Decluttering and cleaning: why you need both

Cleaning and decluttering are two different jobs. Cleaning removes dirt, dust, and grime. Decluttering removes the things you no longer need, use, or love. A clean home can still be cluttered, and a decluttered home still gets dirty. You get the most out of both when they work together: fewer belongings make cleaning faster and more thorough, and a regular clean keeps a decluttered home feeling the way it did on day one.

This post covers why clutter gets in the way of a good clean, what it can do to how you feel at home, and when it makes sense to call a professional organizer instead of a cleaner.

Cleaning and organizing are not the same thing

When our team cleans a home, we work on surfaces: counters, floors, sinks, showers, appliances, baseboards, fans. The goal is a home that is hygienic and looks and smells fresh.

Decluttering is about decisions. What stays, what gets donated, what gets thrown away, and where everything that stays should live. Those decisions are personal, and they belong to you, not to a cleaning crew.

Here is where we draw the line at Brio:

• Included in every clean: straightening the couch cushions, pillows, and throw blankets, the small touches that make a room look finished.
• Available as an extra: tidying beyond that, like folding clothes, putting things back where they go, or washing dishes. If it takes our team significant time, it is billed as an add-on.
• Something we don’t do: decluttering. We will never decide what you keep or what you let go of.

Why clutter makes cleaning harder

Every object in a room is one more thing to clean around. A counter covered in mail, appliances, and bottles can only be wiped in the gaps between them. A floor with bags, shoes, and toys on it can only be vacuumed where the floor shows.

Clutter affects a cleaning in three ways:

• Less surface gets cleaned. Dust settles behind and under things the cleaner can’t reach without moving everything first.
• The clean takes longer. Time spent moving things is time not spent cleaning, and on a recurring plan that adds up every visit.
• The result doesn’t last. A cluttered room looks messy again within a day, even when every surface underneath is clean.

When a home has fewer items in it, every surface is easier to reach. The team spends its time cleaning instead of moving things out of the way to clean.

What clutter can do to how you feel

Clutter is not only a cleaning problem. Many people feel it every time they walk in the door: the pile they keep meaning to sort through, the closet they avoid opening, the room that never quite feels done.

There is research behind that feeling. A UCLA study published in 2010 asked 60 married couples to give a tour of their homes and analyzed the words they used. Wives who described their homes as cluttered or unfinished had a daily cortisol pattern linked to poorer health, and their mood got worse over the course of the day. Wives who described their homes as restful showed the opposite. The study found a link, not proof that clutter causes stress, and the pattern showed up in the wives, not the husbands. Still, it matches what many of our clients tell us: a calm, clear home is easier to rest in.

When to call a professional organizer

A quick tidy-up before your cleaner arrives is one thing. But when the clutter has built up over years, or life is changing around you, decluttering is a bigger job than one weekend can fix, and it is work a cleaning team is not trained to do.

That is when we recommend Amanda Scudder, a professional organizer in Richmond, VA. Amanda runs Sprucely, holds the Certified Professional Organizer (CPO) credential, and has been organizing homes professionally since 2012. She also holds certificates in senior move management, hoarding, ADHD, and challenging disorganization, which matters when the clutter is about more than belongings.

An organizer like Amanda is worth calling when:

• You don’t know where to start. She helps you make the keep, donate, or discard decisions, room by room, without judgment.
• Life is changing. A move, downsizing, a new baby, a loss in the family, or an empty nest all change what a home needs to hold.
• You’re getting ready to move. Sorting and packing before the move, and unpacking and setting up the new place after.
• You want systems that last. Closets, kitchens, pantries, garages, paperwork, and keepsakes, organized in a way that fits how you actually live.

Her full list of services and pricing is on her site. A Quick Session starts at $350 for up to four hours, and it includes hauling away one vehicle load of donations.

After the decluttering, keep it that way

Decluttering resets the home. A regular cleaning keeps it reset. Once the excess is gone, a recurring clean is faster, reaches more of every room, and stops dust and grime from building back up. If you’re not sure how often that should be, we wrote a guide on how often you should have your house cleaned.

If you’re moving, the empty home is the moment for a top-to-bottom clean, inside the cabinets, oven, and fridge. Here’s what our move-out cleaning covers.

Common questions

Do I need to clean before the house cleaners come?

No. Cleaning is our job. A quick tidy-up helps, though: clothes off the floor, dishes in the dishwasher, and counters as clear as you can get them. The more surface we can reach, the more of it we clean.

Will your cleaners organize my home?

We straighten cushions, pillows, and throw blankets on every visit. Folding, putting things away, and washing dishes are extras. We don’t declutter, because what stays in your home is your decision. For that, an organizer is the right person.

Should I declutter or clean first?

Declutter first. Cleaning a room and then pulling everything out of the closets and drawers just puts dust back on the surfaces you paid to have cleaned.

Get a quote

Ready for a clean home that stays that way? Get a free quote, no walkthrough required and no pressure, or call us at (804) 655-0006. We serve Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield, Midlothian, Glen Allen, Short Pump, and the surrounding counties.