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verywellmind.com
article
https://www.verywellmind.com/decluttering-our-house-to-cleanse-our-minds-5101511
You might tell yourself, I'll declutter eventually. But time keeps passing, and your home, office, or car is still filled to the brim with stuff. If any of this resonates with you, you're not alone. But many people don't realize the connection between clutter and mental health.
Accumulating a few extra possessions may not seem like a big deal, but clutter can negatively impact your mental health. It can increase stress levels, make it hard to focus, strain relationships, and more. [...] Verywell / Laura Porter
### Key Takeaways
Clutter can significantly impact mental health by increasing stress and making it difficult to relax. While some may find a cluttered environment creatively inspiring, for others, excess items contribute to feelings of being overwhelmed and unfocused. By recognizing these effects, it becomes possible to manage clutter and improve overall well-being.
## What Is the Impact of Clutter on Mental Health? [...] Clutter can even be digital—maybe you never get around to clearing out your email inbox or organizing the documents on your laptop. Just looking at the amount of files you have on your computer might overwhelm you.
## Impact of Clutter on Mental Health
Clutter impacts your physical space in an obvious way; but some people don't realize that clutter can have negative mental health effects, too.
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sagetherapy.com
news
https://www.sagetherapy.com/post/clearing-the-chaos-how-clutter-affects-our-m…
## The Mental Health Clutter Cycle
Research shows a strong link between clutter and mental well-being. A study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that people who described their homes as cluttered or unfinished were more likely to experience higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. Clutter can overstimulate the brain, making it harder to focus and process information. It can also contribute to feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, and even shame. [...] At the same time, mental health challenges can make clutter harder to manage. Depression can sap motivation and energy, anxiety can turn decision-making into a minefield, and conditions like ADHD can make sustained organization feel nearly impossible. This cycle can create a feedback loop — mental health impacts clutter, and clutter impacts mental health — that feels tough to break.
## Clutter vs. Style: Embracing What Feels Good [...] Life can be messy — and so can our spaces. But when clutter starts accumulating, it can feel like it’s slowly overtaking your life. You know, like that one drawer that you keep shoving things into, hoping it’ll eventually organize itself (spoiler alert: it won't). The truth is, clutter doesn’t just take up physical space; it can weigh heavily on your mind too. Let’s break down the messy relationship between mental health and clutter, how to tell the difference between "personal style" and "this
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reachlink.com
article
https://www.reachlink.com/advice/anxiety/clutter-and-anxiety
The relationship between clutter and mental health rarely moves in just one direction. Research on clutter and mental health outcomes reveals a bidirectional pattern: clutter can worsen symptoms of existing conditions, and those same conditions can make clutter harder to manage. Understanding these clinical connections helps explain why decluttering advice often misses the mark for people navigating specific mental health challenges.
Curious about something here? [...] When examining clutter and mental health statistics across multiple studies, a consistent pattern emerges. Research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and related investigations suggest that cluttered environments correlate with cortisol elevations ranging from 18 to 25 percent compared to organized spaces. This aggregated data represents findings across diverse populations and measurement methods. [...] Consider therapy if clutter is significantly impacting your daily life, relationships, or mental health. Warning signs include avoiding having guests over, feeling shame about your living space, procrastinating on important tasks due to environmental chaos, or experiencing panic attacks when trying to organize. If you've tried multiple organizing approaches without lasting success, therapy can address the root psychological factors maintaining the problem.
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nuvancehealth.org
news
https://www.nuvancehealth.org/health-tips-and-news/how-clutter-affects-your-b…
Studies have found people living in cluttered homes are more likely to experience insomnia and poor sleep quality. Stress and mental stimulation from clutter can keep the brain alert and uneasy, even at night. It’s hard for your mind to power down when it’s bombarded by signs of chaos or by racing thoughts about things you haven't done yet. [...] Research confirms people think more clearly, and even become less irritable and more productive, in an organized setting than in a cluttered one. By decluttering, you free up mental bandwidth. Decisions — even simple ones like what to have for dinner or which task to do first — come a bit easier when your brain isn’t constantly managing the excess stimuli and mental load that clutter creates.
Related content: How to achieve physical, mental and emotional wellness for better overall health [...] Clutter can also slow down decision-making. Every item in your visual field is another thing for your brain to consider, if only to decide, “Ignore this.” That taxes your mental resources. Have you ever spent extra time searching for your keys or an important document, only because they were buried in clutter? That’s a direct example of clutter bogging down your information-processing and recall abilities. Your brain must sift through the noise (the other items) to retrieve the signal (the
Y
youtube.com
video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwsI-KTbUDQ
in addition cluttered environments have been shown to correlate with increased rates of insomnia which leads to poor hormone regulation which is another core factor in Mental Health Management a study called no place like home which was published in the Personality and Social Psychology bulletin found that the way people described their homes reflected whether their time at home felt restorative or stressful in this study women with higher stress hormone scores had increased depressed moods [...] in short clutter is distracting one of the major psychological effects of clutter is that it can be mentally debilitating for children and adults with ADHD and add so what about behavioral effects frustration irritation avoidance apathy cluttered and chaotic environments can bring on a garden variety of unpleasant emotions that Domino into unpleasant behaviors clutter has been linked to two of the top five reasons for divorce excessive arguments and Financial problems a study published in the [...] your goals and intentions are can really make all the difference in achieving those goals and intentions or reaching your next level whatever that is you can see more about that in this video on aligning your home and finally clutter reeks havoc on your mental health and I could honestly create an entire video on just this section and I probably will at some point we already touched on how cluttered homes lead to isolation stress and low selfworth all directly linked to depression in addition
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stilwellmemorial.com
article
https://stilwellmemorial.com/healthy-living/the-impact-of-clutter-on-physical…
Increased cortisol levels, especially in women. Cortisol is a hormone associated with chronic stress.
Feeling less satisfaction with life overall.
Inability to focus, which is especially significant if you have ADHD.
Being embarrassed by the clutter, causing you to feel an increased sense of isolation and fear, especially of inviting anyone over. This is one way hoarding contributes to depression and anxiety.
Sensory overload, triggered by a messy space, which may result in memory issues. [...] Our emotions and mental health can be impacted by clutter in various ways, including: [...] Fall risks, if items or piles of papers or books are lying about.
Allergies may be exacerbated due to a buildup of dust minutes, dander, mold, etc.
Furniture or objects are more likely to fall if overloaded with items. This can cause damage to property as well as to your person.
Paper, books, and magazines in excess can increase the risk of fire both by providing fuel for flames as well as by blocking exit pathways.
## How Clutter Affects Our Emotional Health
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apa.org
news
https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/clutter
years, psychologist research has begun to find that living and working in cluttered spaces causes stress and anxiety and can harm both our mental health and our productivity. [...] It’s tiring. It’s exhausting. As we said, it could be an emotional trigger, but we know that the more clutter leads to more depression, more mood disorders. As I said earlier, lower psychological wellbeing, life satisfaction, negative emotions about the self. People with lots of clutter do lots of self devaluing the data shows. We didn’t do this study, but a study had been done that found it’s related to over consumption of unhealthy foods. So people with lots of clutter tend to eat a lot maybe [...] My guest today is Dr. Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology and distinguished professor at DePaul University in Chicago. Dr. Ferrari studies the psychology of clutter, including why we accumulate it, how it affects our mental health, and the link between clutter and procrastination. He’s also well known for his research on the causes and consequences of procrastination, and is the author of several books on that subject for researchers, clinicians, and the general public. He has published
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www1.racgp.org.au
news
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/what-does-clutter-do-to-your-brain-…
Clutter can make us feel stressed, anxious and depressed. Research from the United States in 2009, for instance, found the levels of the stress hormone cortisol were higher in mothers whose home environment was cluttered.
A chronically cluttered home environment can lead to a constant low-grade fight or flight response, taxing our resources designed for survival. [...] This response can trigger physical and psychological changes that affect how we fight bugs and digest food, as well as leaving us at greater risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Clutter might also have implications for our relationships with those around us. A 2016 US study, for instance, found background clutter resulted in participants being less able to correctly interpret the emotional expressions on the faces of characters in a movie. [...] Bursting cupboards and piles of paper stacked around the house may seem harmless enough. But research shows disorganisation and clutter have a cumulative effect on our brains.
Our brains like order, and constant visual reminders of disorganisation drain our cognitive resources, reducing our ability to focus.
The visual distraction of clutter increases cognitive overload and can reduce our working memory.