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Spring cleaning is great for the aesthetic of your home, but did you know that it can be great for your mental health too? Find out more below.
Spring cleaning is an amazing thing to do to get the house looking better and smelling fresh. Many people do it in Spring, but realistically, the home needs a deep clean more regularly, and a quarterly deep clean in addition to daily freshen ups is ideal.
Whilst it is obvious how a Spring clean improves the look of the house, what you may not know is that Spring cleaning the house can greatly improve your mental health. By Spring cleaning your house, you’re kind of Spring cleaning your brain, which is pretty amazing and kind of a two for one. Let’s take a closer look:
Cleaning Improves Your Relationships
Lots of arguments between spouses are caused by untidy houses. This can be through shared shame, stress caused by the clutter, or just being in a less than ideal environment together. When you have a cleaner and tidier home, you will experience a better relationship with your partner. Additionally, you’ll have a better relationship with friends and loved ones who will feel able to come round to your house as you will invite them over more, because you’re prouder of where you live. Statistics say that loneliness can increase your risk of death by 26% and one study has even shown it can be as unhealthy as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Feeling ashamed of your house should not be a barrier to being social, so get your Spring clean on and get those pals round! They don’t care about your house, of course, but if you do and you feel like it is something to be ashamed of, let today be the day you get it straightened up.
Cleaning Helps You Get Better Sleep
Cleaning your house can help you get better sleep, simply because you don’t have the weight of jobs that are not done, and of clutter everywhere, causing you to feel stressed or worried when you get to sleep. Additionally, clean sheets are known to be better for your sleep because there isn’t as much debris, and there’s less dust and allergens around, all factors which can detract from your sleep quality.
Decluttering Can Save You Time
Decluttering your house as part of your Spring clean can help you to save a lot of time. Clutter makes it harder to get ready, to navigate the house, to find things – it slows everything down. This can weigh heavily on your mental health because it is stressful to try and operate normally in a space full of clutter. You might find basic processes within the home take longer and cause stress and upset, especially when it’s combined with conflict with others over the difficulty of finding anything, or getting things done.
Decluttering can save you a ton of time and a lot of stress, because you’ll be organised. With this particular benefit, it also makes sense to follow through with decluttering and organising your local self storage unit, and your sheds and garages. These are areas where a lost item can take hours to locate, and where you should be able to make the most of every square foot of space. By decluttering and organising you get to truly make the most of these spaces, and your home.
Cleaning, Itself, Is Therapeutic
If you have ever followed mindfulness expert Eckhart Tolle you will know that being in the moment is the healthiest way for our minds to be. We can often be trapped in the past and the future, causing anxiety and sadness, robbing us of the moment. Whilst meditation and other similar things can help some people experience mindfulness, in reality it doesn’t work for all of us. Sometimes you need something immersive, something that uses your hands and pulls your attention into the now – just like a spring cleaning. Whether you’re organising your local self storage unit, or giving the limescale in the bathroom a good scrub, your body and mind are in the moment focusing on cleaning and not on other things you can’t do anything about right now.
Decluttering Can Help Us Feel More Able To Manage All Of The Challenges
Studies show when we have clutter, we can feel overwhelmed, distracted and might even feel depressed as a result. With existing mental health challenges clutter may also exacerbate some of your symptoms. The good news is that by decluttering we can feel more able to manage because there is control over the physical, which then makes us feel more able to control the emotional. Struggling with mental health challenges to the point that cleaning is a struggle at all? Why not make your immediate space clearer and less cluttered by popping everything into local self storage, where you can then get to it when you’re feeling a little more able.
Clutter Causes Cortisol Spikes
Studies have shown that people with messy or cluttered homes actually cause a chemical change in the body – a cortisol spike. Cortisol is a stress hormone that can be harmful if it is raised for a prolonged period of time. By decluttering and cleaning you can lower those cortisol levels, actively reducing the physical impact of clutter and enabling you to enjoy a healthier and more restorative environment.
“The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment.” – Marie Kondo
Spring cleaning is always a good idea, any time of year. Put your favourite podcast on, get your cleaning tools together, utilise local self storage services and get stuck in. A tidier house can only benefit your mental health for the better, and in such a challenging world, most of us need all the help we can get to feel more calm, relaxed and in control. Let’s get scrubbing!