By Jack Shaw, senior writer and editor at Modded
Everyone wants to do their best in school or the workplace. Studying is a crucial part of that. No one should have to leave their home to improve their focus. Learning how clutter affects a person’s mental health could motivate more people to optimise their cleaning strategies and tackle messes before their stress gets out of hand.
How Decluttering Improves Working and Studying
Remembering information is easier when someone’s in a supportive environment. Understanding the impact of clutter on a person’s mental well-being clarifies why simple messes have a big impact.
Cleanliness Sharpens Focus
Researchers found that clutter negatively affects a person’s well-being and have numerous theories about why. While the specific factors can vary from person to person, messy living spaces cause issues with perceptual fluency, making it harder to process what someone sees.
Students or people working from home may have a harder time concentrating on the task at hand if their perceptual fluency is struggling. The same issue arises for anyone working from home. They may not prepare themselves for a presentation as well if they cannot focus on their work for longer than a few minutes at a time.
Grime Increases Stress
Living spaces are full of things that remind people of happy times. They are also more personalised than standard offices. While remote workers are 7% more likely to experience job satisfaction compared to people who work in an office, they may still deal with high stress levels if their homes remain cluttered. Students could feel the same way in their dorm rooms or apartments.
Clutter means there is work to do around the house. The promise of extra chores can make people feel stressed about their schedule. They could also dread the act of cleaning. Decluttering a space will remove those mental hurdles, allowing people to focus on what they need to do without any extra stress.
Clutter Could Prevent Work
Messes often hide things people need. If someone needs to study for workplace certification testing, they might need noise-cancelling earpods to block out external sounds. Clutter may make it difficult to find where they last put those headphones. Searching for them could take twice as long, preventing them from studying even if they are not cleaning while they look. Clean homes have all items in proper storage locations, making them easy to access.
Messes Cause Distractions
When someone starts working on homework or a job assignment, they may use clutter as an excuse to take breaks. Messes can also aid procrastination. Either way, running around picking up distracting piles of clutter will prevent people from tackling their responsibilities.
Sporadic work takes longer, even if it comes from good intentions. Cleaning and studying are also forms of multitasking that can accidentally waste a person’s time if they produce less-than-optimal results. They will have to go back and either clean the same area or study the same materials. If the same person started working in an organised living space, they would not have any distractions pulling them away from their work.
Tips for Cleaning Any Living Space
Anyone ready to declutter their homes can prepare themselves with straightforward strategies. Approaching a cleaning session with purpose could even make it more enjoyable.
List Current Messes
Clutter may seem like one large problem, but it encompasses many smaller messes scattered throughout various areas of the home. People who want to clean can make a quick list of the clutter piles that bother them most. Target specific areas to address what is most distracting, especially in frequent work or study areas.
Set a Timer
Time management is crucial when decluttering. Watching the clock is even more important if you have to study right after cleaning. Timers could improve a person’s focus. Setting one creates gentle pressure to finish decluttering within the time frame while providing a clear finish line. When the alarm beeps, it is time to shift into study mode within the cleaner environment.
The next step is determining how long to set the timer. People can get creative with what they try. They may only need a few minutes to do the dishes before studying at their kitchen table. A messy bedroom with piles of clutter could take longer. Some may also find it easier to pay attention to tasks for longer periods if they have music or a podcast playing in the background.
Consider exploring concentration strategies that require alarms, like the Pomodoro technique. This approach alternates work periods with breaks to reduce mental fatigue and boost focus. Some people also appreciate the guaranteed rest periods, making decluttering feel less overwhelming since they can recharge and rejuvenate before getting back to it.
Create Scheduled Reminders
Anyone who successfully declutters their dorm room or house should celebrate their accomplishment. Enjoy a stress-free space and concentrate on your studies. When another rest period arrives, consider scheduling cleaning reminders. Cleaning an extremely messy space takes a long time and may negatively affect a person’s mental health more. Maintaining a decluttered room is easier when it happens through small tasks.
Assigning one cleaning responsibility to each day of the week can help prevent clutter from having adverse mental health effects. Dusting, taking out the trash and picking things up from the bedroom floor are all little things people can do to keep bigger messes at bay. The best cleaning responsibilities will depend on the messes around a person’s home and what they can fit into their daily schedule.
Focus Better With Smarter Cleaning Strategies
Studying is much easier in clean, comfortable environments. Anyone can reduce clutter in their dorm room or living space by understanding how it affects their mind. Fixing the issue with simple long-term solutions will help people concentrate when it matters the most, even years down the road.
About the Author
Jack Shaw, the senior writer and editor at Modded, specializes in weaving together the threads of business and entrepreneurship with greater concerns about sustainability best practices and industry developments. With a commitment to providing actionable insights and empowering readers. Through his writing, Jack seeks to educate and inspire individuals on their journey toward more success-driven decisions. Feel free to connect with him via LinkedIn.