Barriers to a Functional Home and Life

"One of the most overlooked areas in the realm of mental health is the home. I don't mean family dynamics. I mean the actual, physical home. My professional niche, as a therapist turned home organizer, is the subjective realm of domestic chaos. Mess does not necessarily equal chaos. Chaos happens when your mess exceeds your ability to live inside it."

"Domestic chaos can be visible: unmanageable clutter, overflowing sinks, or moldy showers. It can also be invisible: unpaid bills, undone paperwork, or difficulty caring consistently for your own body. As one of my clients described it, "A home this crazy is like unmanageable credit card debt. You just make the minimum payment and pray you'll die before the full bill comes due." When life is upended, your dishes, your laundry, and your bills mercilessly persist, piling around you, an oppressive burden."

"Barriers to Cleaning, Organizing, and Life Skills No matter whether your home is immaculate, mildly cluttered, or hazard level-if something is making functioning hard for you, it's a real barrier. It doesn't matter why you find a home task difficult. You only have to contend with the fact that you do find it difficult. Whether your reasons feel valid or silly, your struggle is a fact."

The physical condition of a home significantly affects mental health and daily functioning. Mess becomes chaos when it surpasses an individual's ability to live within it. Domestic chaos appears as visible problems like unmanageable clutter, overflowing sinks, and moldy showers, and as invisible problems like unpaid bills, undone paperwork, and inconsistent self-care. Barriers to cleaning and organizing are real regardless of cause and can produce shame and strained relationships. Cleaning and organizing require executive functions such as planning, prioritizing, focusing, shifting attention, and initiating unpleasant tasks. Various biopsychological factors can disrupt these cognitive skills and impair home functioning.

Read at Psychology Today