Choosing to declutter your home can actually decrease anxiety in your life.
According to a study by UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives of Families
the amount of stress women experience at home is directly proportional to the amount of stuff they and their family had accumulated.
This is alarming for the mom who has a hard time getting rid of the clutter.
Declutter Your Home For Mental Health
But there is a silver lining. This also means that if you experience anxiety in your daily life, you can ease the tension by simply decluttering your home. Maybe easier said than done, but even if it’s not easy at least it’s simple.
Consider decluttering a part of your mental health and self care routine. Get the whole family involved. Empower your kids to participate.
Why Declutter Your Home
I can feel the tension when my house is messy. I have known this for years even without a scientific study to prove that clutter negatively affects the brain. When my house is messy and there are too many things around me, I feel cluttered and on edge.
Choosing to declutter your home will also make future upkeep more manageable, Getting rid of the clutter means that next time the kids make a mess, you have less to pick up.
There is enough areas of our life that can bring us stress. Why not declutter your home and offer yourself and your family some peace within your space.
8 Tips To Declutter Your Home
1. Minimize Different Rooms
For tips on how to minimize your bathroom, check out this previous article I wrote.
You can also get some great tips about simplifying your life in different areas from my Simplify Your Mom Life Checklist. Simply scroll to the bottom of this page and enter your email address to get immediate access to my Simplify Your Mom Life Checklist!
Minimizing each room is really just another way to qualify decluttering. Work from room to room. Start with the room you spend the most time to have the best immediate impact of your mental health.
2. Declutter The Closets
Closets are great for storage but if you can?t reach the bottom without assistance from someone else and snow plow, you might want to consider reorganizing.
The less you own, the less you have to cause clutter. Start going through closets. Consider storing less. You don’t have to hold onto items just in case. Donate items you don’t use. Get rid of that gadget you haven’t used in 10 years and borrow it from someone else next time you need one.
3. Declutter Your Kids? Rooms
Kids tend to scatter their stuff throughout the house. The less they have, the less they can scatter!
Declutter your home my minimizing your children’s belongings. Teach them how to pick up their things early on. Having too much stuff overwhelms a child especially when it comes time to clean. If they have less, it makes the chore more manageable. My 2 year old can pick up his toys and his older brother is really exceptional at organizing.
4. Keep Flat Surfaces Cleared Off
We joke in my home that if there is a surface, we will put stuff on it. It?s so easy to want to decorate every shelf or a lamp on every table.
But leaving flat surfaces clear does a lot to declutter your home. Not every surface needs something on it and being mindful of this will help you immensely.
5. Pick Up Before Bed
Even the most minimal home can get cluttered. You can own very little, but it will still look cluttered if you took everything you owned and put it in the middle of the living room floor.
I love waking up to a clean home. You don’t have to dust and scrub. Just put things away before bed. Get everything off the floor, clean off the coffee table. Put dirty dishes in the sink even if you choose not to wash them before bed.
6. Organize By Category
Start with the messy bookshelf. Organize your books by size or by color. A color coded bookshelf is really visually appealing.
Keep kitchen items in the kitchen. Tools in the garage. Lotions and body care products in the bathroom. This may seem obvious but sometimes we just get in the habit of not exactly putting stuff where it belongs. You don’t have to have a chapstick in every room.
7. Tackle The Paper Clutter
I’m sure at one pint we’ve all had that dreaded stack of mail that needs to be filed, or receipts that you haven’t thrown away or organized.
Create a new rule: Put it away right away. Everything has a place. Make your filing accessible so that it?s not a task to put off anymore.
8. Things In, Things Out
If something new makes its way into the house, get rid of something old.
I have this rule with my closet. When I but a new shirt I get rid of two old ones. It keeps me from collecting things without reevaluating what I have and taking inventory.
If you don’t know what you have, you probably have too much.
This Is Just A Beginning To Declutter Your Home
These are some simple suggestions to get started. Decluttering is an ongoing process. Decluttering is going to give you mental space for more important things. Use decluttering as a way to slow down, practice self care and create a peaceful space for your family.
