I Finally Keep My Home Tidy With Ease Using the ‘Complete Journey’ Organizing Method – It's Simple, Fast, and Effective
It's the mindset shift that helps keep your home tidy
Oftentimes, a house is messy not because of having too much stuff, but because it is not put away properly, and this results in messy piles that are then 10 times more overwhelming to conquer.
This is where the Complete Journey organizing method comes into play. It is a simple mindset shift designed to train your mind (AKA hack your brain) into keeping your house tidy with ease.
What Is the Complete Journey Organizing Method?
The Complete Journey Organizing Method is about mindset and here, you must think of tidying as you would dropping a friend off at home. Since you wouldn't stop the car halfway to their house, you'd take them all the way to do their front door, apply the same rule in your house when tidying.
Don't leave your belongings somewhere that is halfway to their permanent home. Every item has a final destination, and stopping short before you put it back there is what creates clutter.
As a neurodivergent thinker, I am always looking for smart mindset shifts that help prevent clutter. It is rarely enough for me to put items away because that is what I am 'supposed' to do, making it harder to stop clutter before it starts.
I used to be somewhat alright at following a similar one-touch rule. It was a habit instilled in me by my father when I was a kid, but as I got older and I realized he wasn't going to crop up around a corner to tell me to tidy up, it became a lot easier to ignore.
As a result, my home can descend into chaos easily, especially my dining table, which acts as our entry dumping zone for bags, coats, and mail.
The complete journey changes this. In theory, it is the one-touch rule in that you always put something away, not just down, but it reframes the language to help motivate you to declutter.
Putting items away when you are done with them shows due care for your home, belongings, and time.
This subtle mindset shift is a smart way to keep your home tidy when you feel overwhelmed.
Professional organizer Cathy Orr, co-founder of The Uncluttered Life explains, 'This is a great mindset shift. The Complete Journey method is great to keep clutter from accumulating.
'Many people do only half the work of moving something from point A to point B, and this is where the problem lies. If it’s an easy task that only takes a few extra minutes and steps to complete, that should be the rule. It will, eventually, retrain the mind to complete rather than go halfway.
'Some of our clients with ADHD have trouble completing tasks, and we help them see the benefit of completion because it reduces the amount of visual noise in a space. Reducing visual noise increases the likelihood that tasks will continue to be completed entirely rather than only partially.'
Repeated often enough, it helps to break bad home habits and will stop clutter creep in your living spaces.
You don't have to commit to the method with big tasks right away, either, making it a smart habit that can help you build into the domino decluttering method.
Cathy suggests, 'An example is bringing in the mail and sorting it into the recycle bin. It can be done repeatedly so that it becomes a habit. Another example is putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher instead of leaving them in the sink or on the counter. Again, this is a habit that can be used to retrain the way we care for our things and helps prevent a mess around the house.'
It is a known factor in human learning that to ingrain a new habit, it takes at least 30 days of doing it for the neural pathways to build deeply enough for it to become the norm. Don't give up to soon, and if you hit a bump in the road, try again without guilt or judgement of yourself.
What Happened When I Tried the Complete Journey Method
I haven't been perfect, but it has still made a marked improvement in visual clutter.
As part of my more/less list for 2026, I aimed to spend less time cleaning up after myself, and I can see how the complete journey method will help me to achieve this in the longer term, having tried it at home for a week.
Usually, I will rely on the ski slope method to reset my home when the visual noise becomes overwhelming, and I can't concentrate, zigzagging back and forth across a room to collect all the stuff I have left lying around and not in their homes.
But not only is this time-consuming, but it is tiring, too. I have also lost many items as a result of my not returning them immediately to their homes (a beautiful gold necklace being one of them).
By reframing the one-touch rule as dropping 'friends' off at their home, helped to give me a new appreciation for my stuff. I have tried personifying my possessions to declutter in the past, and it felt a lot like that. To imbue an item with a sense of 'personality' made me want to take care of it. In my dining space, for example, the coats I love so much were usually slung over the backs of chairs, where they would be rubbed up against or dropped on the floor frequently. I wouldn't treat a friend like that, so they started to be returned to the safety of the hooks on the back of my office door, out of the way of potential damage.
Conversely, I channelled the hate I have for the junk mail that would so often clutter the table to motivate me to take it to the recycling bin. After all, not every item has to be treated as a friend. As with the Kon-Mari method, it's a wonderful means of deciding what to declutter for good, too.
While I haven't been entirely perfect with it, and some hobby items still find themselves lingering on my coffee table for days after I have done with them, the approach is making a difference elsewhere in my home. Now it's just a case of enforcing the habit.
What to Shop
This bestselling book from renowned professional organizer Marie Kondo shows how letting go of excess creates more space for happiness, concentration, and relaxation. It’s a motivating, practical guide to living better by owning less.
Measuring 8x10x11 inches, these handwoven water hyacinth baskets are designed for easy, grab-and-go organization, in cabinets, or as everyday drop zones. They make tidying fast and effortless by neatly concealing clutter, and the cut-out handles let you quickly carry multiple items in one trip.
This set's transparent design makes it easy to see and grab what you need, keeping your items organized and within effortless reach.
When using closed storage, label it to make finding the items you need later simple, and help others in your household maintain any organizing systems you put into place. Labeling can stop a helpful organizing system from unraveling with use.
The Declutter Deck solves not knowing where to start by offering a simple, motivating system that turns hesitation into action. Each card provides a focused prompt, helping you build momentum and create lasting order one space at a time.
Track up to eight new routines, and break bad home habits for 31 days with this notepad, featuring gold foil detail and convenient lines.
Meet the Expert
Cathy is a cofounder of The Uncluttered Life and the Declutter Deck, anda Certified Master Consultant in the KonMari Method®, which was featured on Marie Kondo’s Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and Sparking Joy with Marie Kondo. Cathy draws inspiration from Marie Kondo’s bestselling books, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Spark Joy, and Joy at Work, integrating her core principles into her own practice. Cathy completed her KonMari training in Los Angeles in 2019 and later served as a panelist for KonMari’s 2020 Certification Course, where she shared insights to help guide other consultants in their professional journeys.
While it can he helpful to optimise tasks for a neater home, there are some tidying habits you can quit to make maintaining your home easier and lower stress.
