Why is there stuff on the floors, clothes piled up and home feels like a jungle?

Even after several years of working on this stuff, it always surprises me how quickly a piece of stuff can be created. I wondered how it happened again - why are there levels of stuff, clothes piling up and the house is an esterata?

From the professional's point of view, the cause is one or more leaks in the home system. I have a number of routines and rules in place in my own home to keep our small home loose and to curb impulse buying. Still. Still, junk creeps up on us and piles up if we flex our systems.

In this article I will go through the reasons for the flat tipping and the big picture conclusions, but if you are looking for concrete tips on how to smoke the tipping, then read Three concrete tips for preventing piles of goods.

Why is there always stuff on the levels and you can't find the dining table under the stuff?

Congestion in the home system can be caused by a sudden problem, such as illness. In this case, it's easy to remedy the situation when you say hello. If the dining table is constantly cluttered, maybe even already piled up, or if a pile is accumulating on all the surfaces in a very basic way, it may be due to the following reasons:

• There is no home for the pile,
• You have too much stuff for the time or place, or
• The storage space for the goods does not work.

In this article, I will discuss these most common causes of home congestion. Remember, it's not your fault, but you can change this situation.

Even if you've decluttered your home or are a minimalist, you'll always struggle with grime if you don't have these basic pillars in place or don't stick to them. It's not worth worrying too much about this - I think the most important thing is to be aware of it, and you'll get the hang of it.

Homeless goods pile up on levels

Our brains are on autopilot most of the day, and that's good, because there is a huge amount of information available. As a result, our smart brains try to cut corners, and cope with less essential tasks on autopilot. As a result, you'll find milk in the fridge, a toothbrush in your mug or the right parking space for your car, but be activated to pinch the controls when you need to find a job interview certificate or a winter coat after the summer.

Once we've named a home for an item, we're likely to find it in its place after each use. Toothbrushes, for example, are just such things. But one of the secrets to taming the chaos in your home is to make sure that every item has its own named home. We also need to decide to create a routine of putting things back after use, so that our brains learn the locations and can go on autopilot.

Returning items home is more difficult when there are more residents, as everyone needs to be aware of these designated places and practice the return routine. However, it is not impossible.

However, this is one of the most common reasons why goods pile up on levels. If goods do not have a home or are not routinely returned, it is easy for them to get piled up.

Suddenly more stuff comes into your home than goes out

Reducing the amount of goods entering the home is the basis for reducing household chores. The goods situation becomes problematic if more goods are constantly coming in than going out.

The average number of items in Finnish homes is estimated to be up to 50 000. When you add more units to that number, every item that arrives starts to have a pretty big impact.

Things live in cupboards, often full of them. If several items suddenly appear in your home and you don't find a home for them immediately, you've got a mess. This often happens around the change of season, birthdays and Christmas, for example.

You can try to reduce congestion by pruning in advance. However, homes should be redecorated immediately with new arrivals and a return routine should be practised so that items are returned to the right place after use.

Pre-pruning can be problematic with children if pruning has already been done to the point where the child would no longer feel like giving up existing ones. In this case, it would be easier if there were no new ones and the gift was, for example, intangible fun or shared entertainment (see Ruuhkattoman intangible gift tips).

Preparedness puts cupboards to the test

Being prepared is one of the biggest causes of congestion, as it takes up a lot of space and takes up a lot of our minds. More often than not, stockpiling just gets you big, and the taste, size or some other essential element of the whole changes along the way. Then you have more to prune and acquire, so you do double the work.

One form of buffering is e-commerce orders, as we often buy a slightly higher quantity under the guise of postage. We received a batch of special flours for baking and didn't pre-order them. Now a parcel is sitting on the floor waiting to be disposed of. So I'm running into the same basic problems myself, if I let go of the system at all.

Another leveler in terms of preparedness is the wrong season's equipment. These tend to get bogged down in levels, as do bargain finds for the coming season. Now, with summer approaching, many will be tempted to pick up next autumn's top gear on sale and wait. But think twice - will you have time to deal with them and have room for storage, or will they become your summer bag?

As a professional organiser, I urge you to be moderate in your preparedness. There's a big risk of unnecessary stuff and at worst you'll be staring at summer flocks for half the year.

Home of the goods is at the wrong address

It's also a classic piece of kit that makes your home feel stuffy and drags you down. If stuff is used in one place and needs to be transported to a distant storage facility after use, the temptation can be great and the stuff stays where it is. The autopilot can't work because the job is too demanding.

For me, this is also a sure sign that it is useful to rethink the storage facilities.

In families with children, children's accessories in particular are a constant headache, as the home has to be redecorated every couple of months at worst, with new household chores and maintenance tasks as the children grow up.

From this point of view, it would be ideal to have a home with enough space (max 80 % full in the cupboards) to always be able to experiment a bit to see which storage space would work best.  

How do I solve a commodity problem that accumulates on levels depending on the root cause?

I wrote in Three concrete tips to prevent piles of stuff in the article on ways to prevent plateauing. However, here are some more strategic level guidelines, for example how you can set your goals for your home's ester track demolition:

Conclusion: too much stuff

If you think your home is clogged with too much stuff, you can solve the problem by cutting back or adding more space. It's always cheaper and easier than moving or buying storage space. Include all the time taken up by moving stuff: how much time would you save or be able to divert if you had less stuff to move?

There are several techniques for pruning, such as KonMari, room by room method or quarter-hour daily target. Personally, as a professional organiser, I prefer to involve the whole family in the pruning process, so that the responsibility for the goods can be shared.

You can also buy help for this job, for which you also get a household allowance: with the support of a trained professional organiser, you can get concrete help with the project and, if you want, a plan to tackle the challenges that slow you down. For many, support is needed to get the ball rolling on pruning.

The professional organiser will be able to look at your situation individually and propose a solution that works for you, and we will also organise additional hand-holding to help you get your home in order.

Conclusion: goods do not have clear homes

Did you know that 75 of % items are lost in the home? I think the reason is that they have no homes or are not returned to their homes. Often the problem is also that there is no room in the cupboards, meaning that designated places are impossible to provide. In this case, the problem is too much stuff, which brings us back to the first conclusion.

If your belongings do not have designated places where they are kept when not in use, arrange such places among the residents. Make a commitment for a month to return the items immediately after use and see how the home feels with the new routine.

Naming your homes also reduces the mental burden, as you don't have to keep trying to remember where you last left things. Returning things to their homes takes some learning, but will save you a lot of time in the future.

Conclusion: the repository is not functional

If piles appear despite pruning and homes, the wrong storage location may be to blame. In this case, it is worth critically considering whether the storage location is difficult or too far away. Is it specifically easy for the user?

Could the clothes that pile up annoyingly on the chair be hung on the nail rack next to it? Could you make room for handbags and rucksacks in the hallway if they are rolling around on the floor and steps? Could the Christmas containers be stored in the wardrobe to make room for utensils in the kitchen base cupboards instead of on the kitchen floor?

What do these reasons and conclusions sound like, is this the case for you too? If you need some concrete tips on what to do about your home's accumulations, click Three concrete tips to prevent piles of stuff.

Feel free to contact us, and you'll get a free consultation and we'll solve your traffic jam too! The services of a professional organiser are subject to a household deduction and I also offer a satisfaction guarantee for my work.

I hope this article has given you new ideas and help. Subscribe to Ruuhkattoman about once a month newsletter, to hear the latest concrete tips.