How Clutter Affects Your Life
Decluttering and organization go hand in hand. I have talked about 7 Steps to Decluttering and this week, I want to talk about how clutter affects your life. I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a perfect homemaker… I’m more of what you would call a would-be homemaker or an uninspired homemaker. I’m also a very nostalgic and sentimental person, so sometimes letting go of things can be difficult.
My desk, as of this moment, is organized chaos. I know where stuff is but to the untrained eye… it’s a mess. I say this because it’s true and I also say this because it needs to get organized in a neater fashion. I’ll have another post about organizing your workspace in the future, so for now… let’s just say my desk needs some help.
I’m aware of the issue and I’ve been aware of the issue. I also know that having a more organized desk will only be more helpful to me in the future. But can clutter really affect your life?
Yes. It can.
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6 Impactful Ways That Clutter Affects Your Life
How does your home make you feel when you walk in the door at the end of the day? Do you feel peaceful and glad to be at home because it is your sanctuary?
Alternatively, do you feel dread because there is a mountain of unfolded laundry in the chair, a stack of magazines spread all over the floor and a sink full of this morning’s dishes? Scientific reports claim the state of your house reflects the state of your mind. Disorganization and clutter indicate there is something out of balance.
The trick is learning what is off-kilter and how to set it straight.
Living in a cluttered home is stressful – for everyone. Mom is constantly pulled from what she needs to do to help someone find his or her homework. Dad is late for work because he cannot find his car keys. As the pressure to find those things that are lost mounts, so does the tension. Before too long, something or someone snaps.
Think about how you feel when you have misplaced something. You may berate yourself for being careless. You may feel frustrated and ready to give up. When your child comes in to ask a question, you may not respond in a loving manner and feelings are hurt.
Decluttering and organizing your home can help alleviate this problem.
Clutter drains you of energy and makes you feel tired. When you have to look at clutter, you most likely feel overwhelmed. You know you need to do something but you do not have the energy. Take time to clear the clutter from one small area.
It can help you and your family feel more energetic and more inspired to work on decluttering in other areas.
Did you know clutter could be making you sick physically? No one wants to think about it, but clutter can be the breeding ground for germs, dust, mold and mildew. It could even hide a problem with mice. If you do not believe clutter can make you sick, think of the stress mentioned above.
If you have too much stress, you may develop high blood pressure. Dust and mold can cause allergies or worse.
Clutter can also affect your body weight.
People with clutter are usually sedentary while those with an uncluttered home are active. Part of this may be because the clutter in the home makes it hard for you to move. You may also be using clutter, like being overweight, as a means to protect yourself.
Clutter keeps people at bay and so there is little chance that you will be hurt.
It pains me to admit it but at one point, this house was an absolute mess. Nowhere near what you see on Hoarders but it was bad. I’d love to point fingers and say that it was just my ex’s fault but it’s not. I was to blame for this as well. I had gotten to the point where there was only so much that I could do by myself and well, I let it go.
And continued to let it go.
I’ve vowed to myself that this will never happen again.
The Autism Family Guide is your shortcut to autism parenting.
How do I know?
Because friend, the resources in this guide are lifechanging.
Create routines with ease, calming strategies at your fingertips, and more.
Kori
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clutter stresses me out.. my wife doesn’t like it when i declutter without her.. so i need to always run it by her.. lol
These is definitely some disorder in my house, but I blame it on the kids and always having to clean up other people’s messes. If I only had my own to clean up, it would all be perfect! LOL! At least I’m not a hoarder. I do love to get rid of things and free up space.
I like organized chaos. I always have a pile of mail, or coupons, or work papers sitting around. It may look messy to some but I know exactly what it is and where to find it!! LOL!!
Clutter is one of the worst things for a home. It increases stress, and it makes everything harder.
I always try to keep the stress level to a minimum, but sometimes it just doesn’t work. Thanks for sharing Rescue. I’ll definitely give it a try.
I agree 100% about de-cluttering. I can’t work or think straight when my desk is cluttered with my kids stuff. I always clean and organize first before I can work.
I can soooo understand – and I always remind myself of Gestalt psychology which tells us to try and understand our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. Keeping uncuttered in a chaotic world!
My entire house is somewhat organized chaos and I do feel the stress. Part of the stress comes from the fact that I can’t do anything about it because we just don’t have space. I can’t wait until we have our own place where we can organize and use space more efficiently!
Clutter is terrible. I’ve been trying to decltter for what seems like forever. It’s terrible and with a house of 8 I doubt there’s any escaping it!
I didn’t realize there was so much surrounding a cluttered home. I can totally see how it could effect your behaviors and emotions.
Clutter is the worst thing in the entire world. It always depresses me when it just sits in the same spot forever.
It is definitely hard to look around at a cluttered house. I like to try to keep mine as clutter free as possible for peace of mind.
I have been de-cluttering my home for the last few weeks. I love how organized my house is getting.
Such a clean freak here, I can’t let things get too cluttered; it bothers me a lot!
It’s time for me to declutter again… I can’t believe how much trash I keep!
I can’t stand clutter plus I’m a little bit OCD. It literally drives me mad when I see clutter!!!
Oh my goodness … this is so very true! Our circumstances have changed recently and as a result, housekeeping has fallen by the wayside. All the clutter just adds to the stress that resulted in clutter in the first place!
Oh man, I can tell you from experience that clutter is a killer for a person! lol, I used to have a lot of clutter… we combined 2 households of things when my husband and I got married and then accumulated a lot of his fathers stuff. Total craziness. I feel so much better now that we’ve gotten things under control 🙂
Organizing is one of the most important in my house,though having a kids around is impossible not see the clutters all over the house.
My desk is a mess too! I try to find time everyday to clean/organize one area of my living space daily (I have a 3 year old permabuddy so cleaning is a slow process…). Its a never-ending task of adulthood, right up there with laundry!
So important to declutter. I try to at least once a month.
I try to stay clutter free as much as I can. I bothers me to not have stuff in it place.
My boyfriend is the one who controls the messes. I hate things being messy but I cannot clean, it total drains me.
I can see a direct correlation on how I am feeling physically and how my home looks as far as clutter goes. I think you made an excellent point there!
Clutter certainly can have an effect on your life. I’ve realized that through time and am trying to cut things down.
I hate clutter, clutter makes us feel so overwhelmed. We moved to Florida and got rid of everything, so strange having no clutter.
Clutter piles up so quickly. I have cleared out my kids toys twice in the last couple of months. We still seem to be overrun with toys.
We did de-clutter my office and it feels like a breath of fresh air!