Mental health conditions can make a person feel exhausted, stressed, and overwhelmed. A cluttered living space can heighten those emotions. At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, in Charleston, Virginia, we want our patients to have homes that nurture their well-being.
The Link Between Mental Health and Clutter
Having a space that is neat and tidy has a number of mental health benefits, some of which include:
- A sense of control over your space
- Lower stress
- Improved mood
- Increased focus
- Decreased isolation
- Less anxiety
- Better sleep
- Decreased decision fatigue
Understanding Clutter
If your home is not as orderly as you would like it to be, try not to view it as a character flaw. Many factors can contribute to a messy home, such as:
- Physical limitations
- Trouble keeping things organized due to ADHD
- Low energy as a result of depression
- Fears about going without due to a history of poverty, leading to difficulty letting go of items
- Dopamine hits we get from shopping
- An overwhelmingly busy lifestyle
- Guilt over throwing things away after spending money to purchase them
- Inability to let go of things because they belonged to someone important to you
Getting Started
If your space is already in disarray, and you don’t know where to start, you can try the following:
- Recognize that objects can become a physical burden and that you deserve to reduce that burden.
- Focus on cleaning one small area at a time.
- Get rid of things you don’t need, so you have less to clean and organize.
- If it’s hard to let go, try to find a way the objects can benefit someone else, such as giving household items to a young person who is getting their first place, a homeless shelter, or a program for abuse survivors or Veterans. You could also list items on your local “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook, or send extra towels and blankets to your local animal shelter or rescue.
- Set a timer for how long you will spend tidying up.
- Play some music while you clean to make it more fun.
- Reward yourself when you hit an important cleaning or tidying goal.
- Ask for help from friends and family.
- Hire some help if you can afford to do so.
- Process the feelings that are attached to the objects in a therapeutic setting.
- Set specific decluttering challenges for yourself.
- Recognize that it may cost you more to continue to hold on to something you are not using than it would cost you to rebuy it or borrow it from someone else.
Staying on Track
Once your space is clean and tidy, you can keep it that way by:
- Having the mantra, “Don’t put it down, put it away.” It does not take that much longer to put things where they belong, and then you won’t accumulate big messes that take a lot of time to clean up.
- Make a rule that you will take one old thing out of the house for each new thing you bring in, to avoid accumulation.
- Setting reminders in your calendar for when you will do certain tasks, for example: Laundry on Saturday mornings or reloading the dishwasher immediately after supper and unloading it every morning before work.
- Cleaning out the refrigerator before each grocery shopping trip.
- Opening, reading, and filing or discarding all mail immediately.
- Asking yourself why you are buying things and if you actually need them.
- For every $50 something costs, wait 24 hours to purchase it.
- If you’re shopping to make yourself feel better, find other ways to meet the need for dopamine.
At Highland Hospital Behavioral Health, we know that the environment where a person spends their time impacts their mental health. That is why we are dedicated to providing a safe, trauma-informed environment to each patient who enters our programs and giving people the tools to shape their home into a sanctuary for their mental health.
