Many of us think of clutter as a tiny annoyance that infiltrates our homes, but did you realize that clutter – especially multiple spaces filled with clutter – can actually have a negative effect on many aspects of your life?
And how about those small piles of things that eventually double in size and start to take over a different part of your room? Funny how that happens, right?
Read on to find out 9 ways decluttering your home can improve your life...
Getting a grip on clutter early on is ideal, as you’ll only need to spend a short amount of time each day staying on top of growing piles.
Here’s a rundown of how piles of clutter can cause problems in your life and why you want to eliminate as much clutter as possible from your life.
Get a head start by grabbing our printable guide here:
9 Ways Decluttering Your Home Can Improve Your Life
Improve Your Health
Everyone can benefit from improved health, of course, so let's look at the health benefits of decluttering first:
1. Alleviate Stress
The more clutter you have filling your living space, the more stressed and overwhelmed you may feel.
Especially when you start thinking about having to clear it all out.
Eventually your clutter will infiltrate your mind, too, which causes sleepless nights and disruptions to your sleeping pattern.
Paper clutter can be a big culprit here, especially if you're not sure what to keep or toss.
Get rid of that stress by putting all financial papers and files in one organized space, such as an accordion file, or embrace technology and keep all your important papers in your favourite cloud-based storage.
2. Sleep Better
Did you know that adults perform best when they have 7-10 hours of sleep every night?
Your bedroom should be your peaceful sanctuary, not your workout room or laundry-folding room.
Clear out anything NOT related to sleeping so you can walk in and enjoy that immediate calm feeling.
Embrace a minimalist philosophy in your bedroom and make sure your jewellery has a box, your shoes have bins, and only the most important family photos adorn your tabletops.
3. Diminish Allergens
Even the healthiest person can become affected by the dust mites that gather when too much clutter is present.
When you clear out the clutter, you open up corners of rooms and closets that have gone ignored for far too long.
Even tabletops that are cluttered can hold a multitude of harmful allergens, especially if the clutter prevents you from dusting regularly.
Dust circulates throughout your house, particularly if you have pets, which can cause problems for those suffering from eczema, hay fever, asthma, or other allergies.
Improve Your Confidence
Living amidst clutter and disorganisation may play a significant role in your self-confidence.
Do you want to invite friends and family to your home if it’s cluttered or untidy?
Clutter will affect people differently so there’s no right or wrong answer; but if you find your home to be more like a prison, start taking small steps to clear out the mess so you can start living again.
Get our guide to those small steps here:
And there are three knock-on effects of this:
4. Increase Your Productivity
The process of decluttering is itself productive, so if you make this a regular habit, you’ll start to get used to the idea of moving around and being productive.
Decluttering is so much more than moving things from one table to another.
One could argue that decluttering is more like solving a puzzle, by figuring out where each item belongs and finding a way to make it fit in that space.
Clearing out even the smallest space gives a confidence boost when you realize that task really wasn’t as difficult as you thought.
5. Find Lost Treasures
Do you REALLY know what’s hiding in those bins buried 5-deep in your basement?
Did you ever find your grandmother’s prized jewellery that you stored away 12 years ago and then forgot about?
No doubt you’ll find lost treasures that you can reminisce about and then find a more prominent place to display them in your home.
If display isn’t your desire, then pass them along to other family members or make a concerted effort to sell them for a reasonable price.
Not only will you clear out space in your home, but you could make a nice profit, too.
6. Learn to Make Intentional Choices
Every day we make hundreds of choices, but some of them we make out of habit or without really thinking about the consequences.
When decluttering, you have no choice but to focus on the process and individual items.
You’re making conscious and INTENTIONAL choices about what to keep, donate, or trash.
Think about how good you’ll feel when each of these bins fill up and frees up newfound space!
Do this enough times and you’ll start making intentional choices in your regular day, too.
Improve Your Outlook on Life
Taking care of our mental health is just as important as taking care of physical health.
As you partake in the decluttering process you’ll begin to notice the connection between your mind and your physical space.
How does your body react NOW when you enter a decluttered, tidy room?
Now think about where you feel most at peace, anywhere in the world. I bet you’re picturing some place with minimal distractions (aka clutter)!
Here are the last 3 benefits of your new decluttered space:
7. Improve the Energy Flow of Your Home
Even though this is more of an eastern feng shui idea, many people can feel a distinctive shift in energy or mood when they enter a room filled with clutter versus a clean room where everything is in its place.
This improved energy flow can manifest itself in you with a feeling of calm, confidence, or simple peace of mind.
When you’re calm, you’ll sleep better, and you might even get a burst of creativity regarding your job, business, or fun things to do with the kids.
8. Save Money for Fun Things
As you near the end of your decluttering phase, this is the only time I want you to think about money and how much you’re going to save by making intentional decisions regarding your spending.
Do you REALLY need a fifth green handbag, or would you rather put that money into your vacation fund?
Make an intentional decision to use all the things in your pantry or freezer before you buy anything else to restock.
How many times have you bought a single ingredient to use for one recipe and then that ingredient sits unused?
The fewer things you have to purchase each week, the more money you can save.
9. Discover Gratitude for What You Possess
In the craziness of everyday life, it’s too easy to forget to count our blessings.
We may remember to give thanks for our good health, but it’s also important to be grateful for the physical things we have, such as a roof over our heads, food, a car etc.
Allow that gratitude to flow toward the dozens of photo albums or scrapbooks which house precious family photos and the memories that live in your heart.
Be grateful for the clothes on your back that you wear to the job that pays you so you can pay for living expenses.
Instead of focusing on what you don’t have, showing gratitude for what you DO have often improves your outlook on life and allows you to think more positively in general.
As you can see, clearing clutter can have some obvious and some surprising benefits.
You don’t have to conquer every pile of clutter in a single day but spending a little time every day decluttering is certainly worthwhile.
Need Help Decluttering? Join the thousands who have joined our 30 Bags in 30 Days Decluttering Challenge!
No, I’m not decluttering for you but if you need some more motivation, our guide to the clearing 30 bags from 30 hotspots in 30 days is the next best thing!
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