According to the findings of a number of well-established scientific studies, cleaning your environment may help lower your cortisol, turn down the visual noise and assist you in concentrating on the tasks that need to be completed, all of which may result in an improvement in your mood.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), the combination of the physical activity of cleaning with the end result of having a cleaner home can help reduce feelings of stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.
Our environment may indeed influence our mood.
We are acutely aware of the effects of any stressful factors in our environment. De-cluttering our lives, whether it be physically, digitally, or in any other way, enables us to face the sources of stress that we face head-on, which is beneficial to our mental health. Clutter has the potential to irritate us, divert our attention, and sap our much-required energy.
It has come to light that a buildup of disorganization and clutter can have a negative impact on our brains. Our brains thrive on order, and visual reminders of disorganization deplete our cognitive resources, making it more difficult for us to concentrate on one thing.
Clutter is a visual distraction that can increase cognitive overload and lower our working memory. This disorganization is frequently connected to traumatic experiences that occurred in the past in many instances. The anxiety associated with letting go may be the root cause of clutter.
Where to Start With Decluttering
Begin by setting a timer for five minutes at a time. Even if you only have five minutes a day to devote to clearing, you can gradually build up to longer periods of time.
Give away one thing every single day. This would mean removing 365 items from your home each and every single year. If you doubled this amount every day, you would have donated 730 items that you no longer required by the end of the year. Once it becomes too simple, you should raise this number.
Completely stuff a single junk bag. Obtain a garbage bag, and as quickly as you can, stuff it full of items that you can donate to Goodwill, then set it aside.
Donate the clothing that you never end up wearing. To find them, you need only turn your hangers around and hang all of your clothes in the opposite direction. When you have finished wearing an item, turn the hanger so that it is facing the appropriate direction. After a few months, you should get rid of any clothes that you haven’t worn.
Make a checklist for the decluttering process. Once you have a visualisation of where you want to start clearing out clutter, it makes the process of doing so a lot simpler.
Participate in the challenge of 12-12-12. Find 12 things you can get rid of, 12 things you can donate, and 12 things that need to be put back where they belong.
Consider entering your house for the very first time. It’s easy to “forget” how your home appears to someone who has never been there before. Approach your own residence as if you were going to the house of a close friend. Make alterations after writing down your initial thoughts on how tidy and well-organized the house appears to be.
Take photos of the area both before and after the change. Take a picture of a small section of one area of your home, such as the counter in your kitchen, and choose that area. After quickly clearing the objects in the photo, you should take a photo of the result. When you get a glimpse of how your household could look, it’s much easier to start clearing out more of your clutter and organizing your space.
Seek assistance from a friend. Ask a close friend or member of the family to look through ones home and make some recommendations regarding the large items that should be discarded or donated. If you want to defend the item and keep it, your friend needs to agree with the reason you gave for doing so. The time has come to just get rid of it if they do not agree with it.
The Four-Box Method should be utilized. Get yourself four boxes, and then label them as follows: “junk,” “give away,” “keep,” and “relocate.” You can start in any room of your house, but you need to make sure to put each item in the correct box. You must not omit even a single item, regardless of how unimportant you may believe it to be. This process could take a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months, but by the end, you will have a better idea of how many things you actually own and what you should do with each of those things.