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verywellmind.com
article
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-mental-health-and-cleaning-are-connected-509…
Additionally, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America indicates that the physical activity of cleaning coupled with the end result of a cleaner home helps reduce stress, feelings of anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Cleaning can also reduce fatigue and improve concentration.
### Cleanliness and Focus [...] If you are unsure whether or not your cleaning habits are constructive or bordering on a compulsion, you may want to talk to your doctor or a mental health professional for advice. A therapist can help you determine which behaviors are healthy and which might need to be altered. They can also provide other coping mechanisms for depression, anxiety, or stress. [...] So, if you're feeling the urge to clean and declutter when you're stressed, your mind and body are probably looking for a way to bring some order to your environment.
### Cleanliness and Mood
Aside from the benefits of having a cleaner home, the relationship between a clean house and mental health can help you reduce your anxiety.
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treatmyocd.com
article
https://www.treatmyocd.com/what-is-ocd/common-fears/obsessive-cleaning-disord…
To be clear: Not everyone who engages in excessive cleaning and organizing has OCD. It’s possible that you use cleaning rituals to cope with other conditions, like anxiety. Or maybe you just thrive in a clean environment. But obsessive cleaning can become a threat to your well-being when the need for cleanliness and order becomes unmanageable.
So, how can you tell if your cleaning habit has crossed a certain threshold—and no longer offers you the well-being benefits you might be after? [...] Here’s a quick litmus test: If your cleaning habits make you feel accomplished and happy, it’s likely not OCD. “OCD is about engaging in things that you feel compelled to do out of anxiety or even terror,” says Dr. Nicholas Farrell, a regional clinical director at NOCD. [...] People with cleaning-related OCD often feel compelled to clean in response to intrusive fears about germs, contamination, or harm—even when something is already clean.
Cleaning becomes a concern when it feels driven by fear or anxiety, consumes significant time, or interferes with your relationships, work, or daily functioning.
Obsessive cleaning can create tension, arguments, and resentment when OCD-driven rules and rituals start affecting loved ones.
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taylorcounselinggroup.com
article
https://taylorcounselinggroup.com/blog/mental-health-and-cleaning
Cleaning up may help mitigate a wide range of health concerns, including heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and sleep
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oxfordcbt.co.uk
article
https://www.oxfordcbt.co.uk/stress-management-cleaning
## How to Incorporate Cleaning Into Your Life
1 Start small and do a little bit each day. The thought of having to clean your house from top to bottom in one day can be daunting and will only add to any stress or anxiety you are feeling. Don’t make your to-do list bigger than what you can handle mentally. To begin with, choose one thing to do today, and then something else tomorrow and so on. You won’t then be faced with a daunting feeling when you come to cleaning. [...] Clutter and mess can be linked to negative emotions like confusion and tension. Whereas a clean and tidy home leads to positive emotions such as a sense of calm and well-being. By sorting and organising the clutter and mess around you, you can reduce any stress or anxiety you may be feeling and this will help you feel like you are taking control of your life. The physical activity of cleaning combined with the result of a cleaner home helps reduce stress, feelings of anxiety, and depressive [...] Whether you think of cleaning as a meditative task, or an energetic throw yourself into it task. Either way, any form of exercise releases endorphins. Endorphins send messages to your brain that changes your perception of pain and will trigger positive emotions in your body. Regular exercise has been proven to reduce stress and reduce anxiety, along with preventing depression. Cleaning will also have these effects on your body and mental health as long as these chores require some physical
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pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
official
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11925691
As part of the behavioral immune system (Schaller, 2015), cleaning behavior serves adaptive biological functions by separating physical threats (e.g., infectious pathogens) from the body. It reduces threat-related anxiety, especially when the threat is highly salient, as in times of a global pandemic (e.g., COVID-19; Trougakos et al., 2020). Beyond biological functions, however, an emerging perspective suggests that cleaning behavior involves physical acts of separation that serve higher-order [...] Visually simulated experience of cleaning behavior reduced residual anxiety from a stress-inducing physical scene. The manipulation involved mere visual simulation, with effect sizes (_d_ s = 0.205 and 0.141) in the expected small range by traditional standards (J. Cohen, 1988) and comparable with those in contemporary preregistered between-subjects research (Schäfer & Schwarz, 2019). The effect was observed and replicated on a pictorial measure of anxiety derived from basic emotional [...] ## found that (a) concrete visual simulation of cleaning behavior alleviated residual anxiety from a stress-inducing physical scene, an effect distinct from touch, and (b) actual cleaning behavior enhanced adaptive cardiovascular reactivity to a highly stressful context of social performance/evaluation, which provides the first physiological evidence for the attenuation of stress-related effects by cleaning. Overall, actual cleaning and simulated cleaning attenuate effects of physical or
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gardenstatepain.com
news
https://www.gardenstatepain.com/post/spring-cleaning-for-mental-health-how-de…
### The Mental Health Benefits of Spring Cleaning
#### 1. Reducing Stress and Anxiety
Cluttered spaces can contribute to feelings of overwhelm and anxiety. When your environment is disorganized, your mind tends to feel the same way. By systematically cleaning and organizing, you can create a sense of order and control, reducing stress levels and making it easier to relax.
#### 2. Boosting Mood and Productivity [...] Spring is a season of renewal, making it the perfect time to refresh your living space and, in turn, your mind. Many people associate spring cleaning with dusting, organizing, and deep cleaning, but did you know that decluttering can also have profound mental health benefits? A clean, organized environment can reduce stress, increase productivity, and enhance your overall sense of well-being. In this blog, we will explore the connection between cleanliness and mental health, along with [...] Scent and lighting play a significant role in mood regulation. Using essential oils like lavender or citrus can enhance relaxation and alertness. Opening windows to let in natural light can boost serotonin levels and improve overall well-being.
#### 5. Maintain a Routine
Spring cleaning shouldn’t be a one-time event. Establishing daily or weekly cleaning habits can help maintain a clutter-free, calming environment year-round.
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momwell.com
article
https://www.momwell.com/blog/why-does-a-messy-house-give-me-anxiety
## How to Reframe Our Thinking About Care Tasks
The cleanliness of our home can play a large role in our identity as moms, but KC pointed out that the concept of the home often gets left out of conversations about mental health. There is a sense of shame connected to a clean house that is particularly strong in women and even stronger in mothers. [...] Ultimately, it’s about digging into what your family really needs and letting go of the moral expectations or the cookie-cutter traditional way of approaching household tasks.
## The Role Intensive Mothering Plays in Anxiety Over a Clean House
It’s also important to think about why we created the expectations around clean houses in the first place. Who decided we had to have every piece of clothing folded and every toy put away at all times? [...] As moms, we can’t always buy ourselves more time to clean. But we can approach the concept of cleaning differently, learn to overcome our anxiety around cleaning, and develop simple tips for keeping the house functioning without getting overwhelmed.
Today, I’m joined by KC Davis, author of How to Keep House While Drowning, known as Domestic Blisters on TikTok and founder of Struggle Care, to discuss reframing our thinking about “the mess” and tips for cleaning with kids.