It’s understandable if you’re feeling stressed. The volume of unpredictability and upheaval lately has been massive, making overwhelm feel like an understatement.
As we’ve discussed in Further over the last few weeks, self-care is all about summoning calm to diffuse chaos. And simplifying your life can be a powerful remedy for stress and anxiety.
But don’t worry — I’m not here to tell you that tossing out your raggedy yoga pants, organizing photos from 1992, or tackling your junk drawer is only about sparking joy. I’ll leave that to Marie Kondo, who, like the rest of us, found her important plans (promoting her new book, Joy at Work) tossed in the dustbin when the coronavirus hit.
Frankly, “joy” can feel like a stretch nowadays, so let’s stick to what decluttering can do for you: make room for a sense of peace and well-being.
Messing with your mind
Tidying up for many of us can bring back memories of being ordered to clean up under penalty of losing something we desperately wanted, like a night out with friends. Now that we’re all essentially grounded, it turns out that your parents were right about one thing: a hodgepodge can rob you of the break you crave from the stresses of life.
Research on clutter’s effect on our psychological and neurological abilities shows it can significantly impact our mental health, behaviors, decisions, cognition, and emotions. Sabine Kastner, a Princeton neuroscience and psychology professor, has been researching the science of attention for more than a dozen years, particularly how chaotic environments negatively affect our functioning:
Many of us aren’t good at processing clutter. It can become overwhelming and make our brains do more work to complete simple tasks.
Having tidied up helps you focus and reduces cortisol, the hormone that kicks your body into the fight-flight-freeze mode. A decluttered space frees up your mental capacity, so you can get more done while you stress less.
Clean up your act
While for me clearing the decks works wonders, clutter isn’t all bad. For some, it breeds creativity.
So, there are a few additional ways you find meaning in a beautiful mess. Going through old stuff and indulging in nostalgia increases feelings of connectedness and decreases anxiety, loneliness, and boredom — a great way to counteract the emotional impacts of coronavirus.
And if there’s no escaping your lifestyle clutter, you can use mindfulness as an organizing principle. Rather than allowing your physical surroundings to distract and distress you, ditch cluttered thoughts by writing them down. You can address them later, or toss them out, whatever works for you.
The point is, decluttering can help you make a clean break from stress and anxiety. That much is clear.
Why Pandemic Stress Breeds Clutter — And How to Break the Cycle (National Geographic)
