A new YouGov survey on home organization asked Americans about how organized their homes are, what motivates them to keep things organized, and who does most of the organizing in the home. Women are more likely than men to say it’s very important to them that their home is organized, and they’re also much more likely to say that they do all or most of the organizing in the home. Majorities of both men and women say feeling better when their home is organized is a motivation for their own efforts at home organization.
Nearly all Americans (91%) say it’s at least somewhat important to them that their home is organized. Women are more likely than men to say this is very important to them (54% vs. 42%).
57% of Americans between 30 and 44 say it’s very important to them that their home is organized, a greater share than among younger and older adults.
About one-third (31%) of Americans — including 37% of women and 24% of men — say they alone spend the most time organizing the home. 28% of Americans — including 37% of women and 19% of men — say home organizing is done mostly by them. Another 28% of Americans — including 22% of women and 35% of men — say the organizing responsibilities are shared about equally. Few Americans say that other people mostly (8%) or entirely (1%) spend the most time organizing in their home.
One in five Americans (20%) say they love organizing their home and 37% like it.. Few say they dislike (11%) or hate (3%) organizing their home; 28% are neutral about it.
Women are more likely than men to say they love organizing their home (23% vs. 16%).
Americans are more likely to think their own home is somewhat or very organized than to think other people would describe their home that way. 22% of Americans say their home is very organized; about the same percentage (23%) think most other people would agree that their home is very organized. 54% of Americans think their home is somewhat organized, though only 43% of Americans think other people would describe their home this way.
The rooms in their home that the largest shares of Americans describe as very organized are the living room (45%), bathroom (44%), and kitchen (42%). Fewer say their dining room (37%), bedroom (33%), and laundry room (32%) are very organized.
The room Americans are most likely to describe as very disorganized is the garage or shed (12%). Another 18% say their garage or shed is somewhat disorganized. As 29% don't have either room in their home, so only 37% describe the room as very or somewhat organized. 61% don't have a basement; 22% describe their basement as organized and 15% as disorganized.
The most common approach to organizing is doing so when things get out of hand: 46% of Americans say this comes closest to their household's approach. Slightly less (38%) say they organize regularly and frequently, including 41% of women and 34% of men. Less (8%) say they organize everything once or twice a year, and only 3% say they don’t really organize.
29% of Americans say they have gotten advice about home organization from friends or family members and 20% have gotten advice from social media. Other sources of organization advice for Americans have been books or magazines (15%), websites or blogs (14%), television (13%), retail stores (8%), podcasts (4%), and professional organizers (3%). 52% have not gotten organizing advice from any of these sources.
What do Americans use to organize their homes? 74% use storage bins, 54% use shelving units, and 49% use hooks or hanging systems. Less use drawer dividers (31%), closet organizers (30%), or labels (21%). Women are more likely than men to make use of many of these tools, including storage bins or containers (78% vs. 64%), hooks or hanging systems (54% vs. 44%), and closet organizers (35% vs. 25%).
Why organize your home in the first place? 66% say one source of motivation is that they want to be able to find things easily. 66% — including 75% of women and 57% of men — say they feel better when things are organized. 61% say one motivation is that they’re trying to reduce clutter, 38% say they want their home to look good for guests, and 26% say they enjoy organizing.
The challenges Americans face when it comes to keeping a home organized include not enough storage space (46%), too many belongings (41%), difficulty letting go of things (37%), a lack of motivation (37%), and other people in the home (26%).
Women are more likely than men to say that other people in the home are a challenge they face in keeping the home organized (31% vs. 20%).
Among people who have children under 18 in the home, 72% say having children makes it much more or somewhat more difficult to keep their home organized. Women are more likely than men to say this (78% vs. 65%). 17% of Americans with children in the home say it makes no difference in keeping the home organized, and only 9% say that having children makes it easier.
Three-quarters (75%) of Americans grew up in homes that were at least somewhat organized, including 33% who say their homes were very organized. Americans 65 and older are more likely than younger adults to say the home they grew up in was very organized (46% vs. 30%).
61% of Americans — including 65% of women and 56% of men — say they were at least somewhat involved in keeping their homes organized as children. 36% say they were not very or not at all involved.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Americans say the person who did the most to keep their home organized as they were growing up was their mother. Far fewer say it was their father (7%), themselves (6%), another relative (2%), or a sibling (2%).
Americans 45 and older are more likely than younger adults to say that when they were growing up, their mother was the person doing the most to keep the home organized (77% vs. 67%).
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See the results for this YouGov survey
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted July 17 - 20, 2025 among 1,155 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty (Catherine McQueen)
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