A disorganised home causes more concern than frustration over misplaced keys – it can affect your health. But there are ways to combat clutter, writes Paula Goodyer.

Clutter has generated an industry to tame it – think professional organisers and shops dedicated to storage. But before you buy another stylish ringbinder, it pays to understand why you acquire so much clutter in the first place – and why it's hard to organise or part with. Knowing what makes you cling to your old belongings makes it easier to let them go.

At one end of the clutter spectrum are bills and junk mail spreading like fungus over the dining table; at the other, rooms so crammed with junk they're unusable or hazardous: in the last decade, at least 48 serious house fires in Melbourne have been attributed to hoarding. This pointy end of cluttering is called hoarding disorder and is tipped to become a recognised psychiatric condition.

Although there's a difference between keeping concert tickets and having whole rooms overflowing with memorabilia, the motives behind both are usually similar, says Melbourne clinical psychologist Dr Chris Mogan. Along with the urge to avoid waste, they include developing emotional ties to items that are reminiscent of people you love or aspects of your life. 'Someone will find this useful' or 'I must keep all things that recall this person' are typical examples of hoarder thinking.

People who feel deprived, and collect or hang on to things as a result, are also more likely to hoard.

"Hoarding is more serious when it becomes compulsive, interferes with relationships and when attachment to objects is so deep-seated that parting with them is like having part of you taken away," says Dr Mogan, who specialises in hoarding disorder. "We don't fully understand compulsive hoarding yet, but some people are more vulnerable, including those who form attachments to things rather than relationships; or who have a strong need to see their life represented in their belongings – for them the motive for keeping their old Abba ticket is the fear that without it they'll never remember that they went," he says.

Hoarding can be a feature of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) too, (although OCD can mean having a strong need for order), says Dr Mogan.

Some psychologists suggest that Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) may also be linked to hoarding because of difficulties making decisions or staying focused long enough to organise possessions.

But it doesn't take a disorder for your wellbeing to be affected by too much stuff – excess clutter can increase stress, says professional organiser Wendy Hanes of Skeletons in the Closet.

"Signs that clutter is getting out of hand are when your house doesn't function smoothly, you can't see the kitchen table, you're not paying bills on time or you're too embarrassed to ask people in," says Hanes.

One reason for getting into this mess is that we've downgraded the priority of small organisational tasks, like filing, that help control clutter.

"We think these tasks are trivial but they're the oil that keep routines running smoothly. Without them paperwork builds up on the kitchen bench – a trouble spot for clutter. We might neaten up the pile and square the edges – but we don't deal with it because we have no time to focus," she says.

It's also about shopping, plenty of inexpensive goods and the seductive power of marketing campaigns. Hanes frequently finds caches of unused items – like a collection of five pristine picnic baskets from under a client's stairwell. "They're often a result of thinking your life should be a certain way – that you should be the kind of family that has picnics, yet the nearest you actually get to that is buying a basket at the mall. It's the same thinking that leads to unused patty pans and piping bags ('I should be the kind of person who bakes with my children') and it's driven by a marketed fantasy of the lives we want to have," she says.

Even perfectionists can succumb to clutter. "Some put off processing stuff for fear of making a bad decision," says Hanes. "I've also known women who had orderly systems for filing things in ringbinders, then had babies and found the system too complicated to file things conveniently – and if they couldn't do it perfectly they didn't do it at all.'

But while parenthood is a recipe for clutter, don't assume empty nesting or retirement sweeps it away. The children grow up and move out, leaving gear behind. People who retire can haul their working life home, she says, recalling a retired academic who took the contents of 15 filing cabinets home. "It was proof of what she'd accomplished; as if unless she kept the files she hadn't done the work," says Hanes.

To tackle a clutter problem, don't head to the storage shop – yet. Products don't get you organised, she says. Sort, purge and categorise things first – then you can put them in pretty containers.

But for anyone with more deep-seated issues, the problem is treatable, Dr Mogan says, often with cognitive behaviour therapy from a clinical psychologist who can help you challenge the beliefs that keep you hanging on to every item, and learn to better manage the anxiety of letting them go.

To find a clinical psychologist, go to the Australian Psychological Society's website.

Combat clutter

Don't put off tackling clutter build-up under the pretense of waiting until 'I have more time' or 'I have a garage sale'. Break the task into small chunks, making time each week to process it, says Hanes. Decide what to keep, and what to donate, recycle and throw out. Also, schedule an hour a week for paper work. Be sure everything has a designated 'home' and that it's convenient to access. Have a 'Vinnie's' bag for items destined for charity shops, and create a 'transit lounge' – a place for library books or DVDs that need to be returned.

Serious hoarding

According to the International OCD Foundation, signs of hoarding disorder include:

Persistent difficulty parting with goods, even those of useless value; indecision and distress associated with discarding.

Accumulating a large number of possessions that fill up the living areas of the home, workplace, or other personal spaces (eg home office, car, backyard), and prevent normal use of them.

The excessive build-up of items starts to create hazardous areas in the home.

For more information, go to www.ocfoundation.org/hoarding.