How Pandemic Clutter Affects your Mental Health
By Arijana Palme, BSW, RSW
A couple of years ago, early March 2020 at the inkling of the pandemic, we wrote about spring cleaning and mental health. How the act of decluttering, refreshing our spaces and airing out our homes can have amazing positive impacts on our mental wellbeing. It was true then and it continues to remain true now, but with some added pandemic-related considerations.
The Clutter of a Pandemic
Overnight, our homes became our offices, classrooms, playgrounds, spas, restaurants, movie theatres and whatever other function you had to fashion out of four walls. It’s now April 2022 and along with the flowers, new hope is budding. We are emerging from a 2-year hibernation, and we finally seem to have the space to look around and reassess our spaces.
Clearing the physical clutter and build-up can be an amazing nudge towards clearing out the mental clutter and mess that this pandemic has left in its wake.
It might not seem like those bread baking materials sitting in a dark corner of your kitchen would have an impact on your overall wellbeing, but they do! Not only do they serve as a reminder of one of the darkest and uncertain times of our collective experience, they can also make us feel guilty about not continuing with these new hobbies. If you became an avid baker, or knitter, or whittler, or painter during this time, then good on you! More often than not though, these activities operated as coping strategies that helped direct our focus towards productive and healthy ways of keeping busy. But, our need for this tool bag of tricks doesn’t seem to be as necessary anymore. And yet, the clutter remains in our homes and in our minds.
Clearing space gives you more focus
A study by the Princeton Neuroscience Institute discovered that in disorganized spaces people are more stressed, distracted and less productive. Similarly, the University of Southern California published research about whether people describe their time at home as either restorative or stressful. Results indicated that clutter can be visually distracting, and serve as a nagging reminder of tasks and chores undone whereas, cleaning gives people a sense of mastery and control over their environment. It makes sense that the benefits of an uncluttered environment would lead to reduced feelings of anxiety and increased feelings of productivity. We become more relaxed when our environment is clear. We are able to process information differently because visually there is less noise to our brain.
Maybe at this point you have been able to transition into working outside of the house again and your home can return to its original state, or your work-from-home scenario is here to stay. Either way, this spring is a great opportunity to thoughtfully create these spaces. To take control over your environment in ways that the chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic has not allowed you to for more than two years.
So, are you ready to clear the pandemic a bit? To let go of the chaos?
How can you do that in bite sized pieces, in ways that feel supportive and not stressful?
For some people it means tackling a single cupboard or surface at a time, for others, the energy of a full-out, deep house cleaning gets their juices flowing. There is no right way or wrong way to do it, there is only the way that feels most supportive and empowering to you.
The relationship between a clean house and mental health is important. We all love a cleaner, more organized home and we typically feel more at ease with less clutter. When you consider the overwhelming benefits—better physical health, improved mental health and a cleaner, healthier environment, it’s easy to see how keeping a home clean can keep minds more calm and relationships strong.
That’s why the great thing about a spring cleaning isn’t just the opportunity to get rid of all the stuff that you accumulated over the course of two years – it’s also a chance to help improve your thoughts in ways you may have never even expected!
Looking for some support?
If you’re thinking about therapy, then you’re already taking a step towards a vision of improved personal well being. Maybe now is the time, or a seed has been planted for the future. Either way, we’ll be here to support you when you’re ready - because you matter.
When you’re ready, we can help.
Book a free 30 minute consultation and let’s talk about it.