Overwhelmed With Clutter? Try the “5 Things Tidying Method"

Clothes strewn across the floor. Trash piled precipitously high atop the bin. Dishes stacked in the sink (and beside it). When your home feels like a big old mess, it’s almost too easy for that mess to multiply. What’s another t-shirt on the ground when you already can’t see your hardwood floors beneath them all? 

That’s where the “5 Things Tidying Method" comes in. The brainchild of KC Davis, a licensed professional counselor, author of “How to Keep House While Drowning,” and the founder of the mental health platform Struggle Care, the method is a proven way to find the motivation to tackle multiplying clutter without sacrificing your energy levels or mental well-being. Ahead, learn the ins and outs of the “5 Things Tidying Method” to remedy your own space. 

What Is the “5 Things Tidying Method"?

The “5 Things Tidying Method" method aims to help anyone who feels overwhelmed by their mess or their home and can be especially beneficial for folks with ADHD or mental health struggles. The idea is pretty simple: Just focus on clearing up the following 5 categories of things—and nothing else: Trash, laundry, dishes, things that have a place, and things that don’t have a place.

Trash

“To keep from getting overwhelmed, you have to do one [category] at a time over the whole space,” Davis explains in her video. First, grab a gallon bag and scan the space for any trash you can dispose of. Fill the bag with anything that you can toss: snack wrappers, juice boxes, napkins, etc.

Laundry

Next, go around and scoop up any stray laundry. You’ll want to stick it in its rightful place: the hamper.

Dishes

Dishes come after that—simply corral all dirty plates, cups, and silverware into the sink. Davis notes the point is not to carry out every task to completion. In other words, you won’t be taking out the trash, loading the dishwasher, or doing any laundry during the process. The goal is creating a starting point for feeling less stressed and eliminating the possibility for decision fatigue.

Things That Have a Place

The next order of business is putting away things that have a rightful place. Clean clothes go in the closet, pencils and pens on your desk, books on the shelf, and the like.

Things That Don’t Have a Place

And finally, things that don’t have a place should be placed in a pile in a corner of the room. Whatever they are, from donation bin items to Amazon returns, they can stay in the pile until you’re prepared to deal with them, or you can try finding a place for them if you feel ready. Once that’s all set, you could try starting a load of laundry, doing the dishes, or just calling it quits. 

Why the “5 Things Tidying Method” Works

Davis underscores an important lesson to her followers: Shame is a horrible motivator. Feeling shame for an untidy space is not how to create a home that feels comfy for you. “This sets up a cycle where the uncompleted task creates shame, which in turn saps motivation and energy, pushing one only to avoid the task altogether,” Davis writes on her website about the Six Pillars of Struggle Care. Cleaning is morally neutral, she argues, and nobody is a failure for not doing laundry.

The “5 Things Tidying Method” can work toward eliminating feelings of shame by helping people break down their seemingly insurmountable chores into digestible bites. It’s meant to be an approachable method that doesn’t wear you out in the moment—or over time.

Above all, Davis emphasizes an attitude of self-kindness when it comes to keeping house. Once you eliminate striving for perfection, you can practice compassion toward yourself.

“So much of our distress comes not from the unfolded laundry but from the messages we give ourselves. Lazy. Failure. Unlovable. You do not need to be good at care tasks to learn how to develop a compassionate inner dialogue,” Davis writes. “You deserve kindness and love regardless of how good you are at care tasks. Challenging these critical messages you give yourself will go a long way in relieving your distress.”

The bottom line? The “5 Things Tidying Method” is a sustainable way to stay afloat in a life of never-ending little chores.