4 Ways To Simplify Clutter In Your Home To Enhance Your Wellbeing

In a Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin from 2010, it was noted that people reported higher rates of anxiety and depression, as well as cortisol levels, when they felt that their house was cluttered. Those who reported their homes as “restful” showed much lower rates.

What is even more interesting from this study is that prolonged stress, brought on by clutter, throws us into a start of low grade fight-or-flight, the elevated cortisol response that happens in the body during stressful situations. This constant elevation of stress depletes our health, both physically and mentally, meaning that clutter’s effect on the brain can ultimately affect your health or lead to depression.

Another interesting study from Cornell University, more recently from 2016, notes that this stress triggering may also cause other coping and avoidance strategies, “such as eating junk food, oversleeping, or binge-watching Netflix.”