The Colour Test: A Reason Your Home Seems Cluttered Even When It's Tidy

A few months ago, I was working with a client in her Toronto kitchen. The cupboard was open, everything looked organized and neat. She looked at it and said, "I don't know why this bothers me. It's not even messy." She was right. It wasn't messy. But she had fourteen mugs in fourteen different colours, and she hadn't chosen a single one with the others in mind.

What she had was what I call colour clutter, and I can explain why it may be in your house as well.

Why a tidy room can still look cluttered

In organizing other people's cupboards for so many years, I've noticed something. When there are various colours on a shelf, it might seem cluttered, regardless of what's on it or how useful it is. It's because your mind registers the colours first before you notice the objects, so you see it as busy even before you've clocked what's there. That's why you can tidy the whole shelf and it may still seem cluttered.

You can always justify keeping something, even when it doesn't match.

Take that kitchen cupboard: my client kept every single mug for a good reason. She kept the mug her grandchild picked out. She kept the mugs she brought home from a conference, a trip, and a kitchen sale.

You might surprise yourself by discovering a 15-year-old towel in the back of your closet. Maybe you kept it simply because it's still useful and you hate waste. Or maybe a thoughtful friend gave you a throw blanket to keep you warm on the couch. You don't want to hurt your friend's feelings, so you keep it out where it can be seen.

You made these decisions because they seemed sensible at the time. You kept items because they were useful or because someone you loved gave them to you. Over thirty years, you've allowed objects into your home that don't suit the life you're living now. You end up with a collection of objects, each with a story, but you've chosen almost none of them with the others in mind.

That's why a home you've looked after for decades can end up feeling like it belongs to several different people.

The Colour Test

Do you have colour clutter? Try the Colour Test.

The Colour Test is three questions. Pick one cupboard or one shelf and ask these questions. You'll spend about two minutes.

Did you choose this colour? Think about whether you picked it because you wanted it or whether you accepted it because it seemed fine at the time.

Does it fit where you put it? You can like a colour and still see it clash with everything near it. You're judging it against everything around it.

Do you enjoy seeing it? Enjoyment is the right question for things you look at every day, and it's fine to tolerate the colour of something you rarely notice.

You use these questions differently from "do I need this?" or "have I used it recently?" You can answer those and keep anything that still works.

With the Colour Test, you ask whether you'd choose this again, knowing what you already have. When a client hesitates over that question, it suggests that the item can go.

Start with the mug cupboard, where you'll see colour clutter most clearly. Towel closets are another place you may find colours that don't match and that you haven't selected.

What to do with the mugs you rule out

Say you rule out three or four mugs. Don't put them back. Take them out and set them on the counter, then look at what's left. You'll have a shelf with things you chose. The shelf feels uncluttered, much different from the original.

Then decide what you'll do with the mugs you don't want. Perhaps you'll give some to a friend or a neighbour who'll use them. You'll set others in a donate box by the door. If you still want to keep one because your mother gave it to you, keep it. Just be sure you're making a deliberate choice.

The point is that you're deciding what you'd choose today and keeping that.

The result will be a tidy, attractive space that feels like home.

A home that feels like yours again

Matching everything is a decorating project, a different job from this one. You're after a home where you have chosen most of what you see, and you'd choose it again today.

After you've done one cupboard, you may catch yourself looking at the rest of the house the same way. You'll spot the towels you never picked and throw rugs you bought in a hurry. So the next time you look at a shelf or cupboard that is tidy but still seems cluttered, take the colour test.

You just made that decision on one cupboard. You looked at what you already have and asked whether you'd choose it again. Downsizing is the same decision across a whole house at once, and that's a much bigger ask. If you're wondering whether you're ready for the next step, take our free Downsizing Readiness Quiz to help you decide.

About In and Out Organizing

Cathy Borg is a Toronto professional organizer and downsizing specialist, and a partner at In and Out Organizing. She helps adults 55+ and their families downsize and move with less stress.

If your home no longer feels the way you want it to, we can help. Contact Brad at 416-859-0518 or info@inandoutorganizing.ca. 💛 Making Space for Your Life™