Is Cleaning Your House Good for Your Mental Health?

Often, if we’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed, the last thing we want to do is clean the house. After all, it’s hardly the most enjoyable task (for most people) and it’s fair to assume you have other things you want to concentrate on. We are asking the question Is Cleaning Your House Good for Your Mental Health?

You may have heard that cleaning can help with your mental health. But is this true? Let’s take a look and see how you can make actionable changes if you’re not really feeling in the mood.

Is Cleaning Your House Good for Your Mental Health?

Although there isn’t a lot of scientific evidence on this topic, there are a couple of studies that show it can help. For example, a 2015 study found that washing dishes can help with mood enhancement, while a 2011 study found that a tidy environment can improve memory recall.

So, the short answer is that cleaning your home can be good for your mental health. To break this down a bit more, the following are the most obvious ways it can help:

Feeling in Control

A big part of feeling overwhelmed is a lack of perceived control. Cleaning your house can help with this because it’s something you have to actively and consciously do. In short, you have control over it. Equally, there’s a clear visual result of your actions, which gives you an end result to admire.

Tidy Home Equals Tidy Mind

The 2011 study above points to a really important part of having a clean home. If things are tidy, your brain can relax a lot more easily than if you’re in a cluttered environment. There are two reasons for this.

First, there’s less stuff to catch your eye so you’re less visually stimulated. Second, you don’t have to think about the mess you should be tidying rather than whatever you’re actually doing.

It Can Help You Sleep Better

If your bedroom is cluttered and dusty, you may find that the quality of your sleep is worse. There’s the mess issue mentioned above but also the more straightforward problem of the air being dusty. This can affect your breathing, in turn impacting your sleep.

Good-quality sleep has plenty of knock-on benefits for our mental health, including regulating hormones and emotions and improving our ability to deal with stress. And, of course, feeling tired can simply make you feel grouchy!

How to Tidy Your Home When You’re Feeling Down

If your mental health isn’t great, cleaning the house can feel like the last thing you want to do. But considering its importance, it’s worth getting stuck in. Here are some tips for doing so.

1. Start with Little Jobs

Set aside 10-15 minutes and just do a little bit of tidying. This could be dusting a room, washing some dishes, or something else fairly small. Chipping away at small tasks every day can make a noticeable dent in the overall mess level of your home.

2. Pick Your Favourite Room First

Cleaning your favourite room first can be a good way to give you the boost needed to tackle less interesting areas. This might be your bedroom or living room, both of which are fairly easy to clean.

3. Set Goals You Can Achieve

Working towards a goal can be a good motivator for many, so use this when cleaning your home. However, make sure they’re realistic and achievable. Again, it could be washing the dishes or running the hoover around.

4. Be Clear with Non-Negotiable Tasks

Not being in a good place mentally can ruin your motivation, but this is why it’s essential to have non-negotiable tasks that you stick to every day. For example, it might be loading the dishwasher, wiping down the kitchen, or even making the bed. Having daily tasks that you must do can help you keep a sense of consistency and motivation.

5. Be Slow and Patient

There’s no rule to say your house must be spotless all the time and that you must do all the cleaning in one go. Instead, you should be realistic about how much you think you can do and stick to this. Achieving a couple of small goals in a day is far better for your mental health than tackling a massive job and not finishing it.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is that cleaning is good for your mental health, but finding the motivation to start can be difficult. Make sure you pick little jobs and do them every day and then build up to bigger tasks once you’re able. Cleaning services can help in a wide range of settings, whether it is school cleaning, or if it is home cleaning, these kinds of services can help keep a healthy mental well-being without the stress of cleaning.