Tackling Clutter

Clutter has a bigger impact on your mental health than you may realize.  Today we talk about tackling clutter not just in the house but also online.

Transcript

Hello, my name is Tiffany, and welcome to the podcast Working on Amazing. This is a podcast where we talk about the work that it takes to rebuild an amazing life.

And I use that word rebuild, because we're specifically designed for women who feel like they're starting over in the middle of their life. A few things could lead you to feel like you're starting over. I think a really common one is divorce.

Another common one is the death of a spouse. But somehow, you end up in this place in the middle of your life, where everything you thought was going to happen, all your plans for the future, all your hopes and dreams just totally go up in smoke.

And it really feels like you're starting over. If that's you first, I want to say I'm sorry. Truly, I've been there.

It does not feel good. But you're not alone. You are in the right place.

Welcome, welcome. I am so glad you're here. So today's episode, we're gonna talk about mental health.

If you'll remember, I said when I rebuilt my life, I focused on five areas. I focused on my spiritual health, my mental health, my physical health, my financial health, and growth and goals. So today is mental health.

And we're gonna focus on this area of mental health that may sound a little strange, and it's clutter. What does clutter have to do with mental health? Well, actually, it kinda has a lot to do with your mental health.

So it can be common when you're going through a very difficult season in your life to kinda be in survival mode, where you do all the necessary things, and the unnecessary things kinda fall by the wayside. They build up, whatever.

So when I went through my divorce, I became a single mom. I got the kids back and forth to school. I made sure they were fed.

I got back and forth to work. Those were the main areas, you know? Like I was in total survival mode.

I did the necessary things. When we're in that mode, it can be very easy for common household task to get neglected, right? And we just end up with a lot of clutter.

It could happen. Sometimes it's just trash that needs to be picked up and thrown away. Sometimes it's clothes that need to be put up.

Sometimes it's the surface of a countertop that needs to be wiped down. Another thing that can contribute to clutter when we're going through a difficult season is sometimes, not everybody, but it can be common to self-soothe.

One of the tactics when we're really depressed can be add to cart, like shopping, buying, right? And then that leads to more clutter and more clutter so that you've got even more stuff to try to manage.

And tackling that clutter and organizing it and making your space neat and tidy really does affect your mental health. You can totally ignore a pile of laundry that needs to be put away.

You can ignore a stack of mail on the table that needs to be sorted through 100 percent. There is nobody that's going to come along and tell you, you have to do it. You are the adult, you are in charge, you can ignore it.

But when you do ignore it, it's like a notification has popped up on your phone, or an alarm has gone off, and you hit snooze, where you tell the notification, like, go away. It's just an annoying little thing.

It's like sandpaper, it's like a scratch. You know you have to do it, but you put it off. And when you tackle it and take care of it, it turns that notification off, it turns that alarm off, and it's like, oh.

And when you finally sit down and do it, you're going to say, that was easier than I thought, that took less time than I thought. Why didn't I do that sooner? Do you remember the feeling?

You know what it's like when you've totally cleaned your room, everything is spotless, you've got clean sheets on the bed, and you get in bed for the night in a totally clean room. That is a different feeling, right?

It's like, ah, there's just something peaceful and soothing about that, right?

And if you remember what that feels like, and you know what that feels like, and compare it to when you go to bed with a bunch of clutter in the room, and maybe the laundry that has to be put away are different things, and you know the difference,

then you know that clutter affects your mental health. It really, really does. And it's easy to ignore, because like I said, nobody's gonna tell you you have to clean your room.

But, when you do it, it's so worth it, and you will notice a huge impact on your mental health. And I can attest to this. I've been here, I've done it.

I know what it was like to let things go. I know what it was like to tackle them. I know the results on my mental health were beyond worth it.

It has a big, big, big impact on your mental health. And you're not even aware of it. I mean, it's so easy to ignore.

It's so easy to let run in the background. But when you sit down and tackle it, you'll be so glad you did. If this is something that you're ready to tackle, let's talk about that.

So, don't try to reorganize your entire kitchen and pantry and all the doors and everything today because we're talking about it. Pick something little. Clean off the countertop.

Pick something small, just even one section of the countertop. Don't overwhelm yourself. Get something small, do that.

Tomorrow, do something else small. And the next day, something else small. Do something simple that you can go ahead and do and be done with and move on.

Don't start a massive project. Simple. And I really recommend starting with surfaces, like countertops, dresser tops, things like that, because then you'll get that visual feedback loop of, oh, that's clean, that looks good.

Like, it will feel neater and tidier. You'll get more visual impact if you start with surfaces. You can start cleaning out your drawers.

We have more stuff probably that we need to throw away than you realize. Sometimes a sales flyer comes in, you kind of like that catalog, and you've done through it, and sometimes we forget to just go ahead and put it in the trash. Pick that up.

Sometimes there are water bottles laying around. Go ahead, pick those up, throw those away. Like, go, sometimes just culling through and getting rid of the trash is a big step.

Maybe you can just, like, is there stuff you're willing to give away? You've accumulated a lot of stuff. Maybe getting rid of part of it will reduce the clutter, and you can give some stuff to Goodwill.

So in our house, we have this bucket. It's big, and it just lives in a closet. But as we go throughout life and we realize, hey, I'm not using this anymore, it goes in the bucket.

And when the bucket gets full, we take it to Goodwill. It's simple, right? But when you're tackling clutter, maybe you've got to pull out a bunch of stuff.

Maybe you've really just accumulated too much stuff and you've got to reduce it. So trash is easy to pull out, you know, you're gonna throw that away. And then start pulling out, what can I give away?

This is gonna help, right? And like I said, start small. Don't try to do everything.

Say, I'm gonna fill up this bag, and then I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna clean off this countertop, and then I'm gonna stop.

And if each day you do a small thing, over time, you're gonna have that super neat, tidy space that when you come home, you're like, ah, there's no more constant notifications or that alarm that's like, oh yeah, I need to do that, oh yeah, I need to

do that. because you've silenced it because you took care of it. You're not constantly saying, oh yeah, I need to deal with that pile of mail. You've already done it.

And then you'll train yourself, when you get the mail, to sort through it right then and there, and you won't have the stack of mail anymore. It's kind of cool. Clutter really, really affects your mental health.

There is science that says that clutter really does contribute to anxiety. I mean, truly, it's a fact. I'm not making it up.

There literally is scientific studies that have proven that when we live in a clutter environment, it contributes to our anxiety. I don't know that it necessarily causes the anxiety, but it definitely exacerbates it. And it's not hard to do.

I know it can feel overwhelming. I think the hardest part is getting motivated because nobody's going to tell you to do it. You've got to motivate yourself.

But once you get over that motivation hump and you tackle it, I think you're going to be so surprised at, whoa, that made a big difference.

You're going to feel good about yourself because you've taken care of a task that you knew you needed to do, but you've been putting off. Visually, it's going to feel good. Like, oh, that surface is neat.

So many things, you get a positive feedback mentally for yourself when you do this. Some things that we've talked about, gratitude, different things, can take time before we get that positive feedback.

It's like a slow trajectory of changing the way you think and your mental health. Gratitude is great, but it's slow. I've said, it's not like a light switch.

This, you'll get a pretty quick positive feedback, mentally. When you pick up the area you live in, and it's neat and tidy, it feels good. It really does.

And like I said, it's hard because nobody's going to sit there and tell you, you have to do it. But it's one of those things I think we don't talk about.

Having clutter and just accumulating mess and junk in your house is a true side effect of depression and just going through a difficult time that, I mean, it's not something that people, I didn't hear people talk about it at least.

And I didn't realize how much it affected my mental health until I made a change. And then it was like, oh, wow, that makes a big difference. So I'm just encouraging you, pick an area and work on cleaning it up.

Really, work on getting rid of the clutter, work on taming the clutter. You will notice a difference.

And right now, when you're going through a really difficult season, a dark night of the soul, this is when you need to protect yourself and give yourself a good space to heal in, right?

So if you had a baby bird that was injured and you brought it to the vet, you would want that to be a very neat and sterile environment for it to heal, right? And get strong and grow. So you want to create a nice, clean environment.

You don't want a lot of clutter and junk. Believe it or not, it will help your mental health so much. It's not the biggest thing or the only thing, but it is such a contributor of anxiety, having all this clutter and just tackling it.

Just getting over that hump of where you just say, you know what, I've got to do this, makes the biggest difference. This is the quickest noticeable difference. Truly, take the time.

And like I said, don't do anything huge. Don't tackle everything. Tackle one thing.

Pick one thing. Simple thing. I can do this.

I will fill up this bag of trash. I will fill up this bag with things to goodwill. I'll find things around my house that I can take out and put in this bag.

And then if you do a bag of trash, or if you do a bag for goodwill, go ahead and take the trash and put it in the trash can outside of your house. Don't let it sit by the door or somewhere else. Go ahead and take it out.

If you make a bag for goodwill, make sure you take it today or tomorrow. Go ahead and get that out. Like, collect the things and make sure they're out of your house.

Sometimes we can forget to drop the stuff that we're going to donate off. Or we pick up trash, but then we just don't go ahead and make the step of taking it outside. Or if you live in an apartment complex, go ahead and take it to the dumpster.

Go ahead and do that. Just complete the process. I'm going to pick up, I'm going to get this bag, I'm going to fill it with stuff, and I'm going to take it outside.

Like, that's the whole process. It might be a short process, it might be a little bag, just like a Walmart bag. I'm going to do the whole thing, and I'm going to finish it by taking it outside to the dumpster or taking it to Goodwill.

Do the process from start to finish. It can be a very small process, but do the whole thing. Go ahead and take the trash out.

Go ahead and take the stuff to Goodwill. That's super important. I feel like if you leave it there in your house, it's just, it's still that clutter there.

It's still one more thing that needs to be done. So go ahead and finish the task, the whole thing. That is important.

As we're talking about clutter, I want to bring up one more thing that you may not associate with clutter, but also affects your mental health. And that's kind of more like digital clutter.

I don't know if digital clutter is the right word, but think about who you follow on social media, and cleaning that up. So some things are really obvious, okay? And those are the things you can probably clean up first.

So if we're coming up to an election season, so election cycle, everybody's going to be talking about their politics, and maybe there's somebody that you're friends with, or that you follow, that has opposing political views as you.

Go ahead and unfollow them. Or if it's not okay to unfollow them, maybe you can mute them. I know Facebook has a feature where you can mute somebody.

I didn't want to offend somebody by unfollowing them or unfriending them, so I learned to mute people if they were saying things that just I found irritating. So go through your newsfeed.

If there are pages or people, go ahead and either unfollow them or mute them if you feel like you can't unfollow them. Maybe it's a family member or something. But handle that.

Obvious things, somebody who has drastically different views, world views, political views, and they're constantly talking about them. Handle those things first. They're pretty obvious.

But then you're going to have some things, they're a little less obvious. So the pages that come next are the pages that, there's nothing wrong with them. They're perfectly fine, they're all right, but they make you feel bad when you see them.

An example is back before my divorce, I had followed a page about, it was for wives, and it was like Christian advice for being a good wife, things like that. So after I got divorced, every time that came up on my newsfeed, it just made me feel bad.

I wasn't in that season in my life anymore. And so obviously, all their advice, and sometimes I would just scroll past it, I wouldn't even read the content, but it always kind of, it just made me feel, I needed to go ahead and unfollow them.

They weren't wrong, there was nothing wrong, or offensive to me personally about their content. I just, it wasn't the season for me in my life. I needed to unfollow that.

Sometimes, there are pages that there's nothing wrong with, but that's not the season we're in right now. And it makes us feel bad. You'll see pictures of happy families, and you think, my family is so broken.

You'll see people talk about this, or that, or the other.

And nothing's wrong with what they're saying, but you're in such a different season in your life, it makes you feel less than, or like you don't have enough, or you're never gonna have it, because you're in a different season.

Unfollow those things, the things that just kind of make you, I realized I had followed a bunch of photographers. I like seeing their pictures, it made me smile.

But then I had to kind of back off and unfollow some, because I kept on seeing pictures of these perfect happy families. And it was great for them, but my family wasn't perfect and happy like that. And it just, I needed to unfollow that.

It wasn't because what they did was wrong.

And I think in my head, I felt like if I unfollowed somebody, or blocked somebody, or turned off, you know, whatever, it meant that I disagreed with them, or it meant that, you know, I thought they were wrong in some way.

And I learned that, no, somebody can be perfectly fine. Like the content is good content. It's just for somebody else.

It's not for me in this season in my life. It doesn't mean that I disagree with them, or I think they're wrong. I had to learn that.

I had to learn that I was in charge of my social media, and I only needed to see things, especially when I was in this really dark season in my life.

I only needed to see things that were going to encourage me, that were going to be positive and uplifting. I didn't need to see things that made me feel bad, that made me feel like I was less than, that made, I didn't need that.

I needed to create a safe, comforting environment. When I scrolled through my social media, that was going to help support me and not make me feel bad.

So when you go through clutter, there is the physical clutter on a countertop that you can sweep up, throw away, put away, wipe down, whatever. But there is also digital clutter. Another form might be your playlist.

What music are you listening to? Some songs are really uplifting and can make you feel good, like I Can Conquer The World. There are certain songs you put on, like If You're Clean In Your House, there are certain tasks or you're working out.

You put on some really upbeat good songs. But there are some songs you're going to listen to, and they're just going to tick you off.

They're going to remind you of some negative things that have happened in your life, or they're going to remind you of some positive things that happened in your life that aren't going on anymore. It can be tough.

For me, when I was going through a very, very dark season, I made the switch and I started listening to Christian music. I would highly recommend that you at least try it. I know that it's not for everybody.

But I realized the impact music had on me when I switched to Christian music, and I could be really down and aggravated, and I would hear an uplifting song. And every song pointed me into a positive direction.

Every song reminded me of a positive value or virtue that I agreed with. Every song seemed to boost me just a little bit. You know, I felt better, not worse.

So, do you have music that you're listening to that maybe you need to take off your playlist? Maybe you need to evaluate your digital landscape. What do you need to maybe get rid of?

And you don't have to get rid of it forever, but remember, we're in the season in our lives that we're trying to create a positive nurturing environment for ourself. So, you don't want the rough stuff.

You don't want the stuff that's going to feel like sandpaper right now.

In another season, you'll be okay with that, but right now, we're trying to be really intentional with the physical environment that we're creating for ourself, the online environment that we were creating for ourself, and we get to control the

narrative. You have the power to turn off things on your newsfeed. You have the power to not listen to music that you know is just going to put you in a funk. You have the power to clean your house and live in a neat environment.

Like, you create the environment. You are the author of your life, so you get to choose. So what do you...

Let's choose to have a nurturing environment. And I think just most of the time, we're not aware of it.

It's not in our conscious forefront to think, okay, this clutter here is going to put me in a bad mood, or whatever, or, you know, this music, or we just don't think about it. It runs subconsciously in the background.

And we've got to be intentional about what we're consuming on social media, what we're consuming music-wise. We've got to be intentional about the fact that if we live in a really messy space, it's going to put us in a kind of not so great mood.

That there is literally a cause and effect to a neat environment in our mood, and a messy environment in our mood. And just becoming aware of how that place back and forth has such an effect on your mental health. I promise you, it does.

And I challenge you to test it. See if I'm right. Test it.

Pick up, clean up the bathroom counter. As girls, we can have so much clutter on a bathroom counter. I still have so many products that I use, but I put them all on a tray, and I said, it all has to fit on this tray.

So, the tray is completely full, but at least it's contained on a tray. Clean up the bathroom counter. Do something.

See if it doesn't make a difference. Seriously, clutter affects your mental health so much. Clean up that social media news feed.

Think about the music you listen to and the things you consume. There are certain shows that I didn't want to watch. I know that when I watched them, I got upset.

If there was a story where the man cheated on the woman, it just fired me up. Like, I needed to avoid those types of storylines. Like, I just didn't...

I would get upset. Know what you're consuming, and get rid of the clutter. Don't watch shows that are going to get you upset.

Don't listen to music. It's just going to put you on a funk. Don't follow people on social media.

They're going to make you feel like you're less than. Let's clean up that clutter. Let's clean up the clutter in our house, and let's create an environment where we can heal and eventually thrive.

Right now, we're just being super gentle with ourselves. You've got to realize, you're in a season where a lot of has happened, emotional trauma has taken place, and you've got to be really gentle with yourself, and you can't have negative things.

You've got to make your environment really neat and clean so you don't have the negative things constantly bombarding you. Whether it's on your news feed or just constantly hearing that in your head, I need to clean that up.

I need to take that trash out. I need to do this. Let's silence all that.

And we have the ability to do it. You can do it. Start small.

Start small, something simple, something easy to do. Go through your news feed. Seriously, it will brighten your day.

And maybe while you're at it, follow something really positive.

Follow pages that are going to make you smile, that have good quotes, that if you like art, maybe it's just pictures of art, or something that pictures of the beach, something super simple that you know when you see it, you're just going to smile.

So maybe replace some of the negative stuff with something that will just show up on your news feed and make you smile. Whatever you do, tackle it. Tackle the clutter today, bit by bit.

You don't eat an elephant in one bite. You eat one bite at a time, and it takes a lot of bites, right? So this may take a lot of bites.

There's a lot to do. Don't worry about that. Just do the thing today.

I'm going to take care of this piece of clutter today. I'm going to go through my phone and do whatever today. One bite at a time.

And before you know it, it's going to feel so much better. Mentally, you're going to breathe so much easier. I promise you.

This is so vital to mental health, especially when you're struggling. And like I said, I think it's something people just don't talk about.

The effects of depression and how much clutter affects your mental health and how it can become a problem when you are struggling with depression and how it all fits together. I didn't hear anybody tell me this.

But I'm telling you, because it matters. And winning with your mental health and in your head, being positive, that's half the battle, right? So you got to set yourself up to succeed.

You got to have all these things constantly reminding yourself to do stuff. Let's go ahead and stop that. Let's just go ahead and do it.

Let's make our newsfeed a positive place. Let's make our music and the things we watch positive. Let's get rid of the clutter and breathe a mental health side of relief.

Okay? It really works. I challenge you because I know it worked for me.

I have done these things, and I have noticed such a marked difference in my life. So I challenge you, tell me what you're going to tackle today. Tell me what clutter you're going to get rid of.

Look me up. I'm on Facebook, Working on Amazing. I'm also online, workingonamazing.com.

Look me up, talk to me, tell me what you're doing. I'm so glad you joined me today, and we'll talk again next time. Bye.