Why Decluttering is Important for Self-care: Own Less, Stress Less, Enjoy More

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Decluttering is important for your self-care and overall well-being. And we will soon find out WHY!

We are living in a time when almost all of us are dealing with enormous amount of stress and anxiety on a regular basis. Yet many of us don’t realize how our personal habits may be contributing to our stress levels.

Too much clutter and messiness can cause distress easily. Decluttering not only makes it easier to manage your home, it can also improve your mood and state of mind in myriad of ways. At first, it might not seem like decluttering your home has anything to do with self-care. But it does have a lot to do with your mental, emotional, and physical well-being and how you feel.

Catherine Roster, PhD, a professor of management at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, who has studied the effect clutter has on our psychological well-being explains, “It gives people a renewed sense of control over their environment. When people go through the process of decluttering, they feel a sense of freedom and liberation. It’s a reclaiming of a sense of mastery and control. They feel more competent and efficient.”

What is Self-care?

Self-care means intentionally doing things to take care of your minds, bodies, and souls by engaging in activities that promote your well-being, uplift your spirit, increase your happiness, and reduce stress. Good self-care is key to improved health and reduced anxiety. Doing so enhances your ability to enjoy your life to its fullest.

Self-care is important to maintain a healthy, soulful relationship with yourself. It’s even more important to practice self-care during this pandemic to keep your stress level low and make you come alive.

While many of us only think of spa treatments, vacations, bubble baths, reading books, meditating, manicures and massages as acts of self-care, it actually involves much more than that. Self-care isn’t just the fun activities that generally make us feel good. Self-care also includes doing things that are kind of boring or things you don’t really like to do but which can improve your life and overall well-being.

As for example, self-care can also mean going to bed early even if you feel staying up late, getting an annual physical check up with your doctor or visiting your dentist, or cooking simple, healthy food at home even when you don’t feel like cooking, or flossing your teeth every night.

And sometimes self-care involves doing things you don’t even consider as self-care, like decluttering your home! Decluttering doesn’t sound much fun, I know! For many people, it may be an overwhelming task to do. It’s certainly not something what most of us would think about doing if we had a few minutes to show love and compassion to ourselves!

But not only is decluttering a form of self-care, but also decluttering is important for your self-care.

The Reasons Why Decluttering is Important for Self-care:

Reduces stress

The best thing about decluttering your excess stuff is it reduces your stress and helps you stay calm.

A cluttered, messy home increases your stress and anxiety. I can vow for this. Whenever I’m in a too cluttered, messy place, I feel anxious and can’t rest.

A direct link between excessive home clutter and higher stress levels has been found in numerous studies in recent years. Studies revealed that clutter increases women’s cortisol level more dramatically than men’s.

In one study, women who lived in cluttered homes had high levels of the stress hormone cortisol throughout the day, while those who lived in a decluttered, well-organized, and restful space had lower levels. As psychologist Sherrie Bourg Carter explains in Psychology Today, “Messy homes and work spaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed.”

Most of us want our home to be a sanctuary where we can retreat to and relax in. But a messy, cluttered home makes rest and relaxation difficult for us. In a paper published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology in 2016, survey responses from adults in the United States and Canada revealed that clutter can have a negative impact on our subjective well-being and happiness. Though we typically consider our “home” a safe and secure place, clutter compromises some of that security, according to the survey responses.

When you declutter your home, your choose to own less stuff which also create less mess and chaos. You don’t feel the constant pressure to clean the house. It’s easier to keep it neat, organized, and maintain. You don’t have stuff scattered all around competing for your attention which also results in reduced stress and anxiety. You feel more relaxed and calm in your home.

Saves you more time

Self-care is about being able to switch off from your usual daily “To Do” list and do something just for your happiness. One of the great benefits of decluttering your home is that it saves you a lot of time for your own enjoyment.

Once your home and the things you own require less of your time to maintain them, you will spend less time cleaning, tidying up, organizing, caring, and searching for your stuff. You won’t waste your time and energy trying to find things anymore. As a result, you will have more free time to spend with your loved ones and do the things that matter most to you.

Frees up more space

Clearing the clutter means you literally find more space for yourself in your home. When you declutter and own less, you get rid of the unnecessary, extra stuff from your home that takes up most of your living spaces. You choose to live with only those things that you love and use frequently.

As you own less stuff, you free up more space for yourself and your family to make room for the things you all love to do and enjoy. When you have more space, it means you can create breathing room and white space in your home that will promote self-care by making rest and relaxation easier.

Helps you focus on what matters most

One of the amazing benefits of decluttering is that it helps you focus on the people or things that are truly important and meaningful by removing the distractions.

When your home is not cluttered anymore, you are not constantly distracted by the stuff that were screaming for your attention all the time; you are not busy cleaning and organizing your home during weekends; and you don’t feel tired and overwhelmed from constant cleaning and tidying up.

You experience less decision fatigue and confusion, simply because you own fewer things and have fewer things to decide about. It becomes easier for you to focus on the things that really matter.

As you feel less stressed and more relaxed, you will enjoy spending more quality time with your family, practicing self-care, or doing meaningful things that you love.

Brings more peace of mind

With decluttering comes peace of mind.

Since having less stuff significantly reduces your stress level, you will naturally experience more calm and peace. By decluttering and reducing the stuff you own, you are able to create a calm, peaceful home where you can relax and unwind after a long day without having to worry about cleaning or tidying up things. That definitely means more peace!

Gives you more freedom

When you have more time, space, and energy, you find more freedom to live the life you have always dreamed of.

You are no longer a prisoner of your unnecessary, random stuff. You don’t feel weighed down by your possessions that you neither use nor love. Instead, you have the freedom and opportunity to chase your dreams, and fill your life with what matters most to you.

Final Words:

Decluttering is not just getting rid of unwanted, unnecessary, and unloved stuff from your home. It’s more than that. It’s a form of self-care, because it helps you take control of your stuff, your home, and your life to improve your overall well-being.

Decluttering is important for your self-care and well-being because it hits the problem at its root by removing the elements that cause you a lot of stress and tiredness in the first place. When you stress less, you naturally experience more calm and peace.

Tackling the clutter in your home is a great way of creating more time, energy, clarity, and freedom for you to build the life you love. By removing the excess and unnecessary distractions from your home and keeping it clean and tidy, you can spend more of your precious time and energy on what matters most to you.

You may also like to read: The Real Cost of Clutter in Your Life