![]() Although it isn’t helpful to have a messy car (and it may cost you added time to find things), you are generally not trying either to be productive or to find bliss in your vehicle. The spaces we work in or (try to) relax in are the most important areas to consider. Is there one place that’s more important to tidy up than others? Some of us might have a messy house, office/cubicle, and car. ![]() People in the clean and tidy room were also more likely to opt for an apple over a candy bar when given as a parting gift for their study participation. Sure enough, people in the clean environment were more generous in their donations. ![]() While in the workspace, the volunteers were asked if they wished to donate items to a specified charity. Volunteers were paid to fill out a series of questionnaires in either an orderly workspace or a disorderly one the former space was neat and tidy, the latter strewn with papers. In a paper published in Psychological Science (2013), summed up nicely in this blog, Kathleen Vohs and her colleagues set out to test how organized versus disorganized environments alter our thinking and behavior. Working in a less cluttered, more organized space has also been shown to lead to other positive behaviors. Have a more attractive and inviting home.Have more time to do things you really want to do.Gain more energy and peace from your organized home while eliminating unnecessary tasks. ![]() Gain valuable storage space within your existing quarters.Manage many activities and deadlines more efficiently.Reduce stress related to lost items or lost information.Instill confidence by knowing where things are in the home.Save money by not buying items you already have.Save time by not spending time looking for things.What are the benefits we can expect to receive upon cleaning up the mess? Men were not as impacted by the piles, but researchers did not document the added stress of this area of potential tension or level of tolerance for clutter between men and women. A study of 32 families found a link between high cortisol (stress hormone) levels of women who had a high density of household objects. This research shows that you will be less irritable, more productive, distracted less often, and able to process information better with an uncluttered and organized home and office.Īccording to researchers at UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF), clutter has a profound effect on our self-esteem and our moods. The conclusions were strong: if you want to focus to the best of your ability and process information as effectively as possible, you need to clear the clutter from your home and work environment. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other physiological measurement tools to map the brain’s responses to organized and disorganized stimuli and to monitor task performance. Clutter makes you distracted and unable to process information as well as you do in an uncluttered, organized, and serene environment. The clutter also limits your brain’s ability to process information. According to an article on that referenced the study, “Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation by mutually suppressing their evoked activity throughout visual cortex, providing a neural correlate for the limited processing capacity of the visual system.” Paraphrased in non-neuroscience jargon, this means that when your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your ability to focus. Researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute published a study ( The Journal of Neuroscience, 2011) which analyzed the effects of uncluttered and organized living. What is the connection between a cluttered space and feelings of stress? But for those who are simply disorganized, yet feeling stressed by it, the following discussion may prove illuminating - because we all, as Hemingway said, long for “a clean, well-lighted place.” To learn ways we can get there, without letting the very effort overwhelm us, BeWell spoke with Patty Purpur de Vries, formerly director of the Stanford Health Promotion Network of the Stanford Prevention Research Center. If there is a deeper fear of loss, scarcity, or if the clutter is used as self-protection from relationships, it may be a sign of a serious (but treatable) mental disorder known as hoarding. For some, parting with even the smallest scrap of paper can cause emotional turmoil. A clean, well-lighted place How less clutter can reduce stressĬlutter, for many of us, is a simple annoyance but to others, it is a highly personal and sensitive topic.
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