Who knew a messy house made for a messy mind!

My soul is sad when I’m surrounded by a mess. It makes me feel chaotic inside. I can’t really describe it but it’s, agitated and I can’t rest or feel at ease. Like my mind is a muscle having an unending spasm.

But cleaning is also hard on my back. My kids help a lot. But they can’t do as much as I can. So today I decided, to calmly clean the kitchen. It’s not perfect. But everything is put away, the counters are clean and crumb free and the sink is empty and the floor is swept and mopped.

Things like this feel like a huge victory. And then I just want to keep going!! But my back says no 😂😂

Maybe tomorrow I will try again.....

Maintaining a clean living space is so important to mental health. In fact, according to psychology today, people with clean homes are healthier than people with messy homes! They found that a clean home was an even bigger indication of health than the walkability of a neighborhood! They also found that women who described their home as messy or cluttered were more likely to be depressed, and complain of not feeling rested. Those same women also had higher levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. Princeton did a study that showed people with messy or cluttered homes were less likely to maintain focus on a task!

Further studies by the national sleep institute found people who made their beds were 19% more likely to report better more fulfilling sleep! Heck I think we could all use that 😂

Now of course it’s difficult to say what came first. Do people have messy homes because they are depressed or are they depressed because their homes are messy? I’m sure it’s a mixed bag.

But the good news is that science shows the very act of cleaning helps reduce stress levels by a whopping 20%!!!

In the next few weeks I will share some of the strategies that I will test to maintain a cleaner home. But in the mean time, tell us your thoughts on cleaning. Do you struggle with keeping your house organized or have you mastered it? Does mess make you crazy or are you fine either way??