9 Health Benefits of Decluttering Your Home

Have you ever entered your home and noticed a lot of stuff and thought it was a mess? If there is just too much stuff, it has already become clutter in your home. We are all guilty of having that tendency to keep stuff for future use. It is so unfortunate that we are often late to realize that once you keep these items inside your drawer or cabinet, they pileup together and may end up being forgotten, turning into clutter in the long run.

We can transform our house into what we have always wanted it to be. So, what can we do? We declutter them. Decluttering and making a clear space for your home has a lot of health benefits. Decluttering not only makes organizing and storage easier, but it has also been shown to be beneficial to your health by allowing you to sort through and give clear direction to your thoughts and emotions. You probably will not experience all of these benefits all at once, but here is the deal: if you take the time to declutter your home, you will really start to see some of these amazing benefits! So now, here are just some of the benefits of decluttering your home:

1. Improve Health and Well-being

Did you know that decluttering anywhere in your house or at your workplace doesn’t only help with your mental health, but it also improves your physical health? You will be convinced to throw out things that have already remained unused and could be the source of dirt. Some research^[1] suggests that de-cluttering can have as much of an effect on your well-being as it does on your physical space and decluttering your space could make you healthier and happier.

Living in a place where there’s a lot of clutter can cause trouble to your whole well-being and give you some health issues. A lot of stuff may trigger allergies and other respiratory problems, or it can be a home to unwanted pests that can definitely be carriers of germs and bacteria. Decluttering can help keep you get organized and free from pests or dirt in your storage areas. These will then keep you away from health risks and diseases. This will improve your health and your whole well-being as well.

2. Boost Productivity and Creativity

According to statistics,^[2] 75 percent or more of all physician visits are stress-related, and the results you get from decluttering not only increase productivity, security, and profits but lessen overall stress and medical care costs. Some people find it difficult to concentrate when surrounded by clutter. Clutter creates so many distractions. Working at a messy, disorganized desk may hinder you from working productively. Messy and disorganized surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and may divide your attention. This will then result in a decrease in your productivity and creativity while also increasing the likelihood of bad moods and increased stress levels.

So, how do you like working in a well-organized and clean environment? Peaceful and happy, right? Without all that clutter, you can increase your peace of mind, concentration, and focus. As it increases your productivity, creativity will then come along. It will certainly boost your creativity now that your head is relaxed and clear.

3. Give you a sense of accomplishment

When everything fits into place because that’s what you want, of course, it’s a great sense of accomplishment. It is indeed a hard task to get things organized and maintain that orderliness. When you can accomplish even the smallest part of your house or elsewhere, there is a great sense of accomplishment. Little by little, you will feel that everything is well and you will feel a different level of success when you accomplish decluttering each area. This will then result in more accomplishments and help to keep you moving towards your goals.

4. Prevent or lessen illness or allergies

Yes, of course, decluttering can help you ward off germs and allergy symptoms because, as you declutter, you’re helping the surroundings stay clean and organized. Less clutter means less space for allergens to occupy. And yes, when we say less clutter, it definitely means there is less items to clean. Wow! Isn’t it amazing to think that removing clutter means you are also removing mess and illness? Because it removes dust particles and toxins from the air, it makes you healthier by preventing illness or allergies. As a result, you will notice along the way that allergy symptoms lessen and overall wellness will improve.

5. Make your mind clear and light

Experts^[3] have always recommended decluttering as a way to make your home a safer, more pleasant place to live. In addition to that, based on scientific research^[4] clutter can be bad for your physical and mental health. Decluttering will help your mind become clearer and freer from stress and mental burdens. Mess and disorganized things around you will keep rattling around in your brain and occupy your thoughts which prevents you from focusing.

By reducing or clearing the mess and clutter it will also help clear all your chaos, confusion, and burdens in your mind. This in turn reduces the mental load you are carrying around with you and clears up your mood and the decision fatigue.

6. Improve your sleep

A recent study^[5] revealed that having a super-cluttered bedroom may affect how well you sleep. The research focused on people who consider themselves hoarders and the findings may apply to anyone who sleeps in cramped, chaotic surroundings. Having a tidy, clean, and organized environment will help you relax and give you the remarkable peace that is beneficial to sleeping well. Less clutter in your bedroom will give you less time to think. The more you declutter your ambiance, your schedule, and implement better systems, the less thinking you will have to do. People who sleep in cluttered rooms may not realize their environment is causing their sleeping problems. They could be having trouble falling asleep at night or experiencing restless periods.

7. Give yourself more space

Organizing everything will create a big space in your place. Just organizing some extra stuff all over your kitchen table will give you some space, or enough space in your kitchen for other purposes.

As you maintain and keep organizing your things everywhere, you will be surprised to find out how much space can be found.

8. Lessen your stress

Research revealed,^[6] less clutter has been connected to less cortisol, the stress-causing hormone, in our system. Clutter can cause stress from the burden of needing to go through it all, organize it, move it, store it, file it, give it to people, sell it, and be able to escape from these responsibilities.

Have you ever looked around your room and seen a lot of things? You may have gotten used to them, but all that stuff is calling for your attention and it all adds up to stress, without even realizing it.

By removing this stuff from around your place, you are also removing some of the stress in your life as well.

9. Reduce anxiety

When your home is cluttered, your mind can become cluttered too. Clutter causes anxiety according to a psychologist,^[7] messy homes and workspaces could leave people feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed.

A cluttered home may negatively impact the mind, overwhelming already overloaded brains with too much sensory information. This can cause irritableness, stress levels become high, and even make you feel ashamed or embarrassed about your home when guests come round.

Takeaway

Clutter doesn’t only apply to our physical environment but also to our physical health, mental health, time, and freedom from stuff as well. Mental clutter can be just as stressful as physical clutter. So, you have to fix it and do some decluttering. These decluttering benefits were just a few among so many benefits, like having something to do with improving stress, impacting productivity, and generally making household tasks much easier, and a lot of other benefits. After you’ve decluttered, you will be amazed at the physical and mental health benefits it brings.

Feeling stressed? If you are feeling overwhelmed by stress or if it is affecting your health, contact your healthcare provider. Call your doctor if you notice any new or unusual symptoms.