Spring Clean to Clear Your Mind

Need a little motivation to clean your home this spring? How about the fact that clutter has a negative impact on your psyche? It’s true. When your environment is cluttered, various stimuli in your vision compete for your attention, making it difficult for you to focus. This limits your brain’s ability to process information and can negatively affect your mood and overall mental health. We’ll show you how to declutter to bring your mind some much-needed peace.

Trash what you don’t need
Rule of thumb: keep the things that make you happy and throw out everything else. For the things you do keep, make sure you find them a permanent home that isn’t in the way.

Visualize your ideal home
Picture your favorite homes from improvement shows or magazines and use them to motivate you. You’ll start to realize that a lot of the things you thought had aesthetic purpose are really just clutter.

Avoid storing clutter
Don’t fall into the trap of storing all your clutter instead of throwing it away. Only store things with sentimental or monetary value.

Clean by category, not by room
When you clean by room, you end up shifting things from one room to another. Declutter effectively by doing it categorically. Try clothes, books, papers, miscellaneous objects, and finally, sentimental items.

Declutter in order
Start with items that you know have no sentimental value and gradually move on to things that have meaning. It’s a lot easier to throw out a 30-year-old textbook than it is a child’s report card.