Clutter can become a health crisis, but it does not have to be.

Clutter often builds quietly, in tandem with PTSD, grief, trauma, depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism, OCD-related disorders, including hoarding, or neurodegenerative conditions like dementia and Parkinson’s. It can also follow major life events such as caregiving, divorce, job loss, relocation, disaster recovery, sudden injury, or chronic illness. Procrastination, perfectionism, burnout, and decision paralysis can exacerbate situations, allowing clutter to grow unchecked. Many individuals have no diagnosis at all, yet solo agers, individuals and their families, and entire communities feel the impact every day.

Share your story. Post a short video about how clutter, caregiving, or a significant life event affected you or someone you love. Invite others to sign and spread the word.

Prevention, education, and sustainability practices can break the cycle. Teaching people how to restore order, create safe systems, and manage belongings proactively improves air quality, reduces hazardous waste, prevents falls, reduces stress, and supports wellness and longevity, enabling individuals to live safely and independently.

The creation of the Licensed Professional Organizer (LPO) designation is the missing element that doctors, public health officials, and consumers are calling for, connecting skilled organizing services to healthcare, social services, and community programs before crisis strikes.

 
The Vision
A future where every person, with or without a formal diagnosis and regardless of income or background, has access to trained professionals who can restore order, safety, and function at home before, during, and after the behaviors and conditions that cause clutter accumulation to become a crisis.

Licensed Professional Organizers will be:

• Educated and Credentialed: Completing a structured, two-year curriculum based on evidence, safety, mental health awareness, environmental health, and sustainable practices.
• Accountable: Guided by a national board (BLPO) with ethics, continuing education, and measurable outcomes.
• Collaborative: Becoming a key part of the wellness and longevity team, working alongside doctors, public health officials, therapists, other allied health professionals, legal professionals, financial professionals, executors, restoration professionals, occupational therapists, physical therapists, mental health providers, social workers, coaches, productivity consultants, and move managers, real estate agents, photo managers, etc.

Accessible: Providing services that can be supported by insurance, grants, and public programs so cost is no longer a barrier.
 
Why Licensing Matters
Today, professional organizing and related fields, including coaching and move management, are the boots on the ground but operate without consistent oversight. Excellent providers exist, but there is no single standard or formal pathway, and it can feel like the wild west for both providers and consumers. This lack of consistency makes it difficult to build trust, measure outcomes, and gain support from healthcare systems. The field should also recognize photo managers as essential partners, and address the growing challenge of digital hoarding, which creates a new frontier of potential fraud and exploitation for vulnerable populations.

As a result:

Consumers are exposed to unqualified or unsafe services.
Outcomes are inconsistent and difficult to measure.
Access is limited to those who can afford private pay.
Municipalities spend millions responding to crisis-level hoarding and unsafe housing conditions.

Licensing would:

• Create national standards for education, ethics, and measurable outcomes.
• Protect vulnerable populations with safe, respectful, and skilled interventions.
• Open the door for funding, insurance coverage, and grants.
  Reduce healthcare costs by addressing preventable injuries, mental health crises, and unsafe home environments.
• Save public dollars by focusing on prevention rather than crisis response.

Recognize the Licensed Professional Organizer as a vital component of health and allied health professions.
 
Why This Affects Everyone
Extreme clutter is not rare. It touches every neighborhood and every income level. Common causes may include but are not limited to:

• Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental: Depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD-related disorders, ADHD, autism, emotional dysregulation, personality disorders, domestic violence, substance abuse, procrastination, perfectionism, burnout, and other conditions that pose challenges in daily living and life skills over the lifespan.
• Neurodegenerative and Cognitive: Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, traumatic brain injury, mild cognitive impairment.
• Life Transitions: Bereavement, divorce, new baby, adoption, blended families, caregiving, job loss, relocation, immigration, solo agers navigating aging alone, and families managing complex household changes.
• Physical Health: Chronic pain, illness, short or long-term disability, post-surgical recovery, long COVID, mobility limitations, hormone imbalance, sudden injury, age-related conditions.
• Caregiver Fatigue: Parents and adult children juggling multiple roles in the “sandwich generation" and multigenerational households.
• Environmental and Systemic: Housing instability, poor air quality, hazardous waste accumulation, disasters such as fire, flood, or mold, shared or undersized housing, lack of local resources.
• Most of those affected may or may not have a formal diagnosis. The need for structured, skilled, and affordable intervention is enormous.

In today’s world, modern technology, email, and device management add another layer of complexity. Digital hoarding is on the rise, and no other profession, including occupational therapy, mental health, financial or legal professionals, or crime scene and remediation experts, directly addresses the behaviors that lead to the accumulation of both tangible and intangible clutter.

The Licensed Professional Organizer designation provides the label and framework this work belongs in, offering a clear and coordinated response to a growing public health challenge.

We are on the edge of the silver tsunami, which, when in full force in 2050, will transform how we care for ourselves and one another.

Building this designation also means job creation across many industries. LPOs can be employed in:

• Public health programs and private care agencies
• Home care agencies
• Home insurance companies and restoration companies
• Crime scene cleanup teams and disaster response services
• Hospitals, skilled nursing, and assisted living facilities
• Moving companies and move management firms
• Wellness programs and HR employee benefit plans
• Law firms
• Real estate brokers
• Senior centers
• Schools, universities, nonprofits, and community outreach programs
• LPOs belong anywhere safety, function, and well-being intersect.

 
Prevention is Smarter and Cheaper- Creating the LPO designation will:

• Prevent falls, ER visits, and hospitalizations.
• Lower public spending on emergency cleanouts and eviction prevention.
• Decrease healthcare costs by reducing preventable injuries and hospital readmissions.
• Improve mental health outcomes and caregiver resilience.
• Improve air quality and manage hazardous waste more responsibly.

Build a qualified workforce ready to meet a growing public health challenge.
 
Healing Starts at Home, And No One Should Have to Start Alone

Sign this petition to support the creation of the Licensed Professional Organizer designation. Together we can:

• Make help available before homes become unsafe.
  Ensure organizing support is affordable and accountable.
• Give families, solo agers, and communities a path to prevention, not just crisis management.

Healing starts at home. Let’s make it possible for everyone.