Summary:
Not only is clutter bad for our physical well-being, but we’re now being told it can also affect our mental health leading to cognitive processes such as decision-making becoming impaired. This article looks at how clutter can affect an individual’s health and how to take the first steps to a clutter-free life.

Details or Sample:
De-Clutter for a Healthy Home, Body, and Mind

Scientists have confirmed that clutter is not only bad for our physical well-being, but it can have a negative effect on our mental health, too. While the bacteria attracted to unclean surfaces and neglected areas in our home can cause our physical health to suffer, excessive hoarders are also subjecting their brains to stress and strain because of their clutter. In a study by Dr. David Tolin, founder of America’s Anxiety Disorder Centre at Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living in Connecticut, a group of obsessive hoarders were found to have increased activity in the section of the brain involved with cognitive processes such as decision-making. Their brains were “stressed to the max,” according to Tolin, and showed signs of impairment. So how do you know if your clutter has got to the stage where it’s having a detrimental effect on your health?

Some people are just naturally untidy. We all know someone who’s disorganized and who will never be any other way regardless of the amount of help – paid or otherwise – they receive. But there’s perhaps a thin line between someone being messy and being so untidy that they´re at risk of having the quality of their life reduced as a result of their clutter. For while some people have a sanguine attitude to their untidiness, others can easily slip into depression because a simple chore such as keeping the house clean seems to be completely beyond them.

According to the website of one company offering its services to help people live a clutter-free life, clutter is a problem if it causes an individual stress, creates tension between them and their family and friends, gets in the way of having people to visit or stay, or is a topic of conversation that often crops up.

While the naturally untidy among us might never give a thought to clutter, there are those individuals who know that deep down inside the untidy persona they present to the world there’s a tidy individual struggling to emerge. These are the people for whom “clean the house” is one chore that’s often added to their mental to-do list and, if it’s not done, can nag away causing stress and anxiety. This can become compounded if an individual is the type who sets themselves high standards; not cleaning the house will be seen as failing and the longer it goes on the worse the situation gets.

Some individuals’ attitude to clutter renders them at risk of alienating their friends and damaging their close relationships. These are the individuals who can’t de-clutter because their emotional attachment to certain objects prevents them from doing so. Among this group are the obsessive hoarders. Excessive cluttering can be symptomatic of a host of psychological disorders including grief and chronic pain. Some people develop irrational beliefs about objects and think that throwing an item away reflects on their feelings towards a person or their relationship with a certain individual. For example, a man widowed for a number of years may regard getting rid of his late wife’s items as disrespectful; as though in doing so he’s telling the world that he’s ceased thinking about her or missing her. Or a woman may refuse to throw away her nephew’s old picture book that was inadvertently left at her house many years ago and for which her nephew has long grown out of wanting. And it’s not only emotional attachment that stops some people disposing of certain objects; some individuals have problems throwing away items because they believe they will need them at some stage in the future.

It’s fairly easy to live clutter-free if you’re untidy and disorganized. You can employ someone to help you become tidy and organized, or rather you can employ someone to tidy and organize for you. De-cluttering isn’t so simple, though, if you’re unable to throw away objects you feel emotionally attached to. However, if the situation has reached the stage where you believe your quality of life is impaired because of your resistance to let go of certain objects, then you need to take action. Set yourself a date to throw away these items and prepare yourself. Ask friends and family for support, if you feel you need it. They will know how difficult it is for you to get rid of these items and will be able to be there for you during the process. Retain one or two items and incorporate them into your new-look de-cluttered living space. And remember that throwing away objects from your past enables you to make space in your life for future events and experiences.

De-cluttering not only frees up your living space but also wipes “tidy house” from that mental to-do list that’s constantly nagging away at you. Furthermore, your brain is also free for any of those all-important decision-making tasks.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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