Does Clutter Cause Stress? What the Research Actually Shows

Originally published 2018-06-18.

A living room after a busy week. Photo from My Life Suckers' messy house photo contest.

Yes, for many people a cluttered home or desk does add to everyday stress, although it affects some of us far more than others. The best evidence comes from two lines of research: a UCLA study that linked the way people described their homes to their daily stress-hormone rhythm, and brain-imaging work from Princeton showing that a visually busy scene makes the brain work harder to focus. Neither study proves that mess makes everyone anxious, but together they explain why a crowded kitchen counter can feel tiring even when you are not looking at it directly.

Below is what those studies found, the reasons psychologists give for the effect, where the picture is more complicated, and a calm way to clear space without turning it into another source of pressure.

What the research found

The UCLA home-tour study

Researchers Darby Saxbe and Rena Repetti, working with UCLA's Center on Everyday Lives of Families, asked 60 husbands and wives from dual-income households in Los Angeles to give a guided video tour of their own homes. Software then counted the kinds of words each person used. Talk of clutter, mess and unfinished projects was grouped into a "stressful home" score, while words about rest, comfort and nature formed a "restorative home" score.

Over the next three weekdays the couples gave saliva samples so the team could track cortisol, a hormone that normally peaks in the morning and falls steadily through the day. Wives who described their homes in stressful terms had a flatter cortisol curve, a pattern linked in other research to chronic stress and poorer health, and their low mood tended to rise as the day went on. Wives who spoke of their homes as restful showed the healthier, steeper decline. The findings held after the researchers accounted for marital satisfaction and general anxiety. The study, published in 2010 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, reported these links for wives; the pattern was not clear for husbands.

It is worth being precise about what this shows. The study measured how people talked about their homes, not how messy the rooms really were, and 60 people is a small sample. One plausible reading is that in these families the women carried more of the housework, so an unfinished home was also an unfinished to-do list.

Toys, laundry and half-finished jobs compete for attention in a shared space. Image: Shutterstock.

The Princeton attention study

In 2011 neuroscientists Stephanie McMains and Sabine Kastner at Princeton published a brain-imaging study in the Journal of Neuroscience. They showed volunteers screens with several objects at once and found that the objects compete for representation in the visual cortex, partly suppressing one another. The brain can resolve that competition either by grouping things into tidy patterns or by deliberately focusing attention, and attention has to work hardest when the scene is disorganised.

The experiment used simple shapes on a screen, not real homes, so it does not directly measure anxiety. Its everyday lesson is narrower and still useful: the more unrelated things there are in your field of view, the more effort it takes to concentrate on one of them.

Eight reasons clutter can wear you down

Psychologist Sherrie Bourg Carter summarised the effect in a widely shared 2012 Psychology Today post. Her eight reasons, in our own words:

1. Sensory overload. A crowded room keeps sending sights, smells and textures to a brain that does not need them, so it never quite switches off.
2. Divided attention. Every visible object is a small distraction from the task you actually sat down to do.
3. Hard to rest. It is difficult to relax on a sofa when part of your mind is cataloguing what needs putting away.
4. A never-finished feeling. Piles act as a constant signal that the work is not done, even on a day off.
5. Uncertainty. Not knowing how long it will take to get through a pile can create a low hum of anxiety.
6. Guilt and embarrassment. Many people feel uneasy about mess, especially when a visitor rings the doorbell unexpectedly.
7. Less room to think. Clear surfaces and open space seem to make it easier to plan, brainstorm and solve problems.
8. Lost things. Searching for keys, a bill or a charger is a reliable recipe for frustration and lateness.

These are practical observations from a clinician, not eight separate experimental findings, but they line up well with the attention research above.

Visual noise is the core of the problem: every object pulls a little on attention. Image: Shutterstock.

Why mess bothers some people more than others

Plenty of people work happily surrounded by stacks of paper. Personality, upbringing, culture and the kind of work you do all shape how much visual disorder you can tolerate. A sculptor's studio and an accountant's desk serve different purposes.

There is also some evidence that a little mess is not purely negative. Kathleen Vohs and colleagues at the University of Minnesota reportedly found in a 2013 study that volunteers in a messy room came up with more creative ideas in one task, while those in a tidy room were more likely to choose healthy snacks and donate to charity. Follow-up research has not settled the question, so it is best treated as an interesting possibility rather than a rule.

The useful question is not "Is my home messy?" but "Does the state of my home get in the way of the life I want?" If the answer is no, there is nothing to fix.

When clutter is a sign of something else

For a small number of people, accumulating possessions becomes distressing and hard to control. Hoarding disorder is a recognised mental health condition in which discarding items causes intense distress and living spaces become unusable. Sudden clutter can also follow depression, grief, illness or exhaustion. If either sounds familiar, talk to a doctor; shame and pressure from others rarely help.

A realistic way to declutter

Most decluttering plans fail because they try to do everything in one weekend. These steps, adapted from Carter's remedies and common professional organiser advice, are designed to be repeatable.

• Start with the spot that blocks your day. Pick one surface you need every morning, such as the kitchen counter or the area by the front door, and clear only that.
• Share the job. In a family home, give each person one zone they are responsible for, beginning with a room everyone uses. Living alone, finish one area completely before starting the next so progress is visible.
• Give things a closed home. Drawers, boxes and cupboards remove items from view; open shelves keep them in your visual field. Frequently used things should live closest to where they are used.
• Decide on three outcomes. Keep, donate or recycle. If you box things up for storage, write the date on the box and review it in a year.
• Put things back straight away. Returning an item takes seconds now and saves minutes of searching later.
• Handle paper on arrival. Sort post as it comes in, and keep a single folder for papers you are actively dealing with.
• Reset at the end of the day. Five minutes clearing a desk or counter before bed makes the next morning easier.
• Make it pleasant. Upbeat music and a timer turn a chore into a short, finite task.

A crowded desk makes it harder to focus on the one task in front of you. Image: Shutterstock.

Common myths about mess and stress

"Science proves messy homes raise cortisol in everyone." Not quite. The best-known study found the link in wives, measured by how they described their homes, in a small sample. It is suggestive rather than universal.

"A messy person is lazy or disorganised." Clutter often reflects time pressure, caring responsibilities, health or simply a different tolerance for disorder. Judging yourself or others harshly tends to add stress rather than remove it.

"You need a minimalist home to feel calm." Many people feel most relaxed surrounded by books, plants and objects they love. The goal is a space that works for you, not an empty one.

"Decluttering will cure anxiety." A tidier space can make daily life smoother, but it is not a treatment for an anxiety disorder or depression. If worry or low mood is persistent, talk to a doctor.

The takeaway

Clutter competes for your attention, and for many people that constant low-level competition is tiring. Research from UCLA and Princeton gives the idea real support, while also showing that the effect varies from person to person. If your surroundings feel like a weight, start small, clear the space you use most, and build simple habits that keep it that way. If they do not bother you, enjoy your creative chaos.

Sources: Saxbe & Repetti (2010), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin; McMains & Kastner (2011), Journal of Neuroscience; Sherrie Bourg Carter, Psychology Today: Why Mess Causes Stress; My Life Suckers (photo); Providr (original reference).