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The relationship between clutter and mental health is simple. When clutter is winning, mental health is losing. Eliminating clutter will improve your mental health.
Sure, there are plenty of greater issues mounting up that can disturb your peace of mind – climate change, COVID-19, escalating global violence, and more. You can feel powerless over many of these plights. Clutter may seem trivial by comparison, but it’s something you can fix. It’s also a 100-percent preventable drain on your well-being. Consider the negative impact of clutter in your space, the benefits of decluttering, and how to clear away excessive “stuff.”
The consequences of clutter on your mental health are many and significant.
It impairs memory, leads to poor eating habits, and decreases impulse control. Clutter increases the risk for developing mood disorders and interferes with concentration and decision-making. It also stunts creativity, lessens your productivity, and saps your energy.
Think of the time you spend looking for lost items, or buying new ones because searching through the clutter is overwhelming. It robs you of five percent of your time. What is five percent of your income? That’s what your clutter is costing you.
Clutter makes communication difficult and can even damage or destroy relationships. When an environment is highly cluttered, people are distracted by random visual stimuli in the room, interfering with reading the expressions and emotions of the people in the chaotic environment.
Multiple studies show that our living space is a “psychological home.” We want, and need, to experience it as a place of comfort and security. It’s an extension of your identity to which you form an emotional bond.
Research published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology studied the factors that detract from and contribute to the psychological home. Author Catherine Roster, a professor at the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management, found that possession clutter has a profoundly negative impact on a sense of psychological home.
Decluttering has powerful, positive impacts on mental health, more than you expect. Some of the greatest benefits include:
- Boosts mood – the act of decluttering relaxes your mind.
- Improves physical health – eating habits improve, combatting the association between clutter and becoming overweight.
- Escalates the ability to focus, which prepares your mind to perform tasks.
- Increases productivity – visual accomplishment is rewarding.
- Relieves anxiety – having clutter makes you fear more clutter.
- Improves sleep – an organized environment increases sleep quality.
- Improves relationships – communication is more effective.
How do you get organized?
Start small. An entire house, or an entire room, can be overwhelming. Enjoy even the small success of organizing a drawer or shelf. Listen to music or an audiobook while you work.
Set aside specific time for decluttering. In advance, ponder how good it will feel to have an organized space, and what better purpose it can serve.
Sort items into categories. Designate items to keep, discard, donate, and relocate. You may want to store sentimental or seasonal items at another site, such as a storage space.
Do digital decluttering. Do not try to go through hundreds of emails in one sitting. Tackle a few per day.
Do not touch every item, contemplating its fate. It just increases your attachment to each thing. In 2010, Marie Kondo started a clutter-clearing movement, touting a method of holding each item and discarding everything that doesn’t bring you joy. After her third child, she declared that she was giving up tidying every day. Kondo said time for her children is more important. She’s right.
What are some ways you have decluttered? If you have your own suggestions that proved valuable, please share them with the StudyFinds community in the comments below!
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