Your home should be your place to space out, so to speak — a sanctuary to unwind and clear your head. But to do that, you need actual space. It doesn’t matter if you live in a 5th floor walkup or sprawling estate — if your living area is packed full of clutter, it can be tough to relax and recharge.
It’s not just that a messy space can be a bit of an eyesore. There’s a clear connection between worsened mental well-being and an unorganized home environment, with one study reporting that women who viewed their homes as cluttered were more likely to feel depressed and have flatter diurnal cortisol slopes, a measure associated with anxiety and other negative health outcomes.
“Clutter can affect our anxiety levels, sleep, and ability to focus,” Libby Sanders, an assistant professor of organizational behavior, wrote for The Conversation. “It can also make us less productive, triggering coping and avoidance strategies that make us more likely to snack on junk and watch TV shows (including ones about other people decluttering their lives).”
Thankfully, the flip side is also true: Creating a neat space can yield a plethora of mental health benefits. We dive into a few of those below, and provide practical tips so you can start making space in your home (and mind) today.
3 Mental Health Benefits of Decluttering
Have you ever walked into an orderly, spacious room and let out a big exhale? Getting rid of clutter can truly give us room to breathe. Here are three specific ways tidying up can boost your mental well-being.
Lower Stress Levels
It isn’t just having a neat space that can provide peace of mind. One study found that the act of cleaning mindfully (specifically, washing dishes) decreased stress and increased mental inspiration, as it required participants to focus their attention on the present in a meditative-like manner.
Improve Focus
There’s also evidence that disarray can make it difficult to focus, as a 2019 study indicated visual clutter can negatively impact how we process information and make decisions.
But by cleaning up, you create a peaceful environment that’s more conducive to concentration. “You will be less irritable, more productive, distracted less often, and able to process information better” with an organized space, according to Stanford University.
Enhance Sleep Quality
It can be tough to turn off your brain when you turn off the light. What can make it even harder? A room strewn with stuff.
“If every time you get into bed, you look across the way at a bunch of boxes that are making you crazy, and that’s the last thought you have before you turn off the light, that’s not good,” Ilene Rosen, a physician with the University of Pennsylvania who is board certified in sleep medicine, told Good Housekeeping, adding: “All of the distractors in your room and certainly in your bed should be cleared out.”
3 Easy Ways to Declutter Your Home
If you’re convinced to get to work tidying up your home, below are a few tips for decluttering like a pro.
Follow the “No Contact” Method
If making separate piles for items you’ll keep, donate, and discard gives you decision fatigue — to the point where you end up walking away from the project altogether — this may be a more effective method. Here’s what to do: Place things you don’t think you’ll need anytime soon into a box until a certain date. When that date arrives, ask yourself if you truly missed those items. If not, the choice to toss (or donate) them is pretty clear.
“The ‘no contact’ decluttering method can be a great option for getting yourself unstuck,” professional organizer Katrina Teeple told Real Simple, noting, “Boxing up things you think you can live without and putting them in a closet or garage for a set amount of time takes the pressure off — people can see what is possible for their lives while living with less.”
And those who get really attached to their things may need to add in an extra step: enlisting a friend to handle your items. As Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University who studies clutter’s relation to well-being, explained to The New York Times, “Once you touch the item, you are less likely to get rid of it.”
“Have somebody else hold the pair of black pants and say, ‘Do you need this?’” he continued. “If you’re going to declutter, don’t touch the item. Don’t pick it up.”
Keep Specific Items Out of Your Bedroom
We already covered that a clean bedroom may help you doze off. But you’ll also want to be selective with the type of items you choose to keep in your sleeping space — and according to the pros, electronics (including TVs and cell phones) are a big no-no.
Other items to steer clear of? A “floordrobe,” aka the clothes that pile up on your floor, and exercise equipment, which our brains associate with strenuous activity instead of relaxation.
Plus, while a trinket or two may look cute on your nightstand, it’s all too easy for these items to add up to a chaotic room. So, as professional home organizer Victoria Nicholson explained to HouseBeautiful, you’ll want to keep these smaller, decorative pieces to a minimum. And in the same vein, stay away from excessive piles of papers, books, or other work-related objects — not only do they create mess, but they also keep your brain in work mode when it’s time to chill.
Make It Fun
Research suggests that tying external rewards to activities increases persistence — so if cleaning feels like a mundane chore to you, making it more enjoyable may actually help you finish what you started. Plus, why not turn a potentially boring task into a fun one?
The key here is to make it entertaining in whichever way is the most effective for you. Play music or a podcast in the background, crack open a yummy drink to sip along the way, or set a timer and reward yourself with breaks intermittently. If you find cleaning to be a lonely affair, split your tasks with roommates or recruit friends or family to help (you can thank them with dinner afterward).
And when in doubt, follow this advice Ferrari gave in an interview for DePaul University: “Hold onto the memory, not the materials.”
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