11 Things That Make Someone's House Look Really Messy, Even If It’s Technically Clean
No matter how in-depth you're cleaning your house, certain things still make your space look messy.
Roman Samborskyi / Shutterstock Keeping a clean home can sometimes be hard if your space looks naturally chaotic. No matter how much you dust, vacuum, or mop, it can be hard to have a tidy space if your house is still giving off that messy kind of vibe. It can be especially frustrating when you've spent hours cleaning, only to be a bit disgruntled when things still look a bit unorganized despite how much time and effort you put into making things look spotless.
What makes a home look messy, even if it's technically clean, has less to do with dirt and grime and more to do with how things are arranged. When bits and bobs are left out and unorganized, it can end up making your space look the opposite of what you're trying to go for. Understanding what you're doing wrong and thoroughly cleaning your house to the point where it looks and feels clean is always important. With just a few changes, your space can be transformed in how it feels and how it looks. Once you're able to figure out what needs to change, having guests over can feel less like a burden because you're worried about how they're perceiving your home, despite the hours that you spent trying to tidy up before they got there.
Here are 11 things that make someone's home look really messy, even if it's technically clean
1. Having an unmade bed
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When you fail to make your bed every morning, it can end up making your space look messy even if everything around your bed is neat and polished. It might not seem like much of a difference, but even if your floors are squeaky clean, your nightstands are organized, and everything is put in its proper place, the first thing anyone's eyes go to is always going to be your unmade bed.
Research has even shown that people who make their beds tend to be adventurous, confident, sociable, and high-maintenance. People who don’t make their beds tend to be shy, moody, curious, and sarcastic.
A neatly made bed just brings the whole room together versus just having your sheets all tangled up in the center of the bed and the pillows askew. It doesn't mean you have to make your bed in the way that beds are made at a hotel, but just a simple pulling up of the sheets and propping your pillows up can make such a difference with your space.
2. Overflowing laundry baskets
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There's nothing worse than walking into someone's house and seeing that their laundry is overflowing and clothes are just spilling out onto the floor. There's nothing that can make your home look messier than having dirty clothes everywhere and clearly being in need of a wash day to take care of them. Even if everything else is sparkling, the mound of dirty clothes will always outshine the actual cleanliness of your home.
No one enjoys doing laundry, sure. According to a survey, among all of the chores that a person does, doing laundry is up there with the most hated job. Instead of just kind of blending into the background, the messy clothes become the first visual that a person sees. The space ends up feeling smaller, no matter how much work you're doing to clean around your overflowing laundry. It doesn't mean you have to do laundry every day, which is unrealistic, but if you're going to put it off, it might be a good idea to stash your hamper somewhere out of sight.
3. Shoes scattered by the door
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Considering nearly two in three Americans are "shoes off" people when it comes to their own homes, according to a CBS News poll, it means people are discarding their shoes by the door when they come in. And it truly doesn't matter how clean your entryway may look. If you're just tossing your shoes into a corner where they fall over haphazardly and sit on top of each other, it can just make your space look quite messy.
If there's no designated area to put your shoes, the first thing people see when they walk into your home is just a pile of shoes by the door. Instead of it being a welcoming entrance, it looks as if you didn't take the time to actually tidy up the space.
4. General clutter
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No matter how much you're cleaning off surfaces, if you're just putting all of the clutter back when you're done, it really does defeat the purpose of cleaning it at all. General clutter isn't about dirty things lying around on your counters, but the everyday things that just pile up. From unopened mail, various receipts, half-empty water bottles, random hair ties and bobby pins, and everything in between that you just tend to throw on the table and walk away from can make your place seem messy.
Research has shown that clutter can even affect your mental health. Living and working in a cluttered space can cause immense levels of stress and anxiety. Part of why clutter does that is because nothing has a place, and you're just throwing them down on any open surface that's around your home. A simple fix is when you're cleaning, going through that clutter and throwing away anything you haven't touched in days and giving the other things a designated place.
5. Empty shopping bags hanging around
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A report found that for 86% of transactions at a store, customers did not purchase a bag, opting for using reusable bags instead. Despite the majority of people who don't take the shopping bags offered by the store, there are definitely still people who enjoy being able to use plastic bags for other things around their home and will hold onto them because of that.
However, if you're someone who just leaves the shopping bags hanging around your home and will throw them into a corner until you're ready to use them, it can affect how clean your house looks. If these shopping bags don't have a designated area where they're being properly stored, it ends up just adding to the rest of the clutter in the space.
6. Crammed bookshelves
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While owning and reading books is something most people should be doing, there might come a point when having a crammed bookshelf can add to the overall messiness that your home may have. If your books are overflowing, stacked over each other, and even poking out of the bookshelf, ready to fall onto the floor, it might be time to downsize or at least upgrade to a bigger bookshelf that can hold all of your reading materials.
Part of what makes an overstuffed bookshelf look messy is the fact that nothing is curated, so your eyes just kind of bounce around and can't seem to settle on a shelf that's actually organized. According to a poll from YouGov, an estimated 29% of book-owning adults say they don't organize their books when putting them up in their bookshelf. It doesn't necessarily have to be in an in-depth and super-specific way that your books are laid out, but just making sure they look tidy can do wonders.
7. Pet toys left out everywhere
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Similar to when parents leave their kids' toys to permeate the floors, the same can be said for the toys your pet plays with. When they're just scattered around the place and not put in a basket or other designated area, it can make the space seem messier than it might actually be.
Pet toys are just hard to disguise amongst everything else considering how bright and oddly shaped they usually are. So, even if you try to kick the toys underneath something, they might still poke out, or your pet will just go and tug it right back out. Actually taking the time to tuck the toys away at the end of the day can give you a clearer mind and really bring your space together.
8. Art leaning on the floor instead of being hung on a wall
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When you have your paintings and wall art sitting on the floor without being hung, it can come across as unfinished rather than an intentional choice. And for the most part, individuals just haven't gotten around to hanging up their art, so for now, they leave them leaning against the wall. However, it ends up sending the subtle message that there's still something left to do on your list when it comes to bringing your space together.
Art isn't really meant to be just sitting on the floor and actually taking the time to hang them up so that they're visible for everyone to see can really bring more life to your space instead of it coming across like you just don't care and are going to leave your art sitting on the floor.
9. Empty cups on your side table
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We're all a little bit guilty of hoarding cups in our rooms until we have no more clean ones and have to gather them all up to finally clean. However, even if everything else around you is organized and put away, having your cups clutter up your side table can make your space look that much messier. Once they start to accumulate, the cups immediately grab someone's attention the second they enter your home.
It signals that you didn't finish tidying up and can take away from the other cleaning that you may have done. At the end of the day, even though it can be hard sometimes, when you finish using a cup, just get up and quickly take it to the kitchen. You don't even have to wash it right away, but once you get into the habit of not leaving your cups on your side table, you'll soon notice a difference.
9. Overloaded coat rack
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If you're someone who keeps every single one of your jackets, coats, hats, and scarves on your coat rack, eventually it can start to look a bit disorganized. The space can just seem a bit cramped when all of your outerwear is just layered together on the rack instead of being a convenient place to hang a couple of your things.
When the coat rack looks as if it's overflowing, people instantly notice it, and it just ends up making your place look messier than you were hoping for. The best solution is to only keep your most-worn coats and jackets on the rack and switch them out depending on your mood. Keeping all of your outerwear tucked away can really transform your space in the blink of an eye.
11. Visible chords and cables
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It really doesn't matter how spotless and squeaky clean your floors look. If your cords and cables are littering the floor, it takes away from how put-together the rest of your home looks. It's just the mere visible effect that cords can create on the floor that ends up making your home look messy.
Instead of your eyes being able to smoothly look over the space, they get caught up when the cables and cords catch your attention. Plus, chords end up gathering dust and getting tangled, adding more to that whole messy vibe. There are ways to hide your wires so they aren't visible, and while it means having to spend a bit more money, the difference is quite loud in your space when you can no longer see the wires.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
