Identify and address root causes to create aligned, lasting changes.
Holistic home organizing means considering the whole person in the process rather than viewing a pile of random objects at face value. As Karen Kingston, author of Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui, says, everything in your life is energetically anchored in your home space.
While organizing a pile of papers into categories might challenge many people–and learning these organizing skills can be immensely helpful–I constantly see deeper, more nuanced layers of resistance in these situations.
Maybe you lost a job and, rather than processing that grief, you stuffed a drawer (or many) full of papers. You weren’t ready to deal with it. Maybe you’re depressed, and that level of decision-making overwhelms you. Important, timely mail gets lost in piles of junk because you haven’t prioritized this type of self-care in your hectic schedule.
Suddenly, an unsorted stack of papers feels less like an exciting puzzle and more like a confusing jumble that weighs on you and drains your mental and emotional capacity.
Those stuck moments are often when I show up. That stressful static of indecision gets louder until you can’t ignore the pain and stagnant energy. Maybe you’ve already noticed how your unsorted piles impact your overall well-being; that murky energy creates tension and unease.
Accumulated clutter isn’t about laziness or even incompetence in many cases; it’s a coping mechanism. Work sped up. Life threw you hundreds of curveballs, and you weren’t ready to be with those confusing jumbles yet. Now you are.
Holistic decluttering means showing up to the process with an awareness of those potential deeper layers. In her book, Organizing from the Inside Out, Julie Morgenstern offers a three-level diagnostic to assess why you might struggle with disorganization. My human-centered approach works through those nuanced layers rather than ignoring them.
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Surface Level Disorganization
If we were troubleshooting your organizing struggles like a mechanic working on a car, these layers are like tightening some screws or greasing a lever. They’re simple, easy to fix, and straightforward.
Maybe you just don’t enjoy organizing. It’s boring, and you’d rather spend your time doing 101 other activities. Fair enough. Just because enthusiasts like me organize on the weekends for fun doesn’t mean you have to. Hopefully, as you’re searching for advice and probably professional support, you’re realizing the value in prioritizing clutter clearing.
Maybe your ADHD makes executive functioning, like staying on task, chunking larger projects into approachable steps, or excessive decision-making, challenging. Addressing the clutter in your home feels too overwhelming to start. No one ever taught you organizing skills, and now you’re struggling to find things. It’s embarrassing. It’s also very fixable.
Some people I work with really just need a boost, a kick start, and some guidance in the right direction. We move through the steps of organizing and decluttering together, and they’re on their way, equipped with tools and newfound motivation.
Or maybe you really do live in a small space, and there’s just not enough room. In that equation, you either need to move to acquire more space (which I rarely recommend), start optimizing the space you do have, or… reduce your things. I’m a huge advocate of that last option because I know firsthand just how rewarding that prioritization can be.
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Tougher Organizing Challenges
People feel stuck and disorganized for all kinds of reasons. Viewing these obstacles as surface-level issues, external factors, or deeper psychological blocks can help you navigate your blocks more effectively.
As I work with clients, I pay close attention to emotional cues and situational factors. I ask about their previous approaches. What worked? What didn’t?
Maybe you tried to address the piles yourself, but you decided to work on the whole living room in one go. You pull everything out, determined to make changes. Hours later, you’re super overwhelmed, even more discouraged, and seem to have created a bigger mess than you started with. I’ve heard stories like this quite a bit.
Organizing task chunking can be challenging for many people. Understanding organizing skills and how to apply them is an easier-to-fix challenge. You might just need some resources, inspiration, and supported practice.
However, your space might feel chaotic due to many situational factors or things outside of your control. You’re starting a new job. You’re getting divorced. Your new boss has unreasonable expectations of your productivity. Tasks have been slipping through the cracks, your desk seems to attract piles of random objects, and you’re growing more and more overwhelmed.
While big life transitions are trickier to navigate, there’s quite a bit you can do to create more calm and clarity. David Allen’s Getting Things Done philosophy helps immensely with personal project management. He gets to the basic principles of managing tasks and projects so you can feel more relaxed and appropriately engaged in your life.
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. You let yourself be in transition, create temporary systems as needed, and consider some thoughtful conversations with your boss.
Perhaps you’ve done all of the above and you’re still struggling. You may be working through some deep inner blocks and need loads of gentleness and acceptance. Do your best to give yourself that gracefulness. Rather than forcing yourself to declutter, try focusing more on the organizing part. You can create sustainable organizing systems to help you find your items and feel more comfortable in your home.
Scarcity mindset, fear of failure or success, and fear of loss of creativity are a few potential psychological blocks. These barriers often form in childhood from dysfunctional family dynamics or other traumatic events. That’s where trauma-informed organizing support can really help.
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Energy Management and Feng Shui
Your home space represents your life and inner state. Everything in your space has some energetic hold on you and requires some attention and responsibility–a big reason I’m so passionate about minimalism! Feeling spacious is just so magical and freeing.
Feng Shui means assessing and understanding the energetic flow in your space. Are doorways blocked or only partially accessible? Do some areas feel hard to walk through, like skirting through piles? Do creative projects and big decisions seem blocked? Do you feel stuck?
If you were to dive into self-improvement work, you’d naturally start to feel stronger impulses to clear your space. Rather than waiting, you could more easily start with the clearing process and watch how your life shifts for the better.
I see this transformative process in effect constantly with clients. Sometimes soft and subtle, sometimes more dramatic changes occur during our work together. It’s really beautiful to witness and support these transformations.
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With holistic home organizing, it’s important to go at your own pace. There are no mistakes–just curiosity, insight, and progress. We focus on presence and intuition so we can discover and address root causes. It’s the best way to create truly sustainable systems that feel aligned.
We’re talking about your relationship with your things. We want it to be supportive and joyful, not heavy and outdated. Every step counts.
I hope I’ve motivated you to create momentum! If you need some professional support, I’d love to connect. I offer in-person home organizing and decluttering sessions to clients in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you’re ready to feel lighter and more at peace in your space, go ahead and book your free intro call. I’d love to hear from you.
For now, take care and happy clearing!
Photo Credit: Unsplash, Andrej Lisakov