What is it about looking at an organised room that is so satisfying? Why is a show all about organisation one of the most-watched on Netflix? Why do people spend hours of their life looking at blogs that teach them how to organise and re-arrange their closets?
The Powerful Psychology Behind Cleanliness
The fact is, keeping your workspace and living space clean and organised is extremely powerful and it is good for you. This is something proven by science that cleaning or hiring a commercial cleaning company will benefit your mental state.
There was a study that showcased that people that had clean houses were much healthier than those with messy houses. This study was led by NiCole R. Keith, PhD from Indiana University. The study tracked the physical health of 998 African Americans that were aged between 49 and 65. This was a demographic that is well known to be at a heightened risk of developing heart disease. The participants in the study who ended up keeping their homes cleaner were found to be much more healthy and even more active than those who didn’t spend the time to do so. In the study, the cleanliness of a house was a greater predictor of health than the walkability of the neighbourhood they lived in.
What Makes Staying Organised So Incredibly Difficult?
1. You’re Living With Too Much Clutter
Problem:
One of the biggest problems could be the amount of clutter you are living with. This is something many people deal with. It’s human nature to pick up and buy things we don’t have to live with. For instance, you may have bags of fertiliser sitting around from the time you thought you’d take up gardening. Or you might have excess bags of protein from the days you thought you would get into bodybuilding. These things are clutter and they are taking up space for the sake of it. The space they are using would be better used by other things that are much more necessary in your life.
Solution:
While getting rid of excess clutter can be difficult, it doesn’t have to be. We typically unnecessarily attach emotional feelings to these objects. For this reason, you want to do your best to either donate, throw away, or sell anything that isn’t necessary. If you are afraid of letting go of things, you can look to take pictures of them. That way, you will be able to maintain that attachment while not allowing it to take up valuable space in your home. You may even find ways to store the clutter elsewhere in your home so it’s not taking up valuable physical space.
2. You Don’t Have Time
Problem:
Unfortunately, organising your home is something that takes up a lot of time. This may be an excessive amount of time that you simply don’t have. When you are dealing with the issue of organising your home, you may be tempted to completely throw in the towel before you even get started. After all, how are you supposed to fit in a lot of organisation and cleaning when you are busy with work and life? When your home lacks organisation, you will end up working with less efficiency and it will end up causing you to lack even more free time. It can be an endless cycle that you will want to stop.
Solution:
As with anything, you want to take it one step at a time. The fact is, organising isn’t a simple task, However, you can break it down so it isn’t as daunting. Spend as much as 30 minutes each day on cleaning and organising. This way, you will be able to break it down into much more manageable segments throughout each day. If you don’t have 30 minutes, break it down even smaller to 10 minutes.
3. You Don’t Know How Good It Will Feel
Problem:
If you are unaware of how good it feels to be organised, you will likely lack the motivation to do it. As soon as your house is clean, you will find yourself slipping into some undesirable habits. You may start to do things like throwing dirty clothes on the floor and doing other things that led to your place being cluttered from the start.
Solution:
Continue to remind yourself how good it felt to be organised. The best way to do this is by looking every day at organisation porn. Look back to this article. Watch organisation shows on Netflix. Look at organisation tips on YouTube. Continue to remind yourself day in and day out and you should be able to continue to keep yourself adequately motivated to maintain a clean and organised home.