Is Clutter Bad for Your Health? You Betcha!
January 2, 2008 by Liberty Kontranowski
Filed under Easy Health Tips, Happy Living Tip, How To, Prevention, Psychology, Stress, Weight Loss, Your Body, Your Mind
There’s a new movement in the medical world, and what better time to address it than right after New Year’s – you know, with one of your top resolutions being “get organized” and what not. (Right?!?)
The deal? All that clutter you’ve dismissed as nothing more than a nuisance…is actually harmful to your health.
This is so not good news for me as I jockey around mounds of papers and magazines to get at my keyboard each day (job hazards. Oy.) But what the experts are saying makes sense. Take a look:
- Getting organized helps reduce the risk for falls
- Cleaning up helps eliminate germs
- Decluttering makes it easier to find medications, exercise equipment, and other gear imperative to your good health
Makes good sense, doesn’t it? I mean, how on earth can you expect to prepare healthy meals when your whole wheat spaghetti noodles are hidden behind mountains of cereal boxes and Fruit Roll-Ups? And when you get that rare urge to do some arm moves, but your hand weights are nowhere to be found, the exercise doesn’t get done, does it?
What’s more, if you’re tossing and turning because you can’t remember where you put the phone bill, your quality of life is taking a hit due to inhibited sleep and constant stress and worry.
Thankfully, the ever-on-top-of-things medical field has identified clutter as a big obstacle in a lot of people’s quest for health, and while “chronic disorganization” is not yet a medical diagnosis, some doctors are “prescribing” professional organizers to help patients out. The thought is that if a patient decides to let go of some “stuff”, they may decide to let go of some other things currently not working in their lives – such as smoking, excess weight, or unhealthy eating habits.
Case in point: one doc prescribed a clean-up of her patient’s garage and home. The patient did as she was told - and was 50 lbs lighter afterwards!
So if getting organized is one of your New Year’s resolutions, now you’ve got even more reason to stick with it – for your health.
Source
Need some organizing tips? Visit b5’s very own DeClutter It for gobs of organizational tips and ideas.
I know what you mean about clutter and exercise equipment. My cross trainer often gets lost under a pile of clothes…although not sure if it’s not a deliberate act on my part so that I can pretend it doesn’t exist.
Yes i agree that there are a lot of people that have a hard time controlling clutter at home and the office. No matter why your clutter builds up, one things is clear: clutter affects the mind in a negative way.Clear the clutter and clear your mind
Oh dear, if clutter is a health issue, I am soooo in trouble.
But seriously, when my house, including my office, is cleaned up and clutter-free, my mood is definitely lighter. I stress easier when it’s messy and cluttered.
Yes, but when you look for stuff, you bend and reach (stretching!), move things around (weight lifting!) and when you can’t find it you get agitated which increases your blood pressure (cardio!). So, please keep your “science” and leave me to that gymnasium named “denial”, thankyou very much.
Liz – Isn’t it funny that our exercise goodies are so easily masked by the clutter, yet we always seem to find that one last box of candy canes or peanut brittle left over from Christmas?!? Ah, the human mind!
TDS – I really need to practice what I preached here. Although I will say that when my office is a disaster (particularly my desk), I feel my most creative and self-assured. Maybe it’s because I’m surrounded with all kinds of inspiration and reminders about the things I love?
When the rest of my house is a pit, though, I feel flustered and out of control. If I could send a non-biased party to clean out my kids’ playroom, I’d do it in an instant. And oddly, their playroom is steps from my office and that bit of clutter gives me a twitch! Weird.
Marijke – See Paul B’s response to ease your worries!
Paul, you just cracked me the heck right up. You are soooo right, if you’re not a therapist, you really ought to be thinking about a career change! I am feeling better than ever about the stack of mags I almost threw my back out heaving to another area in my office. I incorporated all of your components from above (the agitation came from the fact that I could no longer fit any more of them on my desk – a tragedy!) and now I feel like I got my best workout of the New Year!
Thanks for making my day, man!