Why Decluttering Is Good For Our Mental Health by SARA TIPTON for Ready Nutrition
Our homes should be a living space, not a storage space. Find out how the “out with the old, and in with the new” adage is good for mental health.
As Americans, we have a lot of clutter. I know I used to! But decluttering has many benefits, including those that positively impact our mental health.
As a society, we are busier and more stressed-out than ever. This makes it easy to see why the Kon Mari method of decluttering and minimalism trends are so popular right now. And to be fair, they aren’t popular with everyone. Some people just always have a lot of stuff and will always have a lot of stuff. Have you ever been in a house that is so filled with stuff it makes you anxious? I have. And that feeling prompted me to get rid of more than two truckloads of stuff in 2019, and change my habits for good!
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But by making changes to eliminate unnecessary clutter, it made me feel lighter. Not like I weighed less, but I was less stressed out. And there’s scientific evidence to show that clutter can cause stress while those who declutter get an improvement in their mental health.
In an article by Right As Rain, Brenna Renn, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and acting assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington discussed the phenomenal effect decluttering has on our mental well-being. “I do think that we are hardwired as humans to look for patterns in our environment and to find comfort in predictable patterns and occurrences,” Renn says. “That may be the underpinning of where this interest in decluttering is coming from. If we can make our home environments these predictable environments, it might support our mental health.
