Ep 2 | Can Decluttering Improve Your Mental Health?

Cue the New You | Meritt Rollins Brown

"Several studies show a correlation between disorganization, clutter, and mental health conditions, including, depression, anxiety, and stress. Messy environments can cause frustration, helplessness, and feeling overwhelmed. Excessive clutter often leads to feelings of shame, hopelessness, and guilt." (PsyhologyToday.com)
I have spent years, years getting to this point in my life where I’m not overwhelmed with house work. I’ll give you my number one secret. You ready? Own less shit. That’s it. I’m not talking be a bare minimalist, but have a manageable amount of things. Start being intentional with what you buy, what you bring into your home.

For years I tried a cleaning schedule, I tried buying bins to keep organized, but then I wouldn’t feel motivated to clean or I was in a rush and didn’t put things up where they belonged, and then everyone’s a mess again. It’s like yo-yo cleaning. You start decluttering, you start feeling better about your space your environment, but then something comes up or something happens, and you revert back to your old cleaning tendencies and behavior and what was once clean sand organized is now not. So you took 2 steps forward and 10 steps back. And you think well this particular cleaning schedule or routine just doesn’t work, so you browse Pinterest to find another one. And you give that a try, and the cycle continues. And the frustration and stress slowly build up overtime. And then you become bitter about your home. Not liking anything, not liking your clothes, not wanting to do the dishes again or dust or take the trash. Because you’re tired of the problem not being solved and not improving.

So I want to go over more of the psychology behind Decluttering and organizing, rather than a How to Declutter tutorial or How to become more organized. If you didn’t have clutter, what would your life look like? How would you feel? What would you think about yourself? About your home? About your belongings? If you became an organized person, how would this impact your life? What would change? How would you feel?

Ask yourself are these two end results possible? Why or why not? Yes it’s possible for me to have a decluttered space and keep it decluttered, and it’s possible to become organized. Or no, it’s not possible for me to change my decluttering ways and I’ll always be a hot mess.
*The PDF Link to the questions for this podcast episode are attached here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TPvalF5orRB-T05pKu1QNptqDsCm1X0c/view?usp=sharing
*Be sure to download the file and not open in the browser.
Psychology Today article: (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-resilient-brain/202302/the-many-mental-benefits-of-decluttering#:~:text=Several%20studies%20show%20a%20correlation,shame%2C%20hopelessness%2C%20and%20guilt.)

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