Decluttering isn’t just about having a tidy house, it has a huge impact on our mental health too.
There have been several studies that show the negative effect that having a cluttered home has on our mental health.
We’ve all experienced that overwhelming feeling when the house feels just a little bit TOO chaotic, and there is stuff everywhere.
Luckily, for most of us, it’s something that we are able to do something about.
It’s an area of our life that we are in control of.
So here are some of the ways that decluttering and having less stuff is beneficial for our mental health.
Decluttering helps us feel more in control
Motherhood can be overwhelming and a bit chaotic.
We can’t control what mood everyone will be in when they wake in the morning, how much sleep everyone has, if there is any illness or unexpected things happening.
It sometimes can feel like we have very little control at all.
So focusing on the things that we CAN control – like decluttering – makes a big difference to our mental health.
If you are stressed out, the actual decluttering process can help you to just process what is going on in your life and to feel calmer.
Have you ever ‘rage’ cleaned your house?
When you get really annoyed at something or maybe you have an important appointment coming up that is stressing you out and you suddenly find yourself decluttering or cleaning enthusiatically/angrily?
That is your mind and body doing something to try and feel back in control again.
Side note: You should listen to your body – it knows what it’s doing.
The thing we don’t really realise with clutter in our home, is that our stuff is controlling us.
We spend all our time tidying up, putting things away, finding homes for things, cleaning things etc, and that takes away time from doing things that we actually want to be doing.
So the less stuff we have, the more time we have to do things that we want to do.
Decluttering gives us a feel-good dopamine hit
Have you ever had a good sort out in a room and it’s just felt so much lighter in there.
Maybe you keep wandering back in to the room afterwards just to appreciate your work and to just revel in the tidyness of it?
That’s a dopamine hit from your brain’s reward system.
That dopamine gives us a feel good boost, which makes us feel happier.
It’s a combination of the room looking good, so you can visually see what you have done and getting something crossed off your list that makes decluttering such a feel-good booster.
There are so many tasks that we do daily in motherhood that take up so much time but you can’t even tell that you’ve done anything that makes decluttering even more of a boost for us.
A sense of accomplishment
While motherhood is amazing, it can be a bit repetitive and monotonous.
I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of days where I make a list for what I would like to get done, and for a million different reasons I can get to the end of the day and be unable to tick anything off my list.
Some days that’s fine, other days that is frustrating.
If you are someone who does find it frustrating, maybe try a ta-da list.
Decluttering helps gives us a sense of accomplishment because it’s one of those tasks that we can actually see ourselves progressing with.
We can see the room getting tidier.
We can see more white space.
Things just feel lighter.
Feeling a feeling of accomplishment is really important for us.
We can get that feeling from small amounts of decluttering too. It doesn’t have to be a full room.
If all you have time for is one drawer, every time you open that drawer you are going to get a dopamine hit because of how good it is and a sense of accomplishment because you did that.
Reduces Visual clutter
Something we don’t always realise is the effect that visual clutter has on our minds.
When we have lots of things in our house that we can see, it’s very difficult for our brains to relax.
This isn’t to say that you should go completely minimalist and get rid of everything, although if that’s what you want to do, then go for it!
Let’s say for example, that it’s evening, the kids have gone to bed and you are sat on the sofa going to read your book – it’s very difficult for us to fully relax and escape into it when we look up and we can see things that need to be put away, over-flowing cupboards and things that just need to be cleaned or sorted or have something done to them.
When you are looking around, you might not always be aware of it as it can sometimes be a subconcious thing – but your brain is compiling a mental list of all the things that it needs to do.
This can make it difficult for us to relax or to think clearly.
Visual clutter actually changes how your brain works.
Having less stuff in your house can let your mind and body just relax and take a breath.
Less visual clutter means that we will be able to be more focused and have much better mental clarity which will reduce a lot of stress.
Decluttering helps increase creativity
Being creative and doing things for us is really important for our mental health.
When we feel overwhelmed with all the stuff we have in our house or all the things that need doing, it can be hard to feel our most creative selves.
Decluttering can help us feel more creative as well because we can think of new ways that we can store things or how to make things look better and that is our creative side working.
Decluttering your home might unearth some crafty activities you have bought as well and having less stuff means you are going to have more time to actually get them done.
I’ve had an embroidery kit in my wardrobe for almost a year now and I haven’t touched it and maybe it’s time.
Having a calm and tidy and decluttered home is going to help you to feel more inspired too.
Reduces stress and overwhelm
Do you know that feeling, when you are rushing around at a hundred miles an hour and you are trying to get out of the door on time but you can’t find the things you need to leave?
That is such a stressful and overwhelming feeling.
One way that decluttering supports your mental health is that it helps that to happen less.
When we have less stuff, it’s easier to find things and a part of the decluttering process is that we tend to give things an actual home so we know where things are.
If you think about some of the stressful situations that happen quite a lot in your home, would having less stuff help?
Maybe it’s hard work trying to get something out of a certain cupboard.
Maybe you can never find things.
Or you feel that you are constantly searching for things for the kids.
Having less stuff reduces our stress levels by such a huge amount.
The ripple effect
Another thing that having less things reduces stress is that it ripples into other areas of our life.
The ripple effect is when we make one change in one area of our life and then it ripples into other areas of our life – for example if we go to bed earlier it means that we snack less the next day, and we have more energy so we might exercise which will make us feel happier etc etc.
Example
So for our decluttering example, let’s say that every morning you end up being late for the school run because you always end up rushing around because you can’t find your keys to leave.
Let’s say you declutter your hall way on the weekend and now you have some space to put a key holder.
Then when you come home, you always make a point of putting your keys on the key holder.
Mornings are going to be so much less stressful for you.
Just knowing where your keys are means that actually leaving the house is going to be calmer and less stressful.
You will be on time to get wherever you are going so that will be less stress.
Because you are calmer you are going to be less stressy/snappy when talking to your family so everyone will be in a better mood.
If there is some sort of hold up, like traffic lights etc, it’s not going to raise your stress levels as much because they were lower to begin with so you have more capacity to cope.
Your entire day will follow a happier and calmer route.
That one action of decluttering so you know where your keys are will ripple into your entire day.
Less stuff means you will sleep better
Having less stress in general is going to help you sleep better.
If you have a very cluttered bedroom, it’s going to be very difficult to turn off your brain and fall asleep with so much visual clutter.
When we don’t have enough sleep everything becomes a bit more difficult.
We can struggle to cope as well with difficult things in our lives and we are lower energy which means we tend to make unhealthier choices or less likely to move our body.
Our mood is affected, we tend to have less patience and humour for everyday things.
We tend to snack more as an energy boost.
It also affects our health if it’s a long-term thing.
This is another example of the ripple effect, if we start prioritising sleep it can have a huge ripple effect on our life.
Decluttering our bedroom to make it a calmer and more sleep-promoting environment is going to make it so much better for us.
If you aren’t sure where to start with decluttering in your home, maybe your bedroom should be one of your main focuses.
I hope this helps encourage you to start decluttering your home.
It seems like such a trivial thing, but it has huge benefits for our mental health.
Our home should be our sanctuary, it shouldn’t be somewhere we need to escape from.
Decluttering is one of the ways that you are going to get it feeling like your sanctuary.
Let me know if you are going to start decluttering your home!
Beth x
