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How Clutter Negatively Affects Your Mental Health

How Clutter Negatively Affects Your Mental Health

12th Aug 2019

While many people attribute the abundance of clutter in their homes to a lack of space, it’s interesting to note that 80 percent of clutter in American homes actually results from disorganization. This disorganization doesn’t just affect your living space—often, the physical clutter can begin to wear on your health and quality of life. This is how clutter affects your mental health when you don’t take the proper steps to get organized.

Clutter Raises Stress and Anxiety

One of the most noticeable symptoms of having too much clutter is an increase in stress and anxiety levels. Though you might think your stress derives from other factors in your life, the clutter about your home only serves to amplify the stress you already have. Growing piles of mail on the table and an increasing number of boxes in the corner can act as a constant reminder of what you still need to do. This can make your home a place that gives you more worries instead of one that allows you to relax.

It Impedes Productivity and the Ability to Focus

Organization isn’t just a matter of keeping your things neat and tidy. It also deals with managing your belongings in a way that your brain can easily process. A cluttered home can overwhelm you, thereby dulling your brain’s ability to focus on one task for an extended period of time. Additionally, trying to keep track of several things at once can slow your comprehension of what’s going on around you. For these reasons, productivity and stress levels often suffer as a result of clutter.

It Worsens Memory

As a person’s capacity for focus decreases, forgetting things becomes easier. The slowed cognitive functioning that comes with a cluttered environment makes retaining information more difficult for the human brain. This can often lead to issues with short-term memory and narrow your capacity for critical thinking and problem-solving.

It Interferes with Relationship-Building

Individuals with cluttered homes often become reluctant to host visitors, whether it’s due to the possibility of judgment or to feelings of shame over the situation. This reluctance can result in social reclusiveness, which can in turn take a toll on their self-esteem and attitude towards life.

One of the best ways to get rid of the mental clutter is to organize the physical clutter in your home. At Bi-Rite Furniture, we offer a stock of pieces with built-in storage solutions and compact designs to help you get—and stay—organized. Our discount furniture in the Houston area is built to fit just as well in your home as it does into your budget.