What benefits can you gain from cleaning?
- Psychologists have long known that cleaning is a great way to perk up your mood. Just like any other physical activity, it triggers a release of endorphins, or happy hormones. According to the calorie calculator, cleaning the house for 60 minutes makes you burn as much as 245 kcal, which is equivalent to 14 minutes of very fast running or 20 minutes of swimming[1]. Getting yourself into cleaning mode helps clear your head of negative thoughts. This is why so many people have the impulse to do cleaning when under stress.
- Sense of agency Cleaning produces an instant visible effect. This is especially important when your projects at work drag on for months and the results are nowhere to be seen. When you tidy up, you can see the effects quickly, which gives you a sense of satisfaction. You notice that your time and effort translate directly into a concrete and tangible result that persists for at least some time.
- Tidying up helps to make your home more manageable. Try rearranging your closet so that clothes for the current season are easy to reach. Move out-of-season items to the back, since you’re not going to need them for a few months. This will make your daily routine more efficient.
- Looking at things that make you happy improves your well-being. This is especially important in the fall, when everything outside is gray and many people struggle with depressed mood.
- By going through your closet, you can remember what clothes you’ve got. As a result, you’ll be able to cut down on shopping and save money. In fact, a ‘rediscovered’ top may give you as much joy as buying a new one. What’s more, you won’t clutter your apartment with even more items that take up space and need to be looked after.
- The things you no longer need can be donated to charity or sold. In this way, you can reclaim your space and have the satisfaction of doing something good and eco-friendly, in line with the philosophy of zero waste.
- Less food wastage Pasta, cereals, juices, jarred and canned foods – despite having a long shelf life, they eventually expire. If you don’t check your kitchen cabinets regularly, some products unfortunately become unfit for consumption. This is not only a waste of your money, but also the resources and labor that went into their production.
- A cluttered home makes you feel overwhelmed. In addition to making you struggle with finding a place to put everything, clutter takes a toll on your mental well-being. When you see how many things around need to be tidied up, the mere thought of cleaning up and getting organized can be daunting. If you clean up regularly, you’ll spend less time decluttering and won’t feel so down.
- By tidying up your immediate surroundings, you improve your well-being and that of others around you. When you enter an orderly, clean and well-organized space, you feel calm and relaxed. It makes for a more pleasant environment. You feel encouraged to come back. Naturally, you don’t want your home to look sterile like a hospital. A clinically clean living space is likely to be too austere to feel comfortable.
- Chaos makes it harder to focus and be creative. Many people still work – at least partly – from home. ‘Creative clutter’ in an art studio is not the same as a cluttered apartment with clothes on the floor, a pile of unwashed dishes, and a layer of dust.
- Disarray leads to conflicts. Leaving socks lying around or a messy child’s room are among the most common argument triggers. Of course, people have different ideas about what’s acceptable when it comes to tidiness. What is sufficient for one person may be unacceptable for another. Those with less tolerance for untidiness, unable to get other household members to help out with the clean-up, may eventually start tidying up on their own – but afterwards may feel used and frustrated. Show more empathy for your loved ones and try to work out a compromise to keep everyone living in your apartment happy.
- Clutter is not functional. If you have a hard time getting access to your stuff or, worse yet, you can’t even remember where you put something, you end up spending a lot more time looking for what you need. When you can’t find it, you become irritated, your self-esteem may go down, and you may find yourself in a bad mood.
- With so many unnecessary objects piling up around us, we often forget that experiences give us more happiness than material possessions. The underlying mechanism is described in my article Buy experiences, not things.
- People usually associate objects with situations or people. This is why you enjoy bringing back souvenirs from holidays, and keep things that bring up fond memories and thoughts about your loved ones. By doing a clean-up, you can evoke these pleasant memories again.
To sum up: Discarding clutter from your surroundings creates a sense of physical and mental comfort because of important psychological benefits: it clears your mind of rushing thoughts, gives you a sense of agency, and boosts your mood.
To find practical tips on how to do your cleaning for maximum effect, and reap the maximum psychological benefits, dip into Marie Kondo’s bestselling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up”. The expert stresses that when you start to consciously choose the things you surround yourself with, and learn to be grateful for what you already have instead of constantly chasing after more possessions, you feel more in control of your life and emotions. In short, you make yourself happier!
[1] https://kalkulatorkalorii.net/trening/95-60-sprzatanie+domu/700
