In fact, cleaning offers a number of benefits when it comes to offering relief from worry and anxiety. In some cases, the act of itself cleaning
If you notice that you don’t need to clean (as in, there’s no actual mess, but you’re feeling the urge to clean anyway), try other forms of anxiety relief, such as exercise, journaling, or meditation. [...] For many people, cleaning, organizing, and decluttering can help reduce anxiety. “The act of cleaning can distract them by keeping them busy and task-oriented,” says Rachel Goldberg, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Los Angeles. “It [also] helps them feel a sense of control.” [...] Stress cleaning happens in response to feelings of anxiety, but typically the anxiety itself has nothing to do with cleanliness. “Instead, it arises when someone feels uncertain or overwhelmed in other areas of their life,” says Goldberg. The physical act of cleaning, then, is just a way to manage the overwhelming feelings of anxiety. With OCD, on the other hand, “Cleaning behaviors are driven by distressing thoughts and rigid compulsions.”
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 [...] Clutter and mess can create more stress and anxiety, but by cleaning, organizing, and reducing the clutter, people are able to take control of their environment and create a more relaxing environment that helps them focus better on the more pressing issues in their lives. ## Benefits of Cleanliness and Decluttering [...] 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.
Smelling soap and hearing the swish of a broom are sensory cues that can pull you out of a mental spiral and back into your body. ## Cleaning as a Coping Mechanism ### When to Use Cleaning for Emotional Relief The act of cleaning can be an emotional ritual, a coping strategy, and even a form of self-expression. Cleaning helps when you: Feel anxious or overwhelmed Need to regain control Want to process emotions Feel stuck mentally Need a distraction from racing thoughts [...] When life feels uncertain, cleaning is a tangible action you can manage – it can restore a sense of agency when everything else feels chaotic. ## The Mental Health Benefits of Cleaning ### Reduces 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, and by systematically cleaning and organizing, you can create a sense of order and control, reducing stress levels. [...] Your home reflects your mental state. When your space is cluttered, your mind feels the same way. Research shows that messy environments increase stress hormones, make it harder to focus, and contribute to anxiety and depression. But cleaning isn’t just about having a tidy house – it’s an act of self-care that directly impacts your emotional well-being. Understanding this connection can change how you think about household chores and give you a practical tool for managing your mental health.
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 [...] 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 [...] Can cleaning help you reduce stress? There are lots of different ways that we can manage our stress. We each have our routine that we reach for when we feel overwhelmed. Some may try yoga, or mindfulness exercises, maybe even head to the hairdressers or for a massage. For others, dusting shelves, wiping down the kitchen or organising is their way to deal with stress. Cleaning is just as beneficial for our mental health as mindfulness related activities. For some people, coming home to a clean
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 [...] 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
Whether someone is dealing with depression or is simply overwhelmed, we often use a technique called behavioral activation, which involves purposefully engaging in achievable activities to improve mood. This approach has been borne out in research; one study even suggests that cleaning can help alleviate stress, even when the stressor has nothing to do with the clutter. Spring cleaning is a great example of behavioral activation. [...] When we evaluate someone’s mental health, we typically include appearance within an overall assessment of their ability to perform activities of daily living. If someone presents as noticeably disheveled or does not appear to be engaging in normal grooming, that could indicate the person may be struggling in many areas, including their home environment, driven by depression, anxiety, or some other mental health disorder. ## Where does spring cleaning fit into stress reduction? [...] “When our living environment becomes unmanageable for a period of time, it can be a symptom of depression or anxiety,” says Michael Carollo, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at Columbia University. We asked Dr. Carollo to explain how clutter can impact mental health—and how activities like spring cleaning can help. ## How does clutter affect our mental health? Some research has suggested that extensive clutter can have a negative impact on well-being.
Washing yourself can attenuate the psychological consequences of stressful events, according to new research published in Social Psychological and Personality