Having a home that's cluttered with extraneous stuff can take a toll on your self-esteem. But did you know that it can potentially affect your overall mood and health, as well? This guide will look at the ways clutter affects you, and what you can do to easily reverse the effects.
Depression
If having a cluttered home makes you feel bad, you're not alone. Studies have found a correlation between people living in cluttered homes experiencing higher levels of stress and depression. Unfortunately, once the home is cluttered and these emotions are experienced, the depression can cause a loop. If you feel depressed because your home is a mess, it's harder to make yourself do anything about it. But without doing anything about it, chances are the clutter will worsen, and you'll become more depressed.
Illness
Clutter isn't just about mental health; it can have a distinct effect on your physical health, too. If clutter accumulates in your home, chances are your home isn't as clean as it could be. When you consider that a simple, flat surface can pick up dust and particulates over time, imagine what happens when your home is overfilled with things you don't need. Unfortunately, it'd be a huge task to go through and clean every single piece of clutter in your home, so dust, hair, and particulates build up.
Dirty living conditions can reduce the quality of the air you breathe, and increases the risk of developing asthma or triggering existing allergies.
Isolation
Another mental factor of clutter is the increased risk of self-imposed isolation. If you're embarrassed about the condition of your home, you're probably less likely to want to let anyone come over and spend time with you. You may feel stressed, nervous, or imagine how your friends and family would react if they saw your home. Unfortunately, a poor social life can also lead to depression, an increased risk of disease, and even increase your risk of developing cancer.
Fixing It
It should be obvious by now that clearing out your clutter is an important facet of living a healthy life. While donating, throwing away, or selling things you don't need anymore is an option, there will probably always be cluttering items you just can't let go of yet. In these cases, you should consider renting a storage unit (from a local outlet such as North Star Mini Storage. You can rest easy knowing that your precious items are protected and safe, but at the same time, they're not making a mess of your home. If you ever want to bring any of them back into your home, you can, but until then, your overall sense of well-being will improve along with the condition of your home.
Clutter has a physical and mental effect on people, and your life will be better without it. Break the cycle of depression, isolation, and illness by clearing the clutter out of your home.
Share31 August 2015
Do you have too much stuff and not enough space? If so, you don't have to get rid of the things that you enjoy collecting or having. Instead, you can use a storage unit to store the things that you won't immediately be using or needing. This blog is loaded with tips for storing all sorts of things. You will learn how to pack, store, organize and log all of the things that you move from your home to the storage unit so that you can easily find what you are looking for in the same condition as when you put it there.
