What Is “House Blindness”? I Think I Have It

Hear no mess. See no mess. Speak no mess.

If only that actually made the mess go away. Sometimes in the life of a DIYer, you get a little too comfortable with living in a half-finished house.

For me, I often see straight through the small mountain of tools and materials stacked in the corner of the room where we’re currently (…have been for a while…) renovating. And the spackle on the wall that needs to be sanded down and painted? Invisible to my eyes.

The missing trim in the kitchen, sticky door to the basement, loose handle on the trash can are all obvious to anyone stepping foot in my home, but not so much to me and my family.

Yep… we’ve gone house blind.

What Is House Blindness?

House blindness is simply when you get so used to the mess, clutter or unfinished jobs around your home that you stop noticing them. Think of it like going nose blind, but with imperfections in your home. It can also be referred to as “clutter blindness,” “mess blind,” “clutter creep”, or something similar.

Once I heard the term, it immediately made sense. I’m not purposely ignoring the pile of tools in the corner or that missing piece of trim. I’ve just walked past them so many times that they’ve basically become part of the room.

How to Tell If You’ve Gone House Blind (and Solutions)

The concept of house blindness isn’t overly complex. However, it might be confronting or hard to realize that it’s something you’re doing too.

For me, the biggest giveaway is when I suddenly notice something that’s been sitting there for weeks or months. If guests are coming over, I take a photo of the room or I simply look at it from a different angle. All of a sudden, that pile I’ve walked past 100 times is impossible to miss. If that sounds familiar, you might be doing it too.

Now, for solutions. Here are some things I’ve discovered that help.

Because our house is usually a revolving door of major renovations, there’s almost always at least one major project going on. To help with construction mess spilling into other rooms, I keep a designated tool and materials box that everything goes into once the work is done for the day.

I’ve also prioritized 95% days, which are days I set aside specifically to finish all those little jobs I’ve been putting off instead of starting something new. Think missing trim, nail holes, outlet covers and all the other annoying final steps that keep a project at 95% instead of actually done.

Another one that might seem silly but does work is to look at your home from angles you don’t normally see from. If you’re tall, try kneeling or sitting on the ground and looking around. Or if you’re short, get a step ladder for a new perspective.

One trick I recently learned but haven’t tried is to take photos around your home and look at them on your phone later. Viewing them through this new lens helps strip away the usual filters your brain uses to block that clutter noise and can help you see more clearly.

Try one, or multiple, of these approaches and see what works best. Thankfully, clutter is usually a pretty easy issue to fix and if it’s something you’ve gone house blind to, it doesn’t take much to start noticing it again.

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