When you’re feeling anxious or stressed, nothing makes you feel worse than coming home to a mess. You already have a mess going on inside of your head, and now that mess is external too. It makes you feel like you are out of control of everything, and your feelings are exacerbated. Take back some control of your feelings by decluttering.
When you are feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, sometimes it is just too much to imagine coming home and cleaning. But when you let the clutter get out of control, you feel out of control.
There is a direct link between clutter and anxiety.
This is not just a feeling, it is a fact. Of course, clutter cannot cause an anxiety disorder, but if you are already struggling with anxiety, clutter and messiness can make it that much worse.
A study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin in 2009 said that clutter can also translate into feelings of deeper depression. Other studies have found that clutter can make it extremely hard to focus because there are too many stimuli in your environment. Any way you put it, clutter is just not good for your mental health.
Now that we’ve come to that conclusion… what can we do about it?
Some people don’t even know where to begin, and that’s when asking for help comes in. There is often anxiety associated with getting rid of things, so having professional help can make the process a lot less painful. If you don’t have the budget to hire a professional, there are lots of books that are written by professionals and experts on this topic that can help.
You may want to check out The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and Stuff by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee.
Think about how the clutter is harming you and how it is affecting your life and your goals in a negative way. Use that as your motivation to focus on decluttering your home and making a change for good.
Start small.
You don’t want to overwhelm yourself and feel like you are taking on the impossible. Don’t try to declutter your entire home at once, that is not practical. Pick one cluttered area and start there. Do whatever fits into your schedule, if that’s a chunk of time each day, or an hour or two twice a week. Figure out what works for you and start tackling your mess bit by bit.
As the clutter begins to clear, you will feel like a weight has been lifted. You will feel more in control of your life and your home, you will feel more at peace coming home to a clean space, and your mind will also feel less cluttered as a result.
Get to it!
So, what are you waiting for? Declutter your life!