Deep Breaths…

Let’s talk about having a clean home. No, not the 101 benefits you’re probably thinking of: reduced germs and viruses, more time to spend with loved ones, the reduced strain on relationships when it’s removed from day to day discussion. I’m talking about the overall mental reaction to a clean home. Yes, we’re going there. Mental Health. Does a clean home actually have a positive or negative affect on your brain? Does it give you mental benefits along with the physical and emotional benefits we already know about? Short answer: yes.

Let’s go all science for a moment. Researchers at Princeton University found that the existence of clutter in your home makes it more difficult to focus on other day to day tasks. Your surroundings overwhelm your attention span, reducing task efficiency. It makes sense when you think about it outside of cleaning, because it easily translates to other things in life. Take work for instance. When you have too much on your plate, you can often feel so overwhelmed into doing nothing because you don’t know where to start. It’s a cycle that can be difficult to break. The same goes for your home life. You get stressed, you feel overwhelmed and almost crippled by the number of tasks that surround you. Queue the procrastination and you have a recipe for disaster.

Another study published in the scientific journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin used linguistic software to measure depression linked to cluttered living spaces. Women who lived in those environments were more likely depressed and fatigued than women who described their homes as restful. They proved this theory by simultaneously tracking the women’s stress hormone cortisol. The women that lived in tidy homes had lower levels of cortisol. Can we all agree that 2020 has been stressful enough? Now is not the time to pile more stress to our home life. It’s supposed to be our own personal retreat to this always changing and often crazy world we live in.

Lastly, let’s talk about catching those Z’s. Yes, I’m talking about sweet, sweet sleep. We all need it. Most of us don’t get enough of it. We could all use more of it. Out of all the reasons you might not be getting the rest you need, don’t make a messy home one of them. The National Sleep Foundation conducted a survey that showed it’s easier for people to fall into a deep, restful sleep when there aren’t any undone tasks around your home. They even discovered that simply making your bed each morning increases your chances of getting a good night’s sleep by nearly 20 percent. If decreased productivity and increased stress weren’t enough to have you start questioning the effect of your home’s cleanliness, I hope sleep deprivation is.

It’s safe to say; a calm, clean house equals a calm, clean mind. There are too many variables in this world we can’t control. Now, more so than ever. Don’t let this be one of them. Investing in your home is investing in yourself. And don’t forget to throw those deep breaths in from time to time for good measure!