Why cleaning your house is so good for your mental health

Our friends at the Clean & Tidy Home Show want you to live your best life - and that’s what we want too! So, we’re teaming up to celebrate simplicity and streamlining. Our goal? Help you feel in control of your home, and maybe even boosting your mental health along the way.

As the adage goes, the home is a reflection of the mind.

If you’re currently looking around your dishevelled mess of a bedroom and eyeing up whatever your version of "the chair” is (you know the one: it holds every article of clothing you haven’t put away yet), you might be feeling slightly attacked.

Many people insist that theirs is an organised kind of chaos - and honestly, it’s all about what works for you! - but research shows that the state of your home really can have a big impact on your mental health, and vice versa. 

Wondering how exactly that relationship plays out? Here’s the lowdown.

How your environment affects your mental state

The reason that a cluttered house leads to a cluttered mind goes right down to neuroscience. According to one Princeton University study, a disorganised-looking space overwhelms your visual cortex. This makes completing tasks a lot harder. Because there’s too much stuff around, your brain has a hard time figuring out which things are related to the task you’re trying to accomplish and which things aren’t. It’s sort of like a big traffic jam - there’s too much information crammed into too small a space, so none of the info is making an efficient journey. 

Many people also report feeling less anxious and depressed when their home is tidy. The neuroscience behind it is pretty similar - a messy space increases cortisol, the stress hormone. It also sends us subconscious cues that we’re not “worth” a great space, or that we’re “failing” at the important task of cleaning.

And it works the other way around too.

It’s not just our environment that impacts our mental health - our mindset also impacts how we keep our space. Many people report that mental health struggles make it harder to keep their home clean. It can feel like a burden when you haven’t got much energy to allocate to it. In this way, it becomes a bit of a vicious cycle: a poor mental state can make you abandon home chores, and the ensuing lack of tidiness only worsens the issue.

But there’s another piece to the puzzle.

It’s not just a clean space that’s good for your mental health. The physical act of cleaning helps too.

The mild exercise of scrubbing your home is great for your brain. Plus, finishing a clean-up makes us feel satisfied and accomplished, triggering happy hormones. Low brain-power activities like cleaning and tidying can also be great for creativity and rest - it can even be described as meditative! In fact, a 2015 Florida State University study encouraged students to clean their dishes “mindfully” - so, taking the time to smell the soap, notice the cleanliness of the dishes, and feel the water on their hands. Students who cleaned mindfully reported a 27% decrease in nervousness and a 25% increase in mental inspiration.

If this hasn’t made you look at your “the chair” in a new light, maybe the Clean & Tidy Home Show will. 

What’s that you ask? It's an upcoming London event that’s all about helping you keep a happy, healthy home. Learn more about it here - personally, we’re *pretty* excited about what’s on offer.

And if that still can’t satisfy your craving for clean home content, stay tuned for our upcoming guide on streamlining the tidying process!