- Published: August 08, 2012
- By: Lisa Kaplan Gordon
Clutter
is a bummer — literally. New study shows a link between depression and the
amount of stuff in your home.
A new study indicates that clutter
in the home can trigger depression.
Dishes in the sink, toys throughout
the house, stuff covering every flat surface; this clutter not only makes our homes
look bad, it makes us feel bad, too.
At least that’s what researchers at UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF) discovered when they explored in real time the relationship between 32 California families and the thousands of objects in their homes. The resulting book, Life at Home in The Twenty-First Century, is a rare look at how middle-class Americans use the space in their homes and interact with the things they accumulate over a lifetime.
At least that’s what researchers at UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families (CELF) discovered when they explored in real time the relationship between 32 California families and the thousands of objects in their homes. The resulting book, Life at Home in The Twenty-First Century, is a rare look at how middle-class Americans use the space in their homes and interact with the things they accumulate over a lifetime.
Our over-worked closets are
overflowing with things we rarely touch.
It turns out that clutter has a
profound affect on our mood and self-esteem. CELF’s anthropologists, social
scientists, and archaeologists found:
A link between high cortisol (stress
hormone) levels in female home owners and a high density of household objects. The more stuff, the more stress women feel. Men, on the
other hand, don’t seem bothered by mess, which accounts for tensions between
tidy wives and their clutter bug hubbies.
Women associate a tidy home with a
happy and successful family. The more
dishes that pile up in the sink, the more anxious women feel.
Even families that want to reduce
clutter often are emotionally paralyzed
when it comes to sorting and pitching objects. They either can’t break
sentimental attachments to objects or believe their things have hidden monetary
value.
Although U.S. consumers bear only 3%
of the world’s children, we buy 40% of the world’s toys. And these toys live in every room, fighting for display
space with kids’ trophies, artwork, and snapshots of their last soccer game.
Although Life At Home
documents the clutter problem, the book offers no solutions. But there are some
simple things you can do to de-clutter your home and raise your spirits.
1. Adopt the Rule of Five. Every time you get up from your desk or walk through a
room, put away five things. Or, each hour, devote five minutes to
de-cluttering. At the end of the day, you’ve cleaned for an hour.
2. Pledge to clear and clean your kitchen
sink every day. It takes a couple of seconds more
to place a dish in the dishwasher than dump it in the sink. A clean sink will
instantly raise your spirits and decrease your anxiety.
3. Return to yesteryear when only
photos of ancestors or weddings earned a place on a shelf. Put snapshots in a family album, which will immediately
de-clutter many flat surfaces.
4. Unburden your refrigerator door. Researchers found a correlation between the number of items
stuck to the fridge door and the amount of clutter throughout the house. Toss
extra magnets, file restaurant menus, and place calendars in less conspicuous
places.
5. Hack out unexpected new storage
space in out-of-the-way places, like under the stairs.
6. Get inspired by these creative de-cluttering ideas we found on Pinterest.
7. Fill a box with items you don’t
love or use. Seal the box and place it in a
closet. If you haven’t opened the box in a year, donate it (unopened!) to
charity.
What do you do to keep the clutter
at bay?
No comments:
Post a Comment