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My guest blogger is Marianne Simmons a licensed therapist that has been working in her private practice for more than 15 years. In recent years, she has discovered her passion for blogging and educating people about the importance of mental well-being.
Have you ever had your home in such a mess that you don’t even know how to begin organizing it? Usually, our brains tend to shut down and convince us to procrastinate in this situation because we don’t want to deal with a task that seems too demanding. Even though we get over this feeling and get on with decluttering, we always seem to end up in the same situation a few months down the line. Although this seems like a somewhat stressful but essentially not harmful process, certain consequences arise if we keep repeating the same cycle. We’re here to discuss how clutter can affect your mental health.
Clutter makes you stressed out
One of the ways clutter can take its toll on your mental health is by causing stress. Stress can lead to many physical and mental diseases, and it would be best to reduce it to a minimum. Even if you’re not consistently spending your time in a cluttered home but have those all too familiar bursts of organizing about once a month, that might be just as harmful. If you leave your items lying around and they pile up, you’ll need to set aside the time that you probably don’t have to be able to deal with it, which may require multitasking. Unfortunately, multitasking leads to stress, so you’ll end up in the same spot as if you were living in a messy house.
Clutter brings more clutter
Living in messy and cluttered spaces does more than just cause stress. If you’re constantly surrounded by items you don’t have any use for, you’ll start to feel like your thoughts are cluttered as well. Mental clutter is a real thing – you can feel unable to process certain information, sometimes even crucial information. Your mind’s all over the place and your brain is tired. Not being able to focus, complete tasks and reach your goals can lead to mental health problems, depression or anxiety. Lack of concentration may lead to more life-threatening issues (e.g., if you’re not able to concentrate on your way to work, you could hurt yourself in traffic).
Unhealthy life choices
As you have probably heard a million times over, if your desk is clean and tidy, you’ll have a much better chance of doing your work efficiently and vice versa. The same principle applies to the ways clutter can affect your mental health. Many of your life’s aspects will inevitably suffer if you’re in a chaotic environment. Clutter can cause:
● Unhealthy eating habits
If you’re constantly surrounded by clutter, whether it’s in your kitchen or the rest of your home, you’re less likely to choose simple, healthy options. If the clutter affects your organizational skills, you’ll be more likely to order fast food since it’s more convenient, more rapid, and takes less effort.
● Sedentary lifestyle
Especially if you’re used to working out at home, you won’t want to do that surrounded by many random possessions. Cleaning up will motivate you to get up and do some exercises. There are many mental health benefits of exercise, which is why you want to try to stay active and keep your body moving. You’ll do yourself a great favour by staying active.
● Inability to get your chores done
When it comes to your work and your ordinary chores, such as paying bills, doing the dishes, or getting your child to school, you’ll find it more challenging to get it done on time in a cluttered home. You’re likely to spend hours looking for random items like keys. By developing routines you spend less mental energy worrying about getting chores completed. You’ll have more time for activities that bring meaning to your life. When your life has meaning your mental wellness improves.
Memory
Clutter can affect your mental health long-term by slowly impacting your memory. Of course, this won’t necessarily happen to everyone, but it could. Are you willing to take the risk? Organizing doesn’t sound that bad if it’ll save the future you from this struggle of memory issues.
Lower self-image
Just as checking off chores from a list can make you feel organized and fulfilled, not doing it and living in a mess can lower your self-image. If you’re always planning on decluttering and organizing but never get to it, your brain will get a bit more disappointed each time you fail to follow through with the plans. Eventually, you’ll not only have lower self-esteem, but you’ll also be less likely to get up and do the thing you’re putting off. If you’re already in this loop, getting out of it takes a lot of patience. Set realistic and easily achievable chores for yourself and declutter your home a little every day. After a while, you’ll get back on track and make this a habit.
Effects your social life
If your home’s messy, you’ll not only lack the motivation to go and hang out, you also won’t want to invite your friends over. A great way to deal with too much clutter is to deliberately invite your friends to your home and use that as motivation to clean up.
Clutter heightens the risk of hoarding
If you don’t work on this problem and start to increase the mess in your home, clutter can become an obsession. If you notice that you’re starting to save specific items just for the sake of having more stuff, if you’re forming a sentimental connection with practical everyday objects, if your rooms can no longer be used for their primary purpose, make sure to seek out help.
The negative effects of hoarding can be:
- Inability to throw away, recycle or donate belongings
- Anxiety when parting with items
- Difficulty organizing possessions
- Embarrassment about the number of items you own
- Fear of running out of or losing any of your possessions
Ways to improve your mental health
It’s important to continue taking small steps and improving your mental health, even if you still struggle with clutter. Bit by bit, you’ll be able to deal with this problem as well.
●Part with the items creating clutter
If you feel comfortable with it and it’s not causing you anxiety, try to part with any clutter that you own. Give it to a charity so other people can use it. Since we purchase many items, seasonal clearing can be done at any time not only spring and fall. Declutter frequently, it makes the task easier.
● Physical activity
Apart from decluttering and organizing your home, it would help if you also tried to stay active. It’ll do much more than keep you fit and be great for your body – it’ll increase the hormone of happiness in your body and significantly affect your mental health.
● Meditate
Just as much as physical clutter can take its toll on you, mental clutter can as well. Try to find at least five to ten minutes a day to enjoy the silence and clear out your head.
If you know that clutter can affect your mental health, you should take the necessary measures of precaution. Be regular with cleaning, and don’t hesitate to part with anything that no longer serves you. You’ll be surprised to see how much happiness a clutter-free life can bring.
In the comments let me know how clutter affects your life
Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, in person and virtually. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situations. She uses her love of physical activity to reduce clutter, in your home and office. She guides and supports you in managing your time. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.
Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca
Twitter – Facebook – Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space
My guest blogger this month is Bryan Styles. Bryan is a life coach and a freelance writer with a focus on improving the quality of peoples’ lives. He puts all of his efforts and energy into educating people about how to overcome hardships and live a happier life.
We all live different lives, surrounded by different people, and interacting with different things. Everything in our environment leaves a mark in the long run. While we can choose who we spend time with, not many people pay attention to the space they live in. It often becomes something we all just get used to, be it due to a lack of finances, or simply a lack of options. The importance of our living environment is immense, and even a few small changes can make a difference in our lives. With that in mind, I would like to give an answer to one question – can organizing your space impact your mental health?
How confined spaces affect our mental health?
I have had a lot of experience living in a cramped-up apartment. Just my girlfriend and me in a single room that was at the same time the living room, the bedroom, the kitchen, and a small bathroom. At first, everything was fine. I always thought about how there are people who don’t have a roof over their heads or live in much worse conditions. I went with it.
However, after some time, I noticed that I was becoming more and more nervous. The apartment had to be cleaned and organized every day, which always took a lot of time, even though it was such a small space. If you skipped one day, things would start to pile up and soon we would be in a mess that caused even more tension. Living in that apartment felt more like work.
As soon as you start decluttering your space, you will feel how the tension and stress leave your body, piece by piece.
Nevertheless, once we cleaned it up and organized our stuff, I felt like I was a free man. There was this rush of energy and good feelings of having some free space around you.
It is a fact that our environment sets our mood. Organizing your space will impact your mental health, in many good ways. However, the road from clutter to freedom is a difficult one, and it does require a bit of planning and effort.
A few tips on how to get rid of clutter
While I don’t want to turn this article into a “How to clean your apartment” guide, there are a few problems that must be addressed:
- how to deal with a lack of space
- what to do with all the stuff you need, but don’t have enough room for
- how to not go crazy while decluttering your apartment
I want to give you a couple of productive tips and best practices I used a lot.
A small apartment will always be a small apartment
Living in a small apartment is not something you can fix by decluttering. Sure, you will get more space, but the apartment will still be small. It is important to understand this because you will have to make radical changes in order to avoid decluttering your place every few weeks.
The most crucial step in this process is to do extensive research on organizing small apartments or homes. Read articles, follow interior design blogs and vlogs, browse photos online, read interior design and staging magazines, and look for tips about handling the lack of space in your home.
The more research you do, you will start noticing a specific pattern. Living in a small apartment means getting rid of bulky items, and organizing your space in a minimalistic style.
That’s all fine, but I cannot throw my wardrobe to make more space!
Well, yes and no. When I talk about getting rid of bulky items, I understand that some things like closets, the bed, and the table have to stay inside. However, there is one thing you must realize.
You are storing everything in your apartment. Clothes for summer and winter, all of your electronic equipment, everything. While that is normal for a large home, it is virtually impossible to keep a small place organized while keeping everything.
My suggestion is to rent extra storage for bulky items outside of your home. You won’t pay much, but the space you will get will make a huge difference.
People are often overburdened with everything that happens in their lives. Having an organized living space will help remedy that issue.
Keep only the essential furniture and electronics, and move everything else to the unit. When it comes to clothes, you just need to have clean clothes for seven days. Move everything else to a storage unit, and you can pay a visit every week if you want to get new clothes.
Furthermore, if you have a rug, get rid of it. Sell it, donate it, throw it away, just move it out of the house. Cleaning the floor is much easier when there is nothing on it.
It is a bit of an odd strategy, but it works really well if you organize it properly. After some time, you will start enjoying the extra space, and you will start to notice the positive impact it has on both your physical and mental health.
Do everything with a positive attitude
Making these radical changes will be a difficult decision for some people. We all have a tendency to like patterns in our lives, and making changes often disturbs us.
Nevertheless, there are ways to turn this decluttering process into a fun activity.
Having a positive attitude is the most important part of living our lives.
First of all, you must start with a positive attitude. Keep in mind that, once you are done, you will feel a lot better. Second, listen to some music while you work. Music is important for our bodies and our minds. Third, get some help. Ask a friend, a member of the family, or your significant other to help you.
Finally, if you don’t want to do the heavy lifting yourself, you can always hire a professional to help you get organized.
Can organizing your space impact your mental health – YES!
Once you get rid of all the clutter in your apartment, you will feel an instant change. You will have more energy and motivation for anything you want to do. Remember, things are what you make of them. It is all about a positive attitude. And once you have enough space for yourself, you will feel as if you can do anything you set your mind to!Our environment sets our mood. Organizing your space will impact your mental health, in many good ways. Share on X
Virtual organizing allows me to support your organizing projects by providing planning, coaching and mentoring while both remaining safely at home. https://mindoverclutter.ca/virtual-organizing-services/
Book a 30-minute complimentary virtual organizing assessment.
Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, coaching you virtually using Zoom. She enjoys working with her clients to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situations. She reduces clutter, streamlines processes and manages time to help her clients be more effective in reaching their goals. Julie can coach you to break-free of the physical or emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms.
Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca
Twitter – Facebook – Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space
I have organized a lot of sewing rooms and craft rooms. I know my clients enjoy their new spaces and are very talented people. I never thought about it from a mental health perspective. Annabelle Short from Wunderlabel has put together a great infographic. I hope you enjoy it.
Sewing can help you express your creative side and gain better peace of mind. And in addition to granting you greater mental health, it can actually keep you healthy as well. If you want greater peace of mind and less clutter in your life, check out this infographic from Wunderlabel to see the 16 ways in which Sewing can make you healthier!
Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, coaching you virtually using Zoom. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situations. She uses her love of physical activity to reduce clutter, in your home and office. She guides and supports you in managing your time. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.
Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca
Twitter – Facebook – Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space
