There are many reasons why keeping a tidy house is important. Regularly cleaning up can help get rid of common sources of bad smell in the house, uplift your mood, and increase productivity. And while cleaning can feel like an insurmountable task at times, the science shows the psychological benefits of a clean room make that extra effort well worth it.
To get you motivated, we’re taking a look at the psychology of house cleaning and how tidying up can affect your mood as well as the unruly areas of your home.
4 Benefits of a Clean Room
- Confidence Boost
- Source of Physical Activity
- Cleaner Indoor Air
- Better Sleep
How Does a Messy Room Affect You?
Just like exercising, it can be difficult to keep to a routine cleaning schedule. In fact, based on a 2019 study by the American Cleaning Institute (ACI), 20% of households reported not knowing the last time they cleaned their washing machines, 23% couldn’t remember the last time they’d cleaned their bed linens, and a staggering 41% couldn’t remember the last time they cleaned the refrigerator. While this study might reveal more about forgetfulness than anything else, it’s undeniable that mess has a way of accumulating and it can have an effect on our health.
Feeling scatter-brained and disorganized is just one of the ways a messy room affects you. If you’ve ever tried working at a cluttered workstation, you may have experienced feeling distracted and prone to frequent breaks.
One of the reasons this happens is simply because visual mess overloads the brain and interrupts productivity. Whenever we get up from a messy desk or reach for sweet snacks in the kitchen, our brains are trying to cope with feeling out of control.
And this out of control feeling isn’t reserved to the home office. Disarray in any room of the house makes us feel stressed, triggering a tiny fight-or-flight response that can impact digestion, the ability to fight bugs, and even our ability to connect with one another.
As more and more Americans continue to work from home, finding ways to get mess under control will be imperative to productivity and, more importantly, relaxation.
Understanding the Psychology of House Cleaning
Just as there have been many studies conducted on how mess negatively impacts us, there have been an equal amount of studies conducted on the benefits of a clean room and how cleaning positively impacts our moods.
As it turns out, if a messy house makes us feel out of control, picking up makes us feel a sense of mastery and a feeling of being in control. Similarly to exercise, cleaning releases a surge of endorphins that helps stabilize our mood and calms the mind.
While this one to one comparison might seem obvious, there are other less obvious reasons why cleaning your room is so important for overall health.
1. Confidence Boost
There’s a reason why so many leading habit experts recommend making your bed every morning and while it might feel like a silly, militaristic chore, the psychology of house cleaning tells us that even small acts of cleaning up have a profound effect on our disposition.
Straightening up your bedroom first thing in the morning sets off a feeling of accomplishment that can lead to a string of good decisions throughout the rest of your day. The next time you’re dreading getting up, try making your bed and see if the small act of organization gives you a motivation boost before you start your day.
2. Source of Physical Activity
One of the more interesting reasons why cleaning your room is important is the correlation between physical activity and cleanliness at home. One University of Indiana study found that homes that tended to be more tidy belonged to more physically active adults.
If moving more is one of your goals in the new year, you might want to try expending some of that energy on tidying up to incorporate more physical activity into your everyday life.
3. Cleaner Indoor Air
As odor elimination experts, Fresh Wave is keenly aware of the importance of clean air and some of the easy at-home ways households can maintain high quality indoor air, like odor absorbing plants and fragrance-free cleaning products with natural ingredients.
One of the long-term solutions to improving indoor air quality however, is through routine cleaning. Dusting and frequently wiping down surfaces can help remove pollutants and allergens that accumulate when mess gets out of hand. But it’s important to choose the right cleaning products and odor-fighting solution as not to re-introduce potential irritants back into the air.
Fresh Wave Odor Removing Spray and Odor Removing Gels are highly effective at absorbing and destroying odor molecules – not just masking the smell with perfumes. You can easily distribute Fresh Wave Spray throughout a clean room or set Fresh Wave Packs in discrete locations around the house to fight odors that may linger even after a deep clean.
4. Better Sleep
While dust and grime can build up anywhere in the house, the irritating effects may not be felt as significantly as in the bedroom where allergens and pollutants can affect sleep. In fact, in a survey conducted by The National Sleep Foundation, participants reported that allergy-free air was the environmental factor that had the most positive impact on sleep.
If you find yourself tossing and turning at night, it may be because the room you’re sleeping in is too cluttered and the air quality isn’t as good as it could be. Start by cleaning the room in which you sleep; picking up clothes off of the floor, wiping down surfaces, and placing non-essential items in drawers. Next, deodorize and clean any carpeting or rugs in the room by sprinkling baking soda onto the carpet fibers, letting it sit for 10-15 minutes, and vacuuming.
You can also deodorize the air with a Fresh Wave Odor Removing Candle or spray. The fragrance-free formula will absorb any odors lingering in the air after you finish cleaning while giving a boost to all the benefits of a clean room. Be sure to avoidammonia household cleanersthat pose various health and environmental risks, and try to choose products with nontoxic ingredients. To find out more ways Fresh Wave can fit into your daily, household tasks, check out our helpful tips where to use and try Fresh Wave to experience the benefits of clean, natural ingredients.
