An Organized Home, An Organized Mind: How Decluttering Improves Mental Health
In the past decade, the popularity of clear plastic bins and their rainbow-coloured contents has been widespread on the internet. Thanks to the Home Edit, decluttering and organization reached new levels of popularity, as it was hard not to be inspired by the meticulously clean and colourful transformations that were taking place in homes across America. Whether a rainbow-driven or neutral-inspired organizer, the fever was contagious and sent parents rushing out with garbage bags and in with the clear bins and wicker baskets to get rid of the ever-growing mess across every square inch of the home.
Sometimes, it feels like parenting is more about managing stuff, and less about managing our little people. The stuff gets in the way of our interactions, and stress overflows into our tone and conversation, and more importantly, the quality time spent in connection with our children and their needs.
A 2014 LA Times reported that American households have an average of 300,000 articles, and I don’t imagine Canadians are that far off. (1). There’s no end to the production of children’s toys and our culture of gift-giving (though having many positive elements) may leave us tripping over Hot-Wheels cars and sweeping lego out from under the sofa.
The Price of Clutter
Many of us have unresolved guilt when considering the task of decluttering certain items. Either it’s a gift and we wouldn’t want to offend the individual, the article holds a memory and we believe trashing the article is trashing the memory, or we paid for whatever it is (a majority of the case), and now somehow think that we will lose money by letting it go. (News flash: that money is already gone).
In reality, the price of clutter and a messy environment alternatively come with a higher cost. The Professional Organizers of Canada claim that 83% of Canadians indicate extreme disorganization and 91% feel clutter negatively affects their lives. (2). Some of the effects studied have involved increased stress, lower mood, and decreased focus and working memory.
Increased Stress
A 2021 study involving young women caring for an infant in a chaotic versus normal environment, confirmed that household chaos is related to physiological stress in a caregiving context. (3). Truly, it’s not hard for me to picture. Supper is almost ready, and without warning, the box of Playmobil is overturned. Now the baby is putting small plastic pieces in her mouth, and running by, the preschooler steps on the plastic horses and starts howling. The chicken strips are almost done frying on the stove, but I need to leave them to attend to the baby. The tone I feel rising in my chest, is not the pitch I want to fill the atmosphere, but it becomes hard not to suppress in an environment of chaos. Decluttering and organizing our homes, especially with the unpredictable twists of parenting, lowers the stress we sense and project around our partners and children.
Decreased Mood
A further research project found that the home environment correlated with daily patterns of mood and cortisol levels. Women with higher stressful home scores had an increased depressed mood over the day, whereas women with higher restorative home scores had decreased depressed mood throughout the day. (4). A lower mood could make the incentive to clean even less, creating a snowball effect in a messy environment.
Decreased Focus and Working Memory
More studies have demonstrated that visual clutter drains our cognitive resources, by reducing our ability to focus and decreasing our working memory. If our brain space is occupied with constant mental to-do lists, every time we look left or right, most likely we’re unable to focus on our daily priorities or have space for new ideas. In using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) along with other physiological measurements, 2011 neuro-scientific researchers found that clearing up the mess allowed for better focus, improved information processing and productivity. (5).
If you are having a hard time concentrating on a project, decluttering your space will improve your focus, as it lessens the visual load absorbed by your brain.
As my husband says “the more you get done…the more you get done.” In other words, the more the clutter is cleared, the more productive I become, and therefore, the more clutter is cleared…until the house is finally clean. (That’s when you notice the paint color is looking a little old…and that begins a whole different saga…)
Reduce the Load. Increase the Capacity.
In understanding the negative effects of clutter in our spaces and homes, it becomes evident that having a clean and organized space will only reverse the negative effects of the prior. Less stress, an improved mood, better focus and a working memory. And given all those benefits…a lot more to enjoy.
A space that can breathe is a brain that can breathe, allowing you to enjoy the life you are building for you and your family.
Where To Start
Around 17h30 each day, the JBL speaker starts vibrating with the song “It’s clean up timeeee. Clean up timeee”. My baby’s head starts bobbing and the kids are now familiar with their part in the game. Time to put away all the toys that were loved and strewn about during the day. This simple routine not only teaches young kids responsibility and ownership, but also becomes a reminder for me to store away the things I’ve used in their proper spaces. Come bedtime, it diminishes the clean-up time my husband and I do, leaving a few more precious moments of quiet.
1. Start Small - Rather than overwhelm yourself with the task of cleaning the entire house at once, divide the house into zones, by room or storage space. Even simpler, pick one cabinet, wardrobe or drawer to clean for the afternoon.
Remove everything (so you can see what you have).
Declutter the items you no longer use or need.
Clean or wipe out the drawer or cabinet.
Organize & replace the items you’re keeping.
The satisfaction of a clean and organized space will motivate you to go further, until you are no longer tripping over Hot Wheels cars and the baby zone is free of choking hazards.
2. The One-Minute Rule - Dawn, the Minimal Mom, talks about the One-minute Rule on her YouTube channel. If you can clean it in under a minute, just do it. It’s amazing how many little things are waiting to be cleaned or ordered that will take less than 60 seconds. My faulty spot is the shoe-drop in our entryway. It seems so much easier to take footwear off and toss them, without proper placement, which leads to a visual and muddy disarray in the welcoming area of our home.
A clean and organized environment is not only welcoming and restful, but can act as a catalyst towards creativity and new ideas. James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits” states “Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.” (6). In this he indicates that motivation is overvalued and often the environment is what matters more.
We all have days when we need to let things go, but as a regular part of routine, our family thrives when we have an environment that is free of clutter, leaving more room for play and enjoyment. The cost of clutter is too high. The kid’s great-aunt will never ask about the stuffy she gave on our one-year-old’s birthday, and throwing away the wooden giraffe does not mean I’ve trashed my memories of Africa. They are alive and well. Just like our collective sanity.
References
1. Los Angelos Times. (March 21, 2014). For many people, gathering possessions is just the stuff of life. https://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-keeping-stuff-20140322-story.html
2. Vancouver Sun. (March 9, 2019). Tidying up: The psychology of clutter and why we're now cleaning it up. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/0309-clutter
3. Bodrij FF, Andeweg SM, Prevoo MJL, Rippe RCA, Alink LRA. The causal effect of household chaos on stress and caregiving: An experimental study. Compr Psychoneuroendocrinol. 2021;8:100090. doi:10.1016/j.cpnec.2021.100090
4. Saxbe, D. E., & Repetti, R. (2010). No Place Like Home: Home Tours Correlate With Daily Patterns of Mood and Cortisol. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(1), 71-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209352864
5. McMains S, Kastner S. Interactions of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in human visual cortex. J Neurosci. 2011 Jan 12;31(2):587-97. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3766-10.2011. PMID: 21228167; PMCID: PMC3072218.
6. James Clear. (2018). Motivation is Overvalued. Environment is What Matters More. https://jamesclear.com/power-of-environment
