message there for you about your home.

Here are diagnostic questions to ask:

Why is it here? Did it land here because you were in a hurry and needed to set it down "for a moment"?

Does it have a home? Choosing where to store an item means that when you go looking for it, you know where to find it. And it's easy to put away, so you'll be able to find it the next time you need it.

Is there space to put it away where I'll go looking for it? If you go to put a mug or food storage container away and there's no space, you likely have too much stuff. Look at what's in this space and decide how many of these things you use regularly and how many you actually need.

Do I have excessive duplicates? The temptation is to take those extras and tuck them wherever you can find space. But that's a recipe for forgetting you have them, because you're going to look in the item's designated storage space—a cabinet, shelf, drawer, or closet.

Has it not been put away because it's a hassle to do so? If you just shove the item out of sight, you may not be able to find it when you need it.

These are small decisions that compound with every item you own. Clutter is a sign that something isn't working. You have too much to manage, no space to put things, and no inclination to deal with inefficiently stored items.

When we set something down "for a moment," it isn't a big deal—unless we do that too often. A tiny bit of overwhelm becomes exhausting and time-consuming.

Every item out of place is a clue, not a failure. It's information.

Too Much Tuna: A Lesson in Overbuying and Avoidance

My parents had a couple of freestanding cabinets in the kitchen to hold cans and boxes of food. My mother had health issues, so when my father came back from grocery shopping, stuff usually got shoved into any available space in the cabinets.

One day, I offered to help group similar items together, so they'd be easier to find and to rotate expiration dates. While doing this, I found over forty cans of tuna fish. Maybe my father ate a tuna fish sandwich once a week.

When I showed my mother that she had at least a year's worth of tuna, she freaked—not that there was so much tuna, but that I'd grouped it together and my father would then see how much they had. She thought he'd stop going to the grocery store, so she made me move the cans to multiple spots in the cabinet.

This taught me something important: If you want to ignore how many duplicate products you have, spread them in multiple locations. When you can't see it all together, you can lie to yourself about what you have.

This is one of the reasons so many decluttering methods involve pulling stuff out of closets and drawers—so you can't ignore seeing what you own.

Your home may be sending you the message that you over-shop consumable products. If you have so many cans of soup that you store them in multiple spots, you may lose track of what you own. This applies to office supplies, grooming and personal care products, cleaning supplies, and paper goods as well as food.

The solution: Group like items together. Consolidate. Be honest about what you actually use. And stop buying more until you use what you have.

The Cost of Inconvenience

The third message your home may be sending you: You're making it too difficult to put things away.

Maybe you store an item in one room but use it in another. Because you forget to take it with you when you leave the room, it doesn't get put away. Or maybe you have to shift items out of the way to retrieve something and then to put it away.

If that item is the big roasting pan you use twice a year, yes, you'll store it in a slightly inconvenient location. That makes sense. But if you use the item regularly, you need to move it someplace where you have easy access to it.

Storage inefficiencies discourage tidiness. If putting something away requires moving three other things first, you're going to leave it out. If the drawer is so overstuffed you can barely close it, you're going to set the item on the counter instead.

Small inconveniences compound into lasting clutter.

Where Change Begins

Paying attention to your home in this way is really about problem-solving. You're not starting with the idea that you need to get rid of stuff, but that you want to make your home functional and pleasant. You're identifying inefficiencies that regularly waste your time during everyday activities.

Decluttering is problem-solving. Clutter is a sign, not a personal flaw. Your home is giving you messages about what's not working... items that need a home, too much stuff in one place, overbuying, inconvenient storage.

Instead of asking what you should do with an item, ask why it's where you found it. That's where the change begins. That's where you start to see the patterns and gain clarity.

Choose one cluttered area in your home. It doesn't have to be big—maybe a junk drawer, a corner of your kitchen counter, or that pile on your dining table. Pick up each item and ask those diagnostic questions.

You don't have to get it all done today. You just have to start paying attention.

Your home has been trying to tell you something. It's time to listen.