Five Ways Getting Organized Can Benefit Your Health

We’ve all had that moment—the moment where the number of items cluttering your closets, filling your pantry, clogging your garage, or taking over your bedrooms and living spaces seems to reach a critical level. The feeling you’re left with as you realize disorganization has become the rule rather than the exception is unique for each person. However, as a person who’s experienced this realization shortly before a major life event—say, a cross-country move with four children—the sensation can often be likened to sheer, unadulterated panic.

How Disorganization Can Be Harmful.

While these negative feelings can be temporary and associated with the stress of an impending event taking place among the clutter of a disorganized home, other aspects of disorganization are more enduring. Some can partially be attributed to general dissatisfaction with surroundings that aren’t visually pleasing. Others, however, are more biologically based.

Clutter can affect your physical and mental health. By harboring dust and mold, presenting a fire hazard, and even contributing to excess weight gain—large amounts of clutter can be physically dangerous for you and your family. The mental health aspects are apparent, as well—excess clutter can raise levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and contribute to depression and anxiety.

How Can Getting Organized Help You?

By contrast, organizing your most important spaces can have the opposite effect on your physical and mental health. Key benefits to organization include:

1. Reduction in stress. Clearing out clutter and improving the physical appearance and functionality of your space provides a corresponding decrease in the amount of cortisol your body produces. Additionally, you’ll feel more in control of your home as well as any other challenges you need to address from your new space.
2. Increased productivity. Let’s face it—it’s simply easier to achieve a task at hand when the materials you need are well-organized and within reach. Add that to the benefits decluttering can have on your brain’s ability to process information, and you’re setting yourself up for more efficient, more fruitful work.
3. Potential weight loss. A tidy, organized space increases your potential to eat a healthy diet—and reap the weight loss benefits provided. Not only will you be more willing to cook healthy foods in an organized kitchen (as opposed to dining out), studies show that people working in organized spaces are more likely to choose healthy snacks than others working in clutter.
4. Better sleep. While a reduction in stress naturally helps your body sleep more restfully, organization can improve sleep in other ways, too. Studies show that tidying a bedroom and freshening the sheets between snoozes can make you 19% more likely to get a good night’s rest.
5. Improved relationships. Organizing can help you improve relationships with the people who live in your home as well as professional and social relationships. You’ll be free of the resentment and strain that comes when one person contributes to clutter disproportionately to the rest of the household, and improve your ability to keep your promises—and your appointments—with those living outside your home.

Get Started on Your Organization Project

Whether you have a significant life event like a move or an estate sale coming up, are planning to host guests at your home, or want to begin making a dent in the possessions you’ve accumulated, it’s crucial to get organized as soon as possible. Take small steps to get organized now, or consider hiring a professional organizer so you can begin reaping the above health benefits as soon as possible. For more information about organization or to request a consultation in the Spokane area, contact Organize Spokane online or call 1.805.236.0876 today.