The thought of decluttering your home may not be the most comfortable activity to do on a long weekend or a holiday vacation — because let’s be honest; it’s tiring and time-consuming. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll thank yourself for starting and doing it anyway. More than decluttering being an integral step to getting rid of clutter and creating extra storage space for excess belongings, it’s known to carry some health benefits because it can reduce stress and anxiety, helping you focus and free your mind of potential distractions around the house.
Clutter piles up easily — one day you’ve decluttered, then weeks or a few months later, it accumulates again. You have to understand that it’s an endless cycle that you have to deal with properly, and the process becomes more difficult to accomplish when you allow for more clutter to accumulate. So you have to make decluttering a part of your regular routine in maintaining a neat and well-organized home.
To help you delve deeper into how it can positively affect you, here are some incredible benefits of decluttering your home:
1. Helps Get Rid of Potential Allergens at Home
One of the setbacks of not being consistent with decluttering is the buildup of dust and pet hair (if you have pets) in different areas of your home, especially where you store piles of items. These piles of (potential) clutter tend to sit there for months or even years without proper cleaning or dusting, which means they don’t only take up too much space, but also accumulate dust and allergens. To avoid this, make sure that you declutter regularly — best if you do it at least once every week or two weeks, so you don’t end up with a huge pile of things to declutter and a hefty amount of dust to deal with. Keep in mind as well that you don’t have to declutter every room in the house all at once. You can schedule a day for certain rooms or areas to focus on, then eventually work your way through the next ones on the following days.
Decluttering is a good start if you want to get rid of potential allergens at home because the more things you have, the more the allergens have surfaces to cling to. However, if you’re sensitive and can easily develop allergies from dust when decluttering, then you may need to follow these safety measures to prevent dust mite allergies:
- Make use of the right tools for the task such as a HEPA vacuum, microfiber cloth, anti-allergen solution, and more.
- Opt to wear protective gear or equipment such as a 3M surgical mask with a particulate filter to avoid allergic asthma.
- Dust and vacuum before you start decluttering.
- Consider where most of the dust stays, so you know how to handle it and use the right tools to remove them.
- Get rid of lingering dust by washing your curtains, bedding, etc.
2. Allows You to Find ‘Lost’ Items
Decluttering allows you to find ‘lost’ items or the ones that you have misplaced for some time and have given up searching for. Most of us may be guilty of that since we tend to leave them in one place and then forget where we put them. The good thing about decluttering is that it lets you take control of where things will be placed so you know where to find them when you need them.
3. Enables Better Organization at Home
Sure, organizing is nice and all, but before that, you’ll have to declutter first. Decluttering encourages better organization at home because you’ll be able to remove excess stuff that is unnecessary to you. And with less stuff at home, you can work your way up and organize things that you know are necessary.
4. Makes it Easier to Clean
Since decluttering lets you get rid of excess stuff at home, you’ll be left with fewer things to clean, making it easier to attend to every nook and crevice of your home. You can also leave more room for storage and organization.
5. Creates More Storage Space
Decluttering may be tasky, but it’s a practical move towards creating more storage space at home because you remove unnecessary things such as old furniture that’s been sitting in one corner of your house, empty bottles in kitchen cabinets, expired food items in the pantry, and more. On top of that, you not only create more space at home, but you also clear up mental space, which is healthy both physically and mentally.
Related: 4 Useful Tips to Create More Storage Space for Your Home
6. Enhances Your Sleep and Productivity
Lack of sleep and rest can affect your productivity — and when you’re surrounded by mess and clutter altogether in every room in the house, it can be very stressful and can mess up your rest, making you feel less productive for the day. Even if you don’t notice it at first, it will eventually take a toll on your ability to focus and work. When you declutter, you rid yourself of being unproductive and create a better flow of concentration and energy because you’ll be less likely to be distracted by the things around you.
7. Helps Save Money
One of the best things about decluttering is that it not only improves your storage space at home, but it also helps you save money. How? When you declutter, you get to tackle every corner of your house and sort out items, enabling you to keep track of what you will need to replenish and avoid duplicating what you already have. Decluttering helps you avoid unnecessary purchases, which in turn, lets you save money.
8. Creates a More Relaxed Space
A messy and cluttered space is very stressful, and having this kind of scenario daily at home can be distracting and uncomfortable. But when you declutter regularly, you take away clutter that causes stress and distraction, allowing you to feel more relaxed and happy throughout the day.
Decluttering is more than just throwing away things you need and creating more storage space. It provides you with both physical and mental benefits that will help you carry out a healthier place to live in. If you tend to skip decluttering, then now may be the time to get started and make it a habit. You can do it! Happy decluttering!
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