How Clutter Affects Us: What the Science Actually Says
I've been into making decluttering playlists lately, and I just made one called Declutter Like It's Peer Reviewed. A little nerdy? Yes. Super fun? Also yes.
But it got me thinking: What does the science actually say about clutter?
There's certainly no shortage of claims online. Clutter raises your cortisol! It makes you anxious! It hurts your relationships! It makes it harder to concentrate! It affects your kids!
Some of those claims have solid scientific research behind them. Others don't.
So, in the spirit of the playlist, I went looking for the actual peer-reviewed research. Not blog posts about research. Not somebody quoting somebody who quoted a study. The actual studies.
What I found is pretty interesting—and a little more nuanced than the usual "clutter is bad for you" headlines.
Here's what science can actually tell us about how clutter and household chaos affect us.
Clutter and stress
Let's start with one of the claims you've probably heard most often: clutter causes stress.
There's actually some research behind this one.
In a 2010 study, researchers asked 60 married couples to give researchers a tour of their homes. They analyzed the language people used to describe their homes, looking for words related to clutter and unfinished projects, among other things. They then measured participants' cortisol patterns over the following three days.
Women who described their homes in ways that indicated more clutter and unfinishedness had flatter daily cortisol slopes—a pattern associated with poorer health outcomes. They also experienced increases in depressed mood over the course of the day.
That's interesting, but it's important to note that this study was correlational. It can't tell us that clutter caused the cortisol changes.
A later experimental study gives us a little more to work with.
Researchers put 96 young women in either a relatively calm living room or a deliberately chaotic one while they cared for an infant simulator. The chaotic room included clutter, crowding, and sensory stimulation. The participants in the chaotic environment had higher levels of salivary alpha-amylase, a physiological marker of stress.
So while we can't scientifically say that every pile of laundry is sending your stress hormones into overdrive, there is evidence that a chaotic environment can produce a physiological stress response.
Clutter and psychological well-being
There's also research connecting clutter with how we feel about our lives and our homes.
A 2016 study of adults in the U.S. and Canada found that possession clutter was negatively associated with people's sense of psychological home and their perceived well-being. In other words, more clutter was associated with feeling less positively about the home environment and about well-being in general.
And more recent research is pointing in the same direction.
A 2025 study of 501 adults found that greater home clutter was associated with lower mental well-being, lower life satisfaction, less positive affect, and more negative affect. The relationships were relatively modest, and the researchers were careful to point out that because the study was cross-sectional, it can't establish that clutter caused lower well-being.
That's an important distinction.
It's entirely possible that clutter affects how we feel. It's also possible that when we're struggling, we're more likely to accumulate clutter. And, of course, both things could be happening at the same time.
Still, the overall research does suggest that clutter and lower well-being tend to travel together.
Household chaos and children
This is where I think it's especially important to distinguish clutter from household chaos.
Researchers use "household chaos" to describe more than just stuff lying around. It can include disorganization, noise, crowding, lack of routines, and instability.
So we shouldn't take research on household chaos and translate it into "your kid's messy bedroom is ruining their brain."
But there is some interesting research here.
A 2021 meta-analysis combined 35 studies involving more than 16,000 children and found a significant association between household chaos and children's executive functioning—the skills involved in things like controlling impulses, paying attention, remembering information, and managing behavior.
The association was relatively small, and again, this doesn't prove that a messy house causes poor executive functioning.
But when researchers look across dozens of studies and consistently find a relationship, it's worth paying attention to.
Household chaos and parenting
Household chaos has also been associated with parenting and family functioning.
A systematic review of 112 studies found relationships between household chaos and things like increased parent-child conflict, less positive parenting, less effective discipline, and reduced parent-child closeness.
Again, we're talking about household chaos, not simply having a few too many toys in the living room.
And there's an obvious chicken-and-egg problem here. Parenting challenges can create a more chaotic household, just as a chaotic household can make parenting more difficult.
But it makes intuitive sense that when a home feels disorganized, unpredictable, or overwhelming, it may be harder for everyone—including the adults—to stay calm and responsive.
Interestingly, the experimental stress study I mentioned earlier also found that household chaos affected physiological stress in a caregiving situation, although it did not find that the chaotic environment directly affected the participants' caregiving sensitivity.
So once again, the science is more nuanced than "clutter makes you a bad parent."
Thank goodness.
Clutter and physical safety
There's one effect of clutter that's considerably less mysterious: sometimes stuff is simply in the way.
This is particularly important for older adults.
A 2024 study used nationally representative data from 2,599 community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older. Researchers looked at several types of home disorder, including tripping hazards and room clutter, and then examined whether those conditions were associated with falls the following year.
They found that home disorder was associated with subsequent falls, even after accounting for other factors.
Of course, clutter isn't the only possible hazard in a home. Loose rugs, broken furniture, damaged flooring, poor lighting, and electrical cords can all create problems, too.
But this is one area where decluttering isn't just about making your house look nicer. Clearing pathways and removing things that can trip you can make a real difference to physical safety.
So, how does clutter affect us?
Here's what I think we can reasonably say based on the research:
Clutter and household chaos are associated with a number of negative outcomes, including physiological stress, lower psychological well-being, difficulties with children's executive functioning, challenges with parenting and family functioning, and increased risk from home hazards.
But the scientific research doesn't support every dramatic claim you see on the internet.
We don't have evidence that every cluttered countertop is making you unhealthy. We can't say that clutter causes every problem associated with it. And a messy house is not automatically a dysfunctional house.
People also experience their homes differently. What feels peaceful and lived-in to one person might feel completely overwhelming to another.
And then there's the very unscientific evidence.
I hear from people all the time who tell me they feel calmer after clearing off a counter, more relaxed when they can see the floor, or less frustrated when they don't have to move five things to get to the one thing they need. And I am 100% in this camp myself.
Those experiences aren't scientific evidence, and I'm not going to pretend they are.
But this anecdotal evidence matters, too.
Because ultimately, I don't think the goal of decluttering is to create a scientifically perfect home. It's to create a home that supports the life you're actually trying to live.
And if having less stuff in your way makes that life a little easier?
Well, that's a pretty good reason to let some things go.
Peer-reviewed (for real)
Since I named the playlist Declutter Like It's Peer Reviewed, I figured I should actually show my work.
These are the studies I used for this post:
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.
Bodrij, F. F., et al. (2021). The causal effect of household chaos on stress and caregiving: An experimental study. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 8, 100090.
Roster, C. A., Ferrari, J. R., & Jurkat, M. P. (2016). The dark side of home: Assessing possession ‘clutter’ on subjective well-being. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 46, 32–41.
Andrews, K., Atkinson, L., Harris, M., & Gonzalez, A. (2021). Examining the effects of household chaos on child executive functions: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 147(1), 16–32.
Marsh, S., Dobson, R., & Maddison, R. (2020). The relationship between household chaos and child, parent, and family outcomes: a systematic scoping review. BMC Public Health, 20, 513.
Das Gupta, D., et al. (2024). Older Adult Falls in the Community: Does Unsafe Home Environment Have a Risk Role Through the Mediating Effect of Functional Limitations? The Gerontologist, 64(5).
Quinn, F. (2025). Home clutter and mental well-being: Exploring moderators and the mediating role of home beauty. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 105, 102672.
Want to put some of the research into practice?
That's where the Peer Reviewed playlist comes in. It's a 15-minute playlist designed to give you a little musical motivation while you tackle some of the clutter that's making your life harder.
Consider it a very small experiment: put on the playlist, declutter for 15 minutes, and see how you feel afterward.
No control group required.
Want a little guidance on what to declutter while you're listening? Try my free 10-day decluttering program Kick in the Pants!
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