We’ve all felt it — the closing-in feeling you feel when your kitchen counters are covered, your hallway is clogged, and you can’t find anything. For perhaps the millionth time you tell yourself it’s time to get organized. You might even feel anxious and overwhelmed all the time. If so, chances are the clutter and chaos in your home are impacting your mental health. But what can you do about it?
The impact of disorganization
A cluttered or disorganized home or workspace impacts your physical health. A cluttered home produces fire hazards, dust, and mold. Some studies have even shown an association between clutter and excess weight. Clutter affects your food choices and makes you more likely to choose unhealthy foods over healthier options. Disorganization and clutter have even been known to negatively impact your personal relationships.
And you don’t have to look far to see the impact clutter has on your mental health. Your disorganization, unfinished projects, and piles of “to dos” may be contributing to your stress and depression. As you work hard to clear away the piles and never-ending projects, your brain will rest easy and make it easier for you to feel relaxed and happy.
What prevents you from getting organized?
Even if you know your disorganized home is stressing you out, it doesn’t make it easy to fix. Common deterrents to organization include:
- You’ve never really been organized before. Not knowing how good organization feels makes it hard to want that feeling in your life.
- You have too much stuff.
- Organizing takes time. Add a career, family life, and other obligations and organization falls to the bottom of your to-do list.
Benefits of organizing
Organizing your life isn’t easy. Even knowing your disorganization is causing you pain probably isn’t enough to motivate you. What are some of the benefits?
Organization helps you do the following things:
- Improve sleep
- Reduce stress
- Improve your relationships
- Focus on other aspects of your life and free up time and energy to improve your life in other areas
- Reduce depression and anxiety
- Make better food choices and stick to a workout regime, which will help you lose weight
- Make you more productive
Being organized doesn’t have to take a lot of time or effort. You’ll be most successful when you take time consistently to organize your home or workplace. As you focus on being organized, your physical and mental health will likely improve.
Please call me to tackle your clutter! You’ll be glad you did.
In Health,
Jolene