The Health Benefits of Decluttering: How Clutter Can Affect Allergies, Diet, Fitness, and Mental Health
From allergies and our diet to fitness and, especially, our mental health, clutter impacts your quality of life in a variety of ways.
In almost every conversation that I have with a client, the topic of clutter is brought up. Clutter means different things to different people, so it can be hard to nail down a definition. Generally speaking, it means there’s a lot of things out of place, lying around, or just generally collecting throughout your home in places you don’t want them. Understandably, for most people their concern with clutter stems from the aesthetic. It doesn’t look good, it gets in the way of daily activities, and creates stress for people visually.
THE ALLERGEN EFFECT
What is rarely brought up in conversation is the cause-and-effect of clutter and different areas of our health. From allergies and our diet to fitness and, especially, our mental health, clutter impacts your quality of life in a variety of ways. The purpose of this blog is to inform about some of these effects, how clutter is related to them, and how your organization or removal of clutter can improve these areas.
While my home is not cluttered (most of the time, wink), I have only one allergic reaction that I experience on a regular basis. I have no idea what exactly it is I’m allergic to, but whatever the cause, I sneeze almost violently 10 to 12 times over the span of about 15 minutes, and then I’m fine. It’s more than a little embarrassing in a public setting or among friends, but being healthy otherwise, I’ve come to accept the inconvenience.
I have worked in many homes where the clutter that I’ve been tasked with organizing and purging has contributed to a level of uncleanliness that has likely contributed to my client’s allergies and other health issues. I regularly work with clients who complain of health problems, and while diet and exercise are obviously major contributors, things like dust and allergens tend to collect around paper, pet dander, and untouched boxes full of keepsakes that have an effect on our wellness.
Areas with stacked papers, textiles, and unused items are difficult to clean around and will naturally collect these irritants over time. This naturally increases the effect of allergy symptoms like coughing, watery eyes, sneezing, and asthma triggers. It affects the air quality and can even collect in our food and water.
DECLUTTERING AND DIET
By getting our homes decluttered, areas are much easier to clean, airflow is improved, and corners and crevices throughout our home are removed of these toxins. With fewer areas for allergens to hide, symptoms can decrease or even disappear. Simply put, decluttering supports a healthier living environment.
In most homes, the kitchen is one of the most frequently used areas of the home. The kitchen and the bathroom are the only two areas that everyone in the house uses and where we use the widest variety of products and daily tools. Excess clutter in the kitchen is particularly disruptive because it often involves dirty dishes, counters, and cabinet doors. This can reduce the motivation to cook and prepare food, a trend with effects that only multiply with time. Visual chaos in your kitchen can also increase mindless snacking or reliance on takeout, as well as avoidance of getting areas organized.
Countless studies have concluded that there’s a strong psychological link between clutter and diet. The stress from excess clutter can increase cravings for comfort foods, very similar to the stress that we feel when we are sick or going through a traumatic experience. Decision fatigue can also increase, as messy environments often lead to making healthier choices more difficult.
Having a more organized kitchen makes meal prep and mindful eating more likely, and the increased visibility of nutritious foods increases our likelihood of making healthier decisions. Just think about how much more motivated you are to make a home-cooked meal or prep food for the week in a clean, clutter-free kitchen.
LESS CLUTTER AND YOUR BODY
It’s often surprising to people that clutter can create a barrier to increased physical activity. A lack of open space makes activities like yoga, stretching, and workouts more difficult and decreases the motivation to get started. I can testify from my many decluttering sessions in home gyms and garages how quickly exercise equipment becomes hidden in accessible areas or simply buried under other items.
The visual noise of clutter drains our motivation, leading to avoidance behaviors. The most common word I hear in association with clutter is “overwhelming.” This can have a serious spiral effect where one pile of clutter leads to another, triggering a response of hopelessness and de-motivation. This feeling of overwhelm reduces the energy needed for self-care routines like fitness.
Imagine this scenario: you’re sitting on the couch watching a TV show or movie with a to-do list, and you look around at clothes, paperwork, kids’ toys, and more cluttering the room. How demotivating is this in terms of getting started on that to do list? The overwhelm creeps in and your planned 30 minutes to an hour watching Netflix turns into three or four hours.
Now, imagine you have plans for stretching, yoga, or a simple at-home workout with weights or bands, and you’re looking at a clear floor with everything put away and plenty of space to get started. What is the likelihood that you get started in the second environment, rather than the previously mentioned cluttered space? A more organized home simply leads to better mental clarity and motivation to move, and makes routines easier and more enjoyable.
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON CLUTTER
This leads us to the psychological toll that clutter can have. By increasing feelings of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm, it can affect our ability to focus, accomplish tasks, get work done, and even our sleep.
I come from a family with a long history of depression, an increasingly common mental challenge for people of all ages in this country. I know from conversations with clients during my consultations, sessions, and phone calls the prevalence of stress in their lives and how much the clutter has increased this disorder for themselves and other members of their families. The helplessness caused by clutter accumulating throughout the home increases feelings of guilt about their own levels of motivation and the effects it may be having on their children.
I make it a point to commend my clients on their decision to get professional help with decluttering their homes and congratulate them when I notice that they have taken on some of the clutter themselves in between sessions. I love my job because it allows me to create a more calm and peaceful environment for my clients, and help them feel a larger sense of control and accomplishment at overcoming the mess.
One of the main causes of stress in our lives is a feeling of a loss of control over our accomplishments and our environment. Decluttering addresses both of these simultaneously. It helps break the cycle of avoidance and overwhelm that created the clutter in the first place and turned it into a growing problem.
With improved mental clarity comes improvement in sleep quality and duration. As someone who has struggled with insomnia frequently, I’m very familiar with the feeling of hours spent staring at the ceiling, stressed out about this issue or that. It happens to the best of us, and generally, the problem only gets worse with age. Insomnia has always had a strong correlation with mental challenges like depression.
More than 20% of pharmaceuticals sold in this country are for sleep or depression issues. For anyone with a cluttered home that is a contributing factor to their stress levels, hiring a professional organizer, or finding the motivation to declutter their home and keep it organized can be a natural solution to these problems.
SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE
If you’re looking to tackle declutter on your own, after working with thousands of customers over the years, my best advice is to start small. One drawer, shelf, or cabinet at a time can begin to decrease that feeling of being overwhelmed. The key to the “a little bit at a time” method is having a system that will prevent those areas that you’ve already decluttered and organized from returning to their previous state of chaos. Having a “home for every item” is the best means of staying organized while you’re attacking one area at a time. Literally everything that enters your hands should return to its “home” in your home.
When I tell people I’m a professional organizer, I can tell that they often have a vision in their minds of a “Home Edit” reality show environment, where everything is aesthetically perfect, every category of items is housed in a beautiful high-end container and meticulously labeled. While this is a nice goal to strive for, most of it has nothing to do with either the reality of organizing or the level of organization required to keep things tidy. I’m a big fan of labels because of their practical use in knowing where everything goes and where it should return when it’s done being used. However, it’s more important to concentrate on functionality and necessity than just a desired aesthetic.
Let me explain what I mean by practical use and necessity and the difference between that and the “Home Edit” ideal. It’s perfectly acceptable to use containers that you have already purchased or even containers intended for other uses like jars and Tupperware. The goal here is to get things sorted into different categories and into a container in spaces where they are mainly out of sight until you need them. A label maker can be a nice low-cost investment to help you keep everything in its home, especially if there are multiple people in your household.
PLAN THE PURGE
With any organizing session, no matter what space of the home you’re in, you should have a plan for what you’re going to keep, donate, recycle, and toss. Use trash bags in small or medium-size trash cans, with a different can for what you’re keeping, donating, recycling, and throwing away. Give yourself limits in terms of what you keep. When is the last time you used a given item? If the answer is a year or more, and the item is something that you’re keeping for any other reason than it’s a stored keepsake, it’s time for it to go.
Do you remember the great Bill Murray movie from the 90s, What about Bob? The agoraphobic Bob was terrified to leave his home for any reason. His psychiatrist’s advice was detailed in his frequently referenced book, “Baby Steps.” The same goes for getting your home decluttered and organized to live a healthier lifestyle. Take baby steps, attack a little bit at a time, stick to the “home for every item” rule, and see your stress levels decrease along with an improved sense of mental clarity.
