Clutter-Free, Clarity, and Aromatherapy
You come back from a long day of work to find your house in absolute chaos. The dishes are unwashed and in a pile in the sink. Your kids haven’t put any of their toys away, so there’s Lego littering every available bit of floor in the living room. You haven’t vacuumed your carpet in a while, so the dust bunnies have taken up residence in every nook and cranny.
Unfortunately, you’ve got a work report to submit, so you can’t get down to immediately clearing away the chaos that is reigning supreme in your living space. So, you sit down at your desk, trying your best to work despite the mess that surrounds you…
As expected, that doesn’t really go well.
You see, our brains are built in a way that means we are better motivated and more productive when we are in a space that’s clutter-free. The physical space is often a direct reflection of our mental state, and one is often capable of influencing the other.
This is why it’s so imperative that we keep our living spaces clean and clear in order to be able to properly focus on our work, in order to remain in a healthy mental and spiritual state.
The Impact of Clutter
There is a definite neuroscience behind the impact of clutter that explains why it is harder to focus in an environment that’s chaotic, than in an environment that’s clean and tidy.
When your environment is disorganized or cluttered, it limits the brain’s ability to focus, and process information. It affects decision-making, attention, and memory retrieval.
When the space before you is cluttered and chaotic, this means that there are multiple visual stimuli present within the range of your view, which, in turn, means that all those stimuli are competing for neural representation. In other words, the more objects you have before you, the more distracted you are likely to be.
Some people insist that chaos is an essential component of inciting creativity, but many studies and lived experiences of artists continue to contradict this claim. Focus is actually central to the creative process, as a clutter-free physical space can lead to a clear head, and clarity in thought means more room for ideas to take root, more headspace for innovative plans, and being able to put in more thought to your art and creative process than into worrying about how you’ll get rid of all the mess around you!
Messy rooms can trigger a stress response in the brain, that impacts your ability to properly focus, or create, as well as you would otherwise be able to, in a room that was clutter-free.
The impact of clutter on not being able to complete your workload goes beyond just being mental disturbances in focus! For example, if you were sitting down at a very messy, disorganized desk, you would find it hard to get anything done because you can never find what you’re looking for! Your papers are buried under piles of other papers, you can never find a pen that actually works, and everything from your dressing table has also made its way to your work table!
Disorganization of this degree has even been linked to anxiety disorders, and depression, especially in teenagers.
Often, people who are depressed do not find any reason to expend any energy on keeping their living spaces neat and organized. Their environment becomes an extension of their inability to practice self-care, and the messier the room gets, oftentimes, the worse their mental health gets, as well. This is due to the integrated nature of the mental state and physical space, where one very often influences the other.
The Benefits of a Clutter-Free Space
A clutter-free space comes with mental clarity and a heightened ability to focus. If your home is clutter-free and perfectly organized, it brings with it so many mental and physical health benefits--- and it makes for a great way to show your house off to all the guests you haven’t been able to invite because of all the mess so far!
A cleaner living space lowers your anxiety levels and helps to restore a sense of order to your life. Often, a messy space can leave you feeling overwhelmed and can have you spiraling. A space that’s neat, tidy, and organized can help you restore a sense of control over your environment, and it can help you take charge of your life once again.
Clean spaces can also help improve your mood. Think about how you’d feel if, when you get back from a long day of work meetings and excel sheets, you open the door to a house that’s squeaky clean and perfectly organized! That’s what we at The Cleaning Fairies do!
A clean space can help improve your focus. With a more organized living space, and not too many distractions in the way, think of everything you could accomplish!
Walking into a tidy, organized space can do wonders for your motivation to start or finish a specific task, as opposed to walking into a cluttered space. Imagine being able to walk into a kitchen where all your spice jars are labeled, where everything is exactly where it should be, where there is no mountain of dishes in the sink--- that’s immediate motivation to cook a full, three-course meal, rather than ordering it in!
Clean environments can also impact your physical health, by helping you get a good night’s rest, and make healthier diet choices. It doesn’t seem like there would be much correlation between a tidy space and diet choices, does it? Well, think about how you turn to pizza and carbonated drinks as an immediate solution to stress, a lot of the time. A cleaner space can help lower your stress levels and can help you actively make better choices for yourself.
The Sensory Experience
At the Cleaning Fairies, we don’t just focus on making sure your environment is visually pleasing. One of our biggest focuses is in making sure it’s also a healthy environment to live in.
We talked about how a clean physical space can influence clarity in your mental space, as well. But when we talk about cleanliness, we don’t just mean countertops that are wiped down, carpets that are vacuumed, and spice jars that are labeled. We don’t want you walking into a house that smells like bleach and detergent, even if the tiles are polished till they shine!
Our cleaning is a sensory experience – and that means you get to walk into a house that smells great, a house that smells like what soothing feels like.
No, we aren’t talking about scented candles --- in fact, did you know that scented candles can release a plethora of harmful chemicals into the air? But that’s a story for another blog post.
We use essential oils that are bound to have a soothing effect on the body and on the senses. They can make a positive impact on your health and well-being, and they are often used in the treatment of many different diseases and disorders, including anxiety, and depression.
All our cleaning products are infused with essential oils, allowing you to experience the wonders of aromatherapy alongside a house that’s squeaky clean. Essential oils are able to use a nasal direct access pathway to the limbic brain, and provide mental support and neurological stimulations or calm for people with stress disorders.
So, here’s your solution to all that clutter, stress, and anxiety that comes with it:
Contact us at the Cleaning Fairies, so you get to walk into a house that’s squeaky clean, super tidy, and organized and smells like a field of lavender, citrusy bergamot, or earthy pine—a house that really smells of what natural soothing feels like.
Happy Cleaning!
Katie x