Did you know that studies prove that Clutter & Depression go hand in hand?
When clutter is weighing you down with the toys in the living room, beds unmade, and dishes left in the sink… these things make us feel mentally cluttered. It makes our homes look messy and it makes our emotions feel messy.
This newly updated post was originally published in 2017.
Clutter & Depression are linked
In the book Life at Home in The Twenty-First Century (This book was based on a rigorous, nine-year project at UCLA where middle-aged Americans are studied, watching how they use the space & things in their home), it states that clutter affects our mood.
I couldn’t agree more.
It affects our mood and how we feel about ourselves. This clutter, which is mostly things that we don’t even use, is weighing us down.
In the book, they found that there is a connection between the objects in the house & the stress hormone levels. More Clutter = More Stress. (Women were far more stressed by it than men).
Why? Women are judging themselves and others on the cleanliness of their homes. In their minds, a clean home meant a happy home. It made them feel accomplished and put together to have a well-maintained clean home.
When we start to have too much stuff, it can really put a weight on us. An emotional weight, but still a weight. It makes us feel like we have a never-ending list of things to do.
It makes us feel frazzled and in disarray. It makes our tempers high and our patience low.
Do you find yourself reprimanding your kids for not cleaning up? Or for no reason at all?
It is because you are overwhelmed by the mess of it all, but having too much stuff.
Do you know who feels our stress the most? Our kids. (It’s proven)
Why Does Clutter Make Us Stressed?
If you are thinking about how your house is cluttered… this is the time that you aren’t spending LIVING YOUR LIFE. Once you are able to free yourself from the burden of these extra physical things, the ones that seem to tie us down, we can let them go and have more time to spend enjoying life.
Your home is where you should go to relax. You can walk into a clean, fresh, sunlit home. You can walk into a home that welcomes you and invites you to feel joyful, renewed, and calm.
We are going to get there.
You can start by decluttering your home.
What Can You Do About Clutter & Stress?
If you feel like your clutter is causing you stress, what are you going to do about it?
You need to get organized. I have a declutter course that talks about how to declutter, clean & organize your home because I wholeheartedly believe that being organized saves my sanity. I’ve realized that you can not organize clutter. You have got to just get rid of it.
Did you know that over the course of our lives, we will spend an average of 3,680 hours (153 days) searching for misplaced items? This study found we lose around nine items every day (which ends up being 198,743 items over the course of our lives.)
The items on the top of the list are keys, phones, glasses, and papers. – Research & numbers come from The Daily Mail
You probably have too much stuff. Most of us do.
You can take a Declutter Course (clear your home of clutter with the support of others!) It’s the best thing I’ve ever done and thankfully it’s a way that others are able to declutter their homes, as well.
Why do people have SO much stuff in their homes? There are usually four reasons:
1- Sentiment: We don’t want to get rid of it and risk hurting someone’s feelings.
2- Fear Of Needing It: What if we want it ONE day? Will it come back into style? What if I want to make that fancy meal with that fancy appliance?
3- We have ‘backups’. I literally had two crock-pots for about three years. I had five cookie sheets… which was more than was even able to fit into the oven at one time. Why? It was my backup.
4. Aesthetics: We keep things to make our house look “beautiful” but we end up keeping more than we actually want (and it makes us feel worse because it clutters our homes.)
ARE YOU READY TO DECLUTTER?
Here are three options to get you started…
1- Join Our Free the 30-day Declutter Challenge. (Print the calendar to help you stay on track!)
2- Print these Two Free Cleaning Schedule sheets.
3. Jump in with both feet & declutter the entire house with the Whole-House Declutter Course. You will declutter & organize your ENTIRE whole home with my help. It starts today, so join soon!
You Can’t Organize Clutter
No matter which option you pick, remember that you can’t just push your clutter under the rug. You’ve got to get rid of that clutter and there is no time like the present!
Don’t be afraid to let go of things in your home… they are just things. The people in your life matter more and when you get rid of the things in your home, you gain time.
You will stop looking for things, stop spending hours cleaning things and stop organizing by just moving things around, only to have to look for them later. Decluttering & organizing will save you so much time and you can finally spend that time on the things that really matter to you.
