Your Sudden Urge to Clean House Is Telling You Something
Your environment has a clear effect on your mood
Have you found yourself overtaken by a sudden urge to clean and reorganize every inch of your living space?
If the fresh-start feeling of the election results has you newly energized to change up your space, you’re not alone. At least according to Twitter, that mood is in the air.
If you’re stress-cleaning, you’re not alone there, either: Studies have linked “ritualized behaviors” like meticulous cleaning to periods of heightened anxiety. And, well, there’s been a fair bit of that going around lately.
And then there’s the chill in the air coinciding with the second wave of a nearly yearlong pandemic. Many of us crave security and comfort as we begin to spend more time indoors.
Whichever driving force speaks to your current state, now is the perfect time to get your house in order. Your surroundings can have concrete effects on your mental health. Research shows that poor housing quality, a lack of green space, and noise and air pollution are associated with a depressive mood — some of the perhaps less-considered, compounding mental health risks for people living in poverty. There’s also a correlation between clutter and stress, which can exacerbate a lack of focus and…
