Can Clutter Affect Your Mental Health?
Have you ever questioned how of significant impact clutter can have on your mental health, how many people struggle with that on a daily basics.
Clutter can be everywhere and we don’t even see it. It can be at work with have piles of paper work on your desk, a pile of documents that needs to filed. It can be at home with having clothes covering your bedroom floors. A clutter kitchen such as kitchen counters, kitchen drawers, kitchen cabinets. We can’t forget about a clutter garage. That’s a space that can easily get cluttered, with items that are not in need at the moment or not in the right season to be in used. Any of these can cause significant amount of stress and anxiety which can affect your mental health.
Jaime Hord Founder at Horderly Professional Organizing once said, “Clutter and mess can consciously or unconscious affect you mentally. “A messy place can either give an impression of some on who is too busy and could give creativity, but most likely a messy space could also imply issues for your health like anxiety and stressed.
Hopefully these tips in decluttering can help relieve some stress and some motivation.
How Did It Start?
Realizing what caused the clutter plays a big part in how to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. Sometimes we don’t realize what causes so much stress, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed. You need to ask yourself how did I allow this to happened, what happened?
We all create life projects but they turn out to be unfinished projects. That could be due to unexpected life changing events that accrued. That could be simply laziness or lack of motivation, or even depression, and how could you not be felling all of these things if by just see how much clutter you have created causes so much anxiety. You probably see no way out.
With so much cutter around you, image how cluttered your mind is with ideas, thoughts, solutions, dos and don’ts. Your mind is always working. Sometimes clutter can turn into Hoarding. Not knowing how to let go of items. Some people even start gaining sentimental with their items but won’t ever use them or need them. That can turn into something serious, and definitely not good for your mental health.
Baby Steps
Bobby Berk once sad “Decluttering can be overwhelming, so start with that one small area. Clean out your junk drawers. It can lead to so many more beautiful things. Start there, and you’ll find yourself cleaning the whole rest of the house.” Noticing how nice and organized one area turns out to be it’ll turn into almost an addiction to get the rest done.
Taking baby steps is a great and healthy way to start decluttering. When it comes to your mental health you should always take it seriously. If you try to get the job done all at once you will only overwhelm yourself even more, taking one room at a time I strongly believe rushing will only slow you down. Start by getting rid of those items you don’t need, of those items that are probably broken or just not in good conditions anymore. Those items that we always say “I’ll reuse it again “trust me I’ve said it, but let’s be honest, we won’t and that’s just taking up space. Donation is a great way to give back, and allow others to be able to actually take another use out of it. Rent a storage unit if you have things worth storing.
I can assure you clearing out some space even if it’s a small area it will bring some peace back into your life, even motivate you to keep going. That’s why they say the first step is so important for your process.
You’re Not Alone
Its always okay to ask for help. Most of the times when our mental health isn’t okay, we seem to feel alone, afraid to ask for help, afraid people will judge you if they see what you’re dealing with, when it’s the compete opposite, having an extra hand or a support system can really make the process fun, and it won’t feel so much as a number on your to-do-list. There’s so much help out there, companies that would help if time is one of the reasons why you can’t get it done. Accepting that you need professional help is such a big step for your recovery in your mental health.
Make It A Habit
Create a schedule, make it a routine make it easier to take everything in, to not over stress yourself out. Everyone has a routine they do every day. Samuel Johnson once said, “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
When you’re dealing with anxiety and feeling stressed you have to take a deep breath in and remind yourself, “baby steps”, “progress takes time”,” you’re not on your past”, “rushing only slows you down.”
Once you dictate an hour of your day to clean and organize an area in your daily routine it’ll become easier, and before you even know It, you’ll be done. Having a clean and organized space, it’ll feel like you can breathe again, it will make a huge impact on your mental health. You’ll be able to feel the relief.
Achieve The Purpose
Once you realize that having clutter isn’t healthy for your mental health just simple not okay Is when things start to change. Peter Walsh said, “Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor its anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living.” I stand by that, because you can’t improve your life without letting go or changing the things you don’t like anymore. As we get older you realize what you truly want in life. You can’t get there when your mental health is being affected by the clutter. Sometimes the messiest moments lead us to our greatest growth, and achieving your goal is the best reward.