You’ve probably heard of the old adage ‘a clean home is a happy home’. But did you know that science backs this up?
The connection between a tidy space and a calm mind is a very real thing, and it’s not just about aesthetics. According to several pieces of published research, maintaining an organised, neat and clean home can have a major impact on how we feel.
So, if you are struggling with the strains and pressures of daily life right now, and it is manifesting itself in the form of an untidy home, you better read on.
In this post, we’ll examine the psychology of a clean home and how regularly tidying up can boost your mental well-being overall.
Why Is Cleanliness So Important?
As a general rule of thumb, the cleaner you keep your home, the more enhanced the level of health and well-being you will enjoy.
The likes of unwashed plates, half-eaten pizza boxes or takeaway containers that have not been chucked away, pet faeces, garden waste, overflowing bins and clutter derived from cardboard, wood or piles of old clothes, all attract pests, such as cockroaches, rats, and species of parasitic insects.
As this environment can create a potential breeding ground for bacteria and germs to thrive, it is important to thoroughly clean your home on a regular basis. If you do not, you can find yourself succumbing to illnesses or diseases that can pose significant risks to your health, such as leptospirosis, salmonellosis and dysentery.
For this reason, it is worth contacting a company like 1300 Rubbish to help you dispose of your household rubbish.
Doing so will ensure you do not suffer from allergies or respiratory issues that might build up from these sources. It can also improve the overall look and feel of your home and enhance your mental health.
How Does Keeping A Clean Home Improve Your Mental Health?
Several studies, including one from Princeton University, have concluded that maintaining a clean home has a major impact on improving a person’s emotional regulation and cognitive functioning.
Essentially, by maintaining a clean and tidy environment, we don’t just create a living space that is visually appealing but also manufactures conditions that enable us to mentally process things better.
Clutter and general mess are linked to higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Therefore, taking steps to remove it will go a long way towards reducing your levels of stress and remaining calm.
Additionally, other studies advocate that maintaining a good level of personal hygiene and cleaning your home regularly can make you less prone to mood swings.
What Are The Mental Health Benefits Of Keeping A Clean Home?
In terms of your mental health, there are several psychological benefits associated with keeping your home clean and tidy.
One of the main ones is that it helps to reduce your levels of stress. This is because mess, clutter or general disorganisation can generate a sense of chaos that heightens your levels of it.
Additionally, maintaining a clean home can enhance your mood, improve your sleep, increase your motivation to do other tasks and even make you more focused and productive when doing them.
The Best Way To Keep Your Living Spaces Clean?
If you are a busy parent and/or work long hours, keeping your home clean can be a bit of a challenge. However, the key to successfully doing this is to be organised.
The best way to be like this is to establish a cleaning schedule, as this will prevent mess and clutter from building up. If you have the time, you should take it upon yourself to do a major deep clean on a regular basis, perhaps every month. This will enable you to eradicate any build-up of germs or bacteria that can be present on even clear surfaces or areas.
Prior to those deep cleans, it is a good idea to break down the cleaning of your home into short and more manageable chores which you can do on a daily or weekly basis. Even five minutes of cleaning every day in alternate rooms can help you to keep things under control.
To help you maintain a cleaner and tidier home, it is a good idea to introduce more storage spaces, which will help you organise your possessions in a way that would be neater and easier to find. These days, storage solutions come in various innovative forms that can seamlessly fit into any theme of home decor.
From time to time, it is also a good idea to declutter your home as this will reduce the appearance of mess. When decluttering, why not take the opportunity to do your bit for the environment by selling, donating, repurposing or recycling anything you don’t want?
