75% Of People Can't Do This Because of Clutter!

It's easy to fall into the thought process that certain areas of our lives don't impact other areas. We go about our days often playing out subconscious habits without stopping to think if there's a better way. Or maybe we feel so caught up in the norm that we think there's just no point in trying to change it. Imagine the person who's worn the same shoe style their entire life. The shoes are comfortable but not very supportive. Over time they develop back pain and hip pain and now they have trouble tilting their neck. All the pain makes it hard to sleep and the lack of sleep puts them in a bad mood. All they need to do to start living more enjoyably is get a better pair of shoes but these are their shoes. They've always worn them and possibly don't even realize that the shoes are the culprit. This video is sponsored by Skillshare. I'll talk more about them later. The clutter in your home is not a benign part of your life. It's something that you interact with every day multiple times a day and just like the shoes we have comfortable habits around our clutter. This may have been developed from our parents in childhood or it may have been developed from years of busyness and distraction that eventually led to complacency in our home space. A study done by UCLA found that 75% of the participants couldn't park their cars in their garage due to clutter. Some families stored as many as 650 boxes, bins, and other items in their garage. This is just one sign of the clutter snowball effect but it goes so much deeper. Now we've become pros at putting off decluttering. I'm not going to do it now, I'll do it later. At any given time there are a handful of very valid reasons why now is not the right time to get the clutter out. Sometimes we just need the right motivation in order to override our excuses. Well there are five really worthwhile reasons that you may be overlooking but before I jump into those five reasons that you may be overlooking, a quick word about Skillshare. They're my sponsor for this week's video. Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for anyone who loves learning and wants to explore their creativity. There are so many subjects in one place from entrepreneurship to personal development and interior design. I took Emily Henderson's course Style Your Space Tips and Techniques for Creative Design. This was a fun, upbeat course and I actually learned that my design style is not minimalist. In fact minimalism didn't even rank in my design quiz. I got Scandinavian as my primary design style with a runner-up of Zen and Contemporary. If you take the quiz you'll have to share your results down in the comments. The first 1000 people to use the link in my description or my code MiaDanielle will get a one month free trial of Skillshare. I've always found it interesting the relationship that we have to our environments and how impactful our spaces are to every aspect of our lives. So much more than I could ever fit into this video, but for the sake of convenience I think that a lot of them can be lumped into these five categories. Like your mental health. There's a direct correlation between the clutter in your life and the stress you experience. There have been many studies to support this statement including the study mentioned above by UCLA. You remember the one that found that 75% of the families in the study couldn't park their car in their garage due to clutter? Well that same study found that the levels of the stress hormone cortisol spiked for the mothers when dealing with their belongings. And to take things a step further Dr. Rick Hansen, the author of Hardwiring Happiness, released a study addressing the effects of prolonged periods of stress on the brain. He concluded that the structure of our brains can physically change making us more susceptible to stress later on. As he puts it, the mind can change Now it makes sense that the increased cortisol and stress response would have an impact on anxiety especially in those who are already suffering from anxiety and panic disorders. But multiple studies have also found a positive correlation between clutter and depression. Cluttered homes have been associated with social isolation, stress, low self-worth, insomnia, and depressive episodes. Another thing to consider is that the types of clutter itself that we surround ourselves with may directly incite feelings of anxiety or depression. Think of the things that perpetuate sadness or anger or even self-defeat. These could be things from a previous failed relationship or a personal loss. You probably agree that people are more distracted than ever before. Have you checked your phone since you started this video? But you may not be aware that your clutter is doing a very similar thing. Princeton University put this to the books in a study that found clutter or multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time competes for your brain's resources, limits its processing power, and prevents focus. In other words, clutter is distracting. It hinders focus and mental clarity at a time when we need all the clarity we can get. We live in a day and age where stimuli is constantly competing for our attention. Creating a home environment that doesn't add to the madness and multitasking is important to enjoy your space and to be productive in the things that you care about. The flip side to this is that the act of decluttering your space actually provides stress relief that can be healthy and cathartic. And once the clutter is gone, you're left with the things that you actually value without the overwhelm and distraction. Number two is your relationships. If you feel like your home environment is cluttered, you'll likely notice it affecting one or more of your relationships. Maybe you don't want to invite a friend or a date over because you're embarrassed. Feelings of shame or inadequacy may pop up because it's become so ingrained in us that a clean or tidy home is evidence of having it all together, even more so for women. Social isolation is a reality for so many people who struggle with clutter. Psychologist Patricia Riddell talks about the disconnect that happens between couples and the value they place on their belongings. She attributes this difference in values to an increase in repeat arguments, anger, and relationship fatigue. The tension caused by financial issues in a relationship can also be linked to clutter. This is often due to a partner's excessive shopping tendencies or a cycle of buying, losing, and then replacing items due to an unmanageable amount of clutter. In more extreme cases, the National Institute of Mental Health found that children who lived in moderate or greater clutter before age 10 reported significantly more distress and that they related their childhood as less happy, reported more difficulty making friends, had people over less often, argued with their parents more, and described their relationship with their parents as more strained. Number three, your physical health. It's no secret that when you have a lot of stuff, upkeep becomes more difficult. The more difficult cleaning becomes, the more likely you are to forget, avoid, or miss cleaning an area. So it should be no surprise that under all the clutter lies hidden germs, bacteria, and dust. Consider the likelihood of cross-contamination in the kitchen after handling raw meat, could be collecting salmonella and other bacteria, or the bathroom, and very likely mold and algae from the moisture in the air. Plus the dust and dust mites accumulated in hard-to-reach forgotten areas like high fabric areas may be the cause of several respiratory problems including allergies and sinus issues. This of course is in addition to the stress and potential depression and lack of energy that clutter can cause. Number four, your finances. Now a common excuse that I hear for not being able to go clutter-free is that it would be expensive or wasteful. And while we should of course be mindful of how we are discarding our things, one overall result of going clutter-free tends to be improved finances. In fact, the very first step of decluttering might make you money. Many people have made hundreds or even thousands in a month from selling unused things. A few weeks ago I shared everything that I've learned from selling my stuff. I've sold unused items for years to the improvement of my finances, and in many cases selling unused or lower quality items has given me a nest egg to reinvest and purchase upgraded versions. Living a more minimalist life is also great for your personal finances because you're simply not buying as much stuff. Buying fewer but higher quality items, even if they are more expensive, will generally last much longer and bring you more enjoyment than buying several cheap things that will inevitably be stored away. In most cases you get what you pay for. And the big one, your quality of life. Something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about over the years is how our lives are made up of minutes. I think it's an interesting thought that the quality of any person's life can be boiled down to how they spend their minutes. An American time use study showed that we spend on average two to four hours per day tending to our homes. So if you feel like you're constantly playing keep up in your home, that may not be too far from the truth. Compound that with the immediate impact your environment has on your energy and mood. Your environment has the ability to make you feel any number of ways. Calm, serene, tense, annoyed, all just by stepping foot into a space. These changes occur from an emotional level all the way down to physical tension and symptoms. There aren't many things that carry that kind of an impact. So the question is, are you ready to take control of these areas? Will you be a part of that 75% or is the best time to declutter now? Registration has opened for my live event about creating holistic clutter-free spaces. So this is going to include a mini-series where I speak with other experts and share how you can create and incorporate holistic spaces into your home in the everyday. And then we'll be closing it out on Friday with my free live workshop, my holistic clutter-free formula. So be sure that you register and save your spot. I will have the link down in the description and I hope to see you in a couple of weeks.