Declutter Your Life to Reduce Depression
I started to clean house and didn’t expect to achieve a therapeutic result, but I did. The reality TV shows Hoarders made collecting clutter a serious situation, bringing awareness that hoarding and disorganized chaos piling in the home is often a reflection of mental wellness or lack thereof. [1]
Having a little one is tough because your living room quickly becomes cluttered with toys, stuffed animals and more. So, we decided to turn our large porch into a play yard. While it’s been a slow process to put it together, it made us sort through nearly everything lying stuffed in and around our living room and quickly discovered that a lot of the junk was exactly that. For some reason, junk mail seems to easily collect in our home. We get mail and we set aside important mail, but then it starts to stack up and stack up.
The great thing about technology now is that there are apps on our smart phones that can help scan stuff, so that you don’t need to hold on to hard copies of receipts. And eventually, we’ll get to a point where we won’t need traditional mail because everything will be 100% digital. While we’re almost there, we’re still not quite. So stacks of paper collect fast in our home.
One thing you can do for yourself is to simplify. Getting rid of clutter helps to improve my mental state. There’s something therapeutic when you throw things away and rid yourself of excess that just get in the way. Many items tend to stack up quickly, whether they be dishes, mail, dirty clothes, or toys scattered about. I’m trying to take an immediate approach to it. Put it away, throw it away, or file it as soon as possible.
The Bottom Line:
I often don’t have the energy to get to chores immediately. Developing a system or a weekly chore calendar helps. Weekends are the best time for my family to tag-team laundry. This can include such tasks as cleaning out e-mail, to the extent where there are thousands of worthless messages that need to just be deleted. The same can be said with important papers lying around, old magazines, and anything not thrown away or put away. If you don’t need it, toss it. If you can donate it, even better. If you can recycle it, spectacular. Do yourself a favor; clean house and de-clutter. You’ll feel a heck of a lot better after you have some clean space to breathe and think.
[1] https://www.webpsychology.com/news/2016/01/11/link-between-clutter-and-depression-251731
Writing With Hope 