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6 Reasons To Declutter Your Home In The New Year

6 Reasons To Declutter Your Home In The New Year

New year, new goals! Maybe one of the goals you set up for yourself in the New Year was to begin decluttering your home. While for some, a quick declutter can quickly turn into a long, drawn-out process, it’s the end results that encourage you to go through the process to begin with.

For some people, having a decluttered home is about having a space that looks tidier and more welcoming for their guests. However, decluttering your home shouldn’t be merely about impressing others; the impact a decluttered home can have on you and your household members can be substantial.

Speaking of which, the following are reasons why you should do a major declutter this year:

1 - Reduced stress and anxiety

One of the best benefits of a decluttered interior design is reduced stress and anxiety. We live in a world that’s fast-paced and always-on-the-run, so who needs a stressful, messy home to add onto the heavy stress most of us carry? None of us deserve that!

With a decluttered space, you can enjoy a more peaceful state of mind and a clearer headspace. According to the Mayo Clinic , there is a correlation between a messy home and higher stress levels. In fact, when homeowners gave a tour of their home, those who described their homes with negative adjectives (e.g., messy, cramped, chaotic, disorganized, dirty, etc.) were also found to have higher stress levels overall. The reverse was true for those who described their homes with positive adjectives (e.g., tidy, orderly, neat, structured, or sanitary).

2 - Greater concentration

black woman with black hat reading a book

Whether you work from home or frequently tend to tasks at home that require focus (e.g., knitting or sewing, reading, studying, etc.), you can benefit from better concentration when you declutter your home. Some don’t realize that there is a connection between the disorganization of visual stimuli and the disorganization of our cognitive processes.

After all, imagine how difficult it would be to focus on what you’re doing when you’re working in a space that has distracting stimuli, and you can’t even find what you’re looking for when you need it!

Even if you don’t have the time to declutter your entire home, at least cleaning up the home office, organizing your important paperwork and bills, and eliminating some of the things you no longer need throughout your home can do wonders for your concentration and productivity.

3 - Improved sleep

Decluttering doesn’t just help us mentally, it can also help us health-wise. When we’re stressed, anxious, and tensed, it’s hard to get a good night’s rest. However, because the latter decrease once we are embedded in a cleaner, neater home, our sleep can also improve. Research backs this up. Apparently, individuals who hoard take longer to fall asleep at night and are more fatigued throughout the day. Unfortunately for those who have difficulty falling or staying asleep, lack of sleep might lead to depression and slower cognition.

But receiving deeper, longer sleep from a decluttered space, you can benefit from a plethora of health benefits. Those who get enough sleep each night have lower levels of stress, better mental health, stronger immune system, a lowered risk of heart diseases and diabetes, lower blood pressure, and a more sound metabolism.

4 - Elimination of allergens

Even with a quick declutter around the house, you can eliminate a plethora of allergens, dust, and germs from your home. While we are taught to dust, vacuum, and sweep each room in our homes, we often forget to do these things, leaving some parts of our home completely unkempt and piling up with dust mites, pet dander, and dirt. But setting the flooring and furniture aside, how many objects in your home are collecting dust? Probably a lot. However, leaving these allergens in our home can not only contribute to allergies but also asthma, nasal congestion, allergic reactions, and other ailments.

As you go through your stuff and begin eliminating some things, you are reducing the amount of allergens in your space. You might even come across layers of dust that you didn’t even know your home had. Remember, the more objects you have in your home, the more items you’ll have to dust off every now and then to maintain clean air in your home. On top of that, the more clutter you might have, the greater chance you’ll have of a cockroach or other insect infestation, which means more allergens in the form of feces and lifeless body parts.

5 - Lost treasures found

eiffel tower physical photo in black and white with various other physical pictures in black and white

They say that thing you lost can be found in the last place you look. Well, you usually can’t find what you’re missing until you literally go through everything. Your house key you lost a few days ago might have fallen under your bed. That bracelet you’ve been wanting to wear but can’t find might have slipped behind your dresser. Ironically, it seems that when we are intentionally trying to find the things we lost, we never find them. But the second we are cleaning up the place, they sudden recover.

Even with a quick declutter, you can typically find a lot of things you were looking for months ago but never found. You might even come across things you didn’t even know you had, making it feel like Christmas morning as you’re cleaning out your space.

6 - Better finances

It may sound strange, but your finances can also be better with a decluttered, organized home. This is true for a plethora of reasons:

  • If you work from home, you will be able to concentrate on your work more, and thus, have greater productivity on the job. As a result, you may have the opportunity to make more money and/or get a promotion.
  • Chances are, you will come across a handful of possessions you no longer want as you declutter your home. Selling the items you no longer want may help significantly for your finances depending on how much you have to get rid of.
  • Being poorly organized sometimes mean losing things that are important, including bills. But tidying up your home will allow you to find bills you forgot or almost forgot to pay and find an adequate space to store your future bills to avoid late fees or interest.
  • Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you might find some loose change as you’re decluttering your space whether that be within the couch cushions, inside an old wallet or purse, or within the nooks and crannies of your space.

Conclusion

If you lack motivation when it comes to cleaning and organizing your space, let the latter reasons help guide your decision towards getting it done anyways. A decluttered space might mean reduced stress and anxiety, greater concentration, improved sleep, elimination of allergens from your home, lost treasures found, and even better finances.

While decluttering your home, let alone one room in your home, can be time-consuming and may require a great deal of effort depending on how much stuff you have and how big your home is, you can be sure to get more benefits out of cleaning up and getting organized than you would if you never put the effort into doing it. Remember: baby steps. The more baby steps you take, the sooner you’ll be on your way to a neat and tidy home.

If you need more interior or exterior design-related tips and tricks, check out the rest of our blog posts .

1st Feb 2019 Brooke S

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