The Washington Post highlighted a powerful decluttering strategy known as “organizing by category” in an article about breaking free from overwhelming household clutter. The original piece, shared via The Washington Post’s Medium publication, walks through how shifting from room-by-room tidying to category-based decluttering finally helped the writer get unstuck.
The Article And Its Core Message
The Washington Post article, “I was getting buried in clutter. Here’s how I finally got free,” follows one person’s journey from feeling defeated by mess to regaining control of their space. The story, published through The Washington Post’s Medium presence at https://medium.com/thewashingtonpost/i-was-getting-buried-in-clutter-heres-how-i-finally-got-free-d7ddc773b34, connects emotional overwhelm with practical, step‑by‑step change.
In the article, the writer explains how conventional approaches—like cleaning one room at a time—weren’t working, because clutter simply migrated around the home instead of truly leaving. The turning point came when they embraced the “organize by category” method popularized by Marie Kondo, which finally made decisions clearer and results more permanent.
What “Organizing By Category” Means
“Organizing by category” means gathering every item of the same type from across the entire home, then decluttering and organizing that group all at once. Instead of tackling a bedroom or kitchen as a unit, you handle all books, or all pots and pans, or all clothes, no matter where they’re stored.
This approach forces a clear view of how much you actually own, which prevents underestimating clutter hidden in different rooms. It also allows better, more intentional decisions, because you can compare similar items side by side and choose what truly earns a place in your home.
How The Article Shows Category Organizing In Action
The Washington Post story illustrates this philosophy with vivid examples of dragging items from every corner of the house into one place before sorting. For instance, the writer describes following the “organise by category” advice by pulling every pot and pan from every nook of the kitchen until the dining table was completely covered, creating a single, honest view of that category.
Once everything in a category is visible, the process becomes: decide what to keep, discard, donate, or relocate, and only then put the chosen items back in an intentional way. Rather than small, cosmetic tweaks, this becomes a reset for that category, which is why it feels so liberating and durable.
Why Category-Based Organizing Works So Well
Category organizing breaks the emotional fog that comes with endless, vague “cleaning” because each session has a clear, bounded focus—like “today is all cookware” or “today is all shoes.” That specificity reduces decision fatigue and makes progress easier to measure, since one entire type of item gets sorted and simplified at a time.
It also prevents the common trap of shifting clutter from one area to another, because everything in that category is evaluated at once instead of being pushed into another closet or drawer. The result, as the Washington Post article emphasizes, is not just a tidier house but a lighter, more intentional life that feels genuinely free of the old weight of excess stuff.