Have you been feeling mentally scattered, foggy, and unable to focus when you’re at home? Do you wish you could put a stop to racing thoughts and give your attention to one thing at a time? Have you ever wondered what clutter does to your brain?

It turns out, clutter is a big part of what’s distracting us.

What Clutter Does to Your Brain

According to a Princeton University study, clutter in our environments has a huge impact on our ability to focus. You can try to ignore the clutter, but it’s always competing for your attention.

We also feel more at-ease when our environments are clutter-free. When our house starts to get messy, I get the urge to pack up my laptop and go work at a coffee shop instead of trying to get work done amidst the mess. I would argue that keeping on top of clutter helps me save money – I’m more apt to stay home (and not spend money) if I feel happy and comfortable in the house.

This probably won’t come as news to you, but a UCLA study showed that moms’ stress hormones spike when they’re dealing with belongings. {They didn’t specifically say it, but my guess is that the “belongings” were toys.} The UCLA team studied several families in Los Angeles, and found a correlation between stress and stuff.

We know that clutter impacts our brains, but is it realistic to think that, as parents of small children, we can be clutter-free?

Probably not.

While clutter-free is a great goal to aspire to, it’s not really ideal or realistic for most of us. I don’t want to become a mom who’s so obsessed with keeping things clean that she makes the rest of her family miserable.

We live in our house. It’s going to get messy, and I’m not interested in spending my days cleaning. I want to enjoy my family, and I want them to enjoy their home.

What Can We Do About the Clutter?

If you believe that your house is cluttered to the point of making you feel distracted, it’s time to act. If you have the time and inclination to do so, dedicating big chunks of time to decluttering and organizing might help.

The problem with doing big clean-ups is that they won’t maintain themselves.

To stay on top of clutter, the best strategy is to build a sustainable decluttering habit.

How Can I Build A Sustainable Decluttering Habit?

You can start today, but deciding to declutter for just 10 minutes every day. You won’t see big results right away like you might with a huge clean-up, but you will start to make incremental process.

By decluttering for 10 minutes a day, you’ll make decluttering part of your routine. Over time, it’s amazing how much you’ll be able to declutter from your home.

Where Do I Start?

As you’re building your decluttering habit, start with the easy stuff first. When I started building my own decluttering habit, I sat down and made a list of all of the easy-to-declutter items and then worked at decluttering those things for 10 minutes at a time.

My ebook, Get Rid of It! A Step-By-Step Decluttering Guide for Beginners, outlines all of the stuff I decluttered as I built my own decluttering habit. If you need a guide to help you build your clutter-busting confidence, this ebook is for you!

Click here to get your own copy of Get Rid of It!

Want to save What Clutter Does To Your Brain? Click here to save it to your favorite Pinterest board.