nurturing one’s nature, 2024

My childhood home was like Hollywood’s faithful interpretation of the Asian immigrant design (think Evelyn’s washateria apartment in Everything Everywhere All at Once). Seafoam green carpets were coated with dust and covered by plastic tubs of miscellany. There was always some useless junk of perceived value lying around in this secretive world full of shame and discomfort. Growing up, I fought with my mom over her hoarding – sucker punches packed with pure vitriol from my teenage self. I pled for her to change, hoping that my own shame could be magically swept away with the hoard and friends would finally be able to visit. Yet from this bitter landscape and her inability to change, my mom unknowingly gifted me something invaluable – my purpose in interior design and an intimate knowledge of design’s influence on the mind and human behavior.

A chance discovery – a fresh paint of white coat in the living room – marked my first realization of the importance of interior design. Increased light from the white walls revealed clutter and an intangible cleansing energy seemed to flow throughout. Realizing there were basic elements, such as light, that could be used to manage the hoarding before it even started, intentional design choices quickly replaced my exhausting and futile cleaning efforts. Light, as illumination, became an element important for aesthetics, but also for discouraging clutter and making it more addressable. Exploring deeper, I also began questioning the relationship between light, ephemera, and object permanence. For hoarders, items stored behind solid doors become forgotten, solidifying their permanence in the home. I wondered whether storage systems crafted from "transient", light permeable materials such as glass or polycarbonate could highlight the object's presence, challenging its perception as an item to be stored indefinitely.

Beyond lighting, the ability of a space’s architecture to encourage cleanliness also became a forefront matter. Our family eventually designated the entire upstairs, where my brother and I stayed, as a zone where clutter was off-limits. Almost like a physical barrier, the stairs gradually prevented the movement of clutter upstairs, silently enforcing the newfound psychological safety and comfort of our upstairs. Similarly, deliberate architectural choices like a narrow entry hallway or curved walls can be used to deter someone from bringing unnecessary belongings into a space or accumulating belongings along flushed, right-angled surfaces. Just as architecture is intentionally designed to influence behavior on a large scale, I slowly understood that interiors could be designed with certain elements in mind to positively nurture a hoarder’s nature, while giving their families clutter-free havens.

Nowadays, it feels a little less like my mom and I are speaking different languages when it comes to her hoarding. But there is still a long way to go for our family – and for the design world. Hoarding, a universal mental illness affecting many, has long been neglected and stigmatized by the design community. Yet, the need for accessible, healthy design knowledge is more crucial than ever – even those without mental disorder can end up in unkempt and unsafe interiors. The abundance of material, research, and network resources offered at Parsons would allow me to explore solutions for the many, nuanced perspectives of the hoarding experience and understand the efficacy of my theories on a larger scale.

Today, on TikTok, videos of cleaning transformations people do for their hoarder family members go viral, drawing in hundreds of supportive comments from those in similar situations. However, there’s also a sense of confusion and dreadful desperation in the comments as people seek solutions beyond a deep clean. While light and behavioral architecture have helped with my personal experience, I know they represent just a couple of countless, potential solutions. With the backing of the interior design community, my goal is to slowly destigmatize hoarding, bring further attention to it, and find design solutions that prioritize the health and safety, both physically and mentally, of those affected. Because everyone deserves to have access to a safe and habitable space that they call home.