By: Anuradha
Though we do not give it a much thought, the disarray or the clutter around us often end up in making us depressed. When you see toys are thrown everywhere in the floor, books looking like a hell on your table and the dishes undone after previous night’s meal, it automatically causes your depression rate to rise up which is not a good thing at all really.
This was revealed by a study done at UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF) and 32 California families participated in the research. They found out that our closets and all the things are quietly filled with so many objects that we rarely use and the resulting book “Life at home in the twenty-first century” described how the middle-class American families use the space in their homes.
At the end of the experiment, it was found out that clutter has a profound effect on our mood and self-esteem. Explaining the results CELF’s anthropologists, social scientists and archaeologists said that, There is a link between high cortisol (stress hormone) levels in female homeowners and a high density of household objects. So the more stuff you pile up, the more stressed you will be! The strange thing is that men will not be stressed like women based on the fact that their house is not arranged. They don’t really bother whether it is tide or not but when a woman sees everything looking vulgar and not clean, it will really make them depressed.
Even families that want to reduce clutter often seem to be emotionally paralyzed when it comes to neatness and tidiness. They either have strong attachments with objects or they believe in the ideas that objects have monetary value.
US consumers have only 3% of the world’s children but the buy 40% of the world’s toys. So, ultimately most of these toys end up under tables, chairs and sometimes displaying along with other trophies.
Although “Life at Home” offers several insights to the clutter problem, they do not give any solution to solve it and here are some things that you can do to reduce the clutter problem in your home.
Adopt the rule of five
Five rule is really amazing. It simply asks you to pick five things whenever you get up from your desk or move across one room. So, at the end of the day, even without your knowledge you might have cleaned at least a half of the home and it will be the real help for your works.
Be ruthless about your kitchen sink
A dirty sink will always make you feel down and a clean sink will always boost up your energies. It won’t take much time to clean a sink than dumping dirty dishes and therefore, always try to have a clean and tidy sink.
Put photos away
Snapshots in a family album will look odd and it will only ruin the space. Yeah, it’s something when you have all your ancestors’ pictures and wedding photographs with you, but don’t allocate space for unnecessary images.
Unburden your refrigerator door
Most of our refrigerator doors have become the place where we keep all the unnecessary food items that we pile up all the remaining foods and stuff and one of the best ways for you have a clean head is clearing this nasty place.
Test whether you will miss it
Put away the thing that is not of much use to you, but you have been piling up thinking you will need them one day. Take a box and seal these inside and check for a year whether you need them. if you don’t want them for a year, then donate them for charity at the end.