If you are like most, you may dread the task of decluttering your home. However, you may not have realized how effective cleaning your home can be at changing your mood, making you healthier, and helping you organize your life. Not only will you notice a shift in how you feel, but decluttering has many long-term benefits as well that you may not even be thinking about at the time.
People in Cluttered Homes Tend to Be More Anxious and Depressed
Clutter in the house can increase your cortisol levels, which in turn can make you feel anxious. You might experience big mood swings, and even feel depressed because your cortisol levels have risen. Living in a clean environment keeps you focused on important tasks at hand and enables you to have a clear mind without worrying about the mess around you.
Clutter Can Aggravate Your Allergies and Asthma
Around 25 million people in America suffer from asthma, and these people will notice a marked change in their symptoms if their home is cluttered. When you declutter, you will remove a lot of extra dust and debris from the house which makes the air cleaner and easier to breathe. If you have relatives that are sensitive to smell or have bad allergies and asthma, it can be hard for them to even visit a home with a lot of clutter that has sat around for a long time.
Clutter Will Stress You Out
Clutter in your house will cause a level of stress that can be difficult to manage. Clutter can become overwhelming and on top of constantly living in a mess, a clutter can distract you from remembering dates, activities, and other responsibilities that could lead to even more stress. It can also cause you to feel guilty about yourself, living in a place you may be ashamed to show to your friends. Ultimately, it could even harm your social life.
When the clutter in your home has become overwhelming, you are more likely to hate going home. Your home should be a haven where you can come to and destress from the outside world, but clutter makes it very difficult to relax and impedes on the desired relaxing nature of your home. Of all the reasons to downsize your home and staying organized, reducing stress is one of the most important for your health.
Clutter Will Bring Pests into Your House
There is nothing pests love more than a cluttered home. Insects will find a home in your papers, and moths will start to eat away at old clothes that are lying on the floor. Pests like rats and mice will get into the house, and clutter in your attic could attract chipmunks or squirrels. This can cause pileups of excrement that leave your house filthy and full of germs.
This is a very important part of the decluttering process because it’s difficult to live a healthy lifestyle if you have these pests in the house. These pests will likely destroy a lot of items that are in your house, or perhaps even the house itself. Termites are known for thriving in cluttered homes and can destroy a house to a point that its value is permanently decreased.
Clutter Reduces the Value of The House
When you have a cluttered house, the value of the home will start to drop over time. If someone walked through the house, they would not be impressed with your clutter – they would ask what else was not taken care of. Your house also looks a lot smaller when cluttered, and clearing it out can make all the difference in making your house look bigger and more spacious.
Clutter Makes It Hard to Find Important items
Clutter can cause you to lose a lot of your important items. You might lose your tax documents, or you might forget to file your change of address form when you eventually plan to move. You might even lose paychecks or your own keys while you’re on your way to work. It’s accurate to say that a cluttered home can lead to a countless number of negative effects on your life, both directly and indirectly. Some people lose their cell phones and can’t make phone call appointments, or their wallet is under a massive stack of papers that toppled over. Decluttering really pays off fast.
Conclusion
By decluttering your home, you can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. You should consider how you can raise the value of the home when you clean up, and you can even keep insects or pests out to preserve it. Clutter keeps you from being organized and can even take a toll on your health. A clean home is much nicer to live in, and you will tend to be healthier.