Benefits of Spring Cleaning for Mental Health
Spring is here! Thank goodness! ALthough, here in Wisconsin, it snowed this weekend! That still means we are getting closer to Summer weather and that also means, for many of us, it’s time for some Spring cleaning.
Have you ever felt better after cleaning or organizing your space and wondered why? There are actual reasons why cleaning helps us feel better mentally and emotionally. First, let’s take a look at why we don’t feel good when our space is not clean.
Why You Don’t Feel Good With An Unclean Space
A dirty or unorganized space is a contributing factor for the stress, anxiety, and depression many people experience.
When you are stressed, your body releases cortisol and other stress hormones. These stress hormones have a negative impact on your brain and body, and that impact is heightened when the stress is chronic (aka prolonged or long-term).
If your space is in an ongoing state of uncleanliness, this can be a piece of the chronic stress that you feel. Chronic stress means that your body has been in a prolonged state of stress. This is not good because of the toll that stress takes on the mind and body.
Stress, whether short-term or chronic, can make it more difficult to function in general, which can impact the cleanliness of your space. When you are stressed, you may be less likely to complete other tasks or goals, including maintaining a clean space, because of the stressed state that your mind and body are in. This can feel like a vicious cycle of wanting to clean to help yourself feel better but not cleaning because of the negative effects related to stress (don’t worry, there are small ways to help prevent or get out of this cycle that are shared at the end of this blog). Other negative effects of stress that may be impacting your functioning include:
Low energy / fatigue
Difficulty sleeping
Changes in appetite
Lack of motivation
Difficulty focusing
Depression, anxiety, or burnout
Physical effects, such as headaches and muscle pains or tension
Why You Feel Better With A Clean Space
Endorphins
When you clean your space, this helps release endorphins because of the physical activity of cleaning, such as dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing, etc. Endorphins help boost your mood, which can help reduce stress levels, strengthen your immune system, and improve focus, sleep, and other functioning.
Feel More Grounded
A clean and organized space can also have other benefits, such as spending less time looking for items that you need and allowing you to create a space where you feel calm and grounded. Being grounded means that you feel present and balanced, and this is a feeling that helps manage stress, anxiety, and mood levels.
Improved Physical Health
A clean space can also keep you physically healthier by removing dirt and other pathogens, along with building a stronger immune system due to lower stress levels.
Boost Your Self-Esteem
By cleaning your space, and keeping it clean, you can receive a sense of accomplishment, which can help boost your self-esteem and make you feel more confident in completing other tasks and goals that you want or need to do. You may also find that you are able to complete other tasks and goals more efficiently due to the other positive effects of having a clean space, such as improved focus and decreased stress, and completing them more efficiently can also boost your self-esteem with a sense of productivity and accomplishment.
How to Help Prevent the Stress-Cleaning Cycle
One Step at a Time
Clean one small thing at a time. Take a moment to reflect on where you are at currently to help make a goal that is doable for you. If you are not cleaning at all right now, then you might start with cleaning one small thing 1-2 days per week. If you are already cleaning 1 day per week, then you might start with 2-3 days per week.
With goals, it is important to not set them too high because that may lead to frustration and you may be more likely to stop trying to achieve your goals. However, it is also important to not set them too low. If goals are not challenging enough, it may also lead you to stop trying to achieve them because they are simply not interesting or rewarding enough.
The 5 Minute Rule
This is one of my favorites, and a suggestion that I provide to clients frequently. When you’re having trouble getting a task done, try committing to doing it for just 5 minutes. For many of us, it seems that the hardest part is getting started. You may hear that when people talk about working out, “The hardest part is getting to the gym! But once I’m there, it’s fine.” In my clinical and personal experiences, this seems to hold true with other tasks, as well.
The next time you need to clean something, try this. Commit to just 5 minutes of doing the dishes, folding laundry, etc. Once that 5 minutes is done, you may feel like you can keep going, which is great! Or you may feel like you’re done, which is also great because you completed your 5 minutes. Either way, you are completing a task, which, as mentioned above, gives you a sense of accomplishment and that is very satisfying and motivating for many people.
Stress Response Cycle
The stress response cycle is our physiological response to stress. The cycle begins when a stressful trigger happens, and it closes when your body goes all the way through the process. However, your body doesn’t always do it on its own, especially when the stressful trigger hasn’t ended (such as a messy room that is still messy) and when we do not complete this cycle each day, stress levels begin to rise. Through research, it has been discovered that there are 6 proven ways to help close the stress response cycle, which are:
Laughter
Crying
Physical movement
Physical affection
Breathing
Creativity
Try doing at least one thing in one of these categories each day to help manage your stress levels more effectively. When your stress levels are at a more manageable level consistently, it will feel easier to get your cleaning (and other not-so-fun tasks) done. For more on the stress response cycle, check out the book Burnout or my blog post ‘How to Manage Stress Better.’
Make It Fun
Cleaning is one of those, seemingly, never ending tasks - like deciding what to eat every day. Some people love cleaning, which is awesome, but for others, it can be a dreadfully boring activity. If you’re one of the people who find it dreadfully boring, try making it fun for yourself. Who says you can’t listen to music and dance in your underwear while you do dishes? Or watch your favorite show while you fold clothes? Or even listen to a podcast while you vacuum or scrub the bathroom floors? Life is too short to not have fun as often as you can, and making a typically boring task more fun is definitely a good time to do that.
(Spring) cleaning has many benefits to your mental health, including stress, anxiety, and mood management, boost in endorphins and self-esteem, improved physical health, and feeling more calm and grounded in your space. Sometimes stress, anxiety, or low mood can make it difficult to clean your space and keep it clean. Cleaning your space can benefit from managing your stress levels and managing your stress levels can help you keep your space clean. With the suggestions in this blog, there may be some light at the end of that seemingly never-ending tunnel of cleaning and stress.