The Mental Health Benefits of a Clean House
Introduction
Believe it or not, mental health and cleanliness go hand in hand. A clean home has obvious physical health benefits. You don’t allow germs to breed, and less dust build-up contributes to fewer allergy symptoms. However, the mental health benefits of a clean home go far beyond that. If cleaning and decluttering seem like a difficult chore, you can hire the services of professionals by searching for “cleaning services near me”.
The Benefits
1. Endorphin boost – Any form of physical activity releases endorphins. It’s the neurochemical that gives you the “high” feeling after a workout, hike, or long run. It’s the happiness hormone that your body secretes to reward you for certain activities including eating, sexual intercourse, drinking, and physical exercise. The hormone has numerous benefits and when it interacts with the receptors in your brain, you get a positive feeling. Cleaning is physical exercise and works a lot of muscles in your body. So, at the end of the chore when you feel refreshed and positive, it isn’t just due to the sight of a clean home, it’s also due to endorphins.
2. Reduce stress and depression – Studies have shown that people who keep their homes clean are more relaxed than those who live in messy and unorganized homes. When you clean your home and get things organized, you clean dust and dirt and allow better air circulation. This increases the air quality of your home and makes you healthier. When your home has fewer air-borne particles and fewer germs, you also build a stronger immune system that protects you from sickness and in turn prevents financial or time loss. This in turn further reduces stress, depression, and anxiety in the long term. That’s why you should make cleaning a habit. Get rid of stains on the rugs and wash the soiled carpets. Dust regularly and tidy things up as you go. The endorphins released after each cleaning chore will further help you fight stress and depression.
3. More productivity and focus – Studies have shown that your brain can be easily overwhelmed even when they are one of the most complex things capable of incredible things known to mankind. People who have trouble focusing on office or schoolwork often have an unclean and messy home to blame. Your eyes are confused with visual clutter and too many objects in front of your hands. A cereal bowl, a packet of chips, soda or beer cans beside them, an unclean pair of socks by the bed, piles of paper on the desk, a fallen stack of pens, you get the picture. When you surround yourself with too many irrelevant objects it’s hard to focus on one particular thing. Moreover, you get easily irritable and are unable to process things at your usual pace. Papers and letters go the extra mile to assault you on another psychological level.
They are a constant reminder of unfinished tasks or projects that need to be done or have been put on hold for too long. You need to get rid of them as soon as possible to refocus on what’s important. File your taxes, sign those deals and quickly sort out your paperwork before you take care of the rest of the mess. When you clean the mess and get things organized with pens, stress toys, paper stacks, and electronics in the right place, you would become more productive. A clean environment always helps you to do more.
4. Lifts your mood – Several pieces of research have long-established the connection between smell and mental health. That’s why aromatherapy is a thing and people spend hundreds of dollars to go to such places to reduce their anxiety and depression. Since your sense of smell connects directly to the sector of your brain that processes emotions, you also associate it with pleasant and bad memories. When you live in an unclean home surrounded by a musty and moldy smell, you’ll be lucky to remember any nice things that happened in the past. The air isn’t just full of germs but carries a scent that constantly reminds you of an unhealthy living condition.
Get rid of the dirt and clean your home so that you can fill your home with pleasant aromas. You can start with something as subtle as lavender and make your way up the nostalgia tree. Maybe pines remind you of the artificial pine scent in your beloved old car. Research also shows that the smell of pine can help you manage anxiety and as a bonus, it can also be found in many disinfectant products. So, you can clean your home and fill it up with the smell of pine simultaneously. In the bedroom, you can try out a mixture of pumpkin and lavender scents as it shows signs of a strong aphrodisiac.
5. Helps you re-build relationships and social confidence – You may not like to invite friends at home and won’t like throwing parties if you live in filth. Your social life is incomplete without inviting people over to your place. With an unclean home, you’re always on the edge in social settings and try to come up with excuses to not have people over at your place. When you clean your home, you can invite friends and family and build social confidence as you get compliments for cleanliness, decor, style, and other such things.
A clean home also helps you rebuild your relationship with your family and have minimal fighting at home. An unclean home can make everyone irritable, and you would break out in fights with your spouse for the most insignificant reasons. Kids also grow up with a habit of keeping things dirty and that leads to further disagreements and infighting.
Conclusion
Now that you’re aware of the mental health benefits of a clean home, you should start decluttering right away. You can start at easy places like the entryway and make your way to difficult rooms. If things are too messy, you can outsource the work to professionals by searching for “cleaning services near me”.
