A 2010 study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that women who described their homes as ‘cluttered’ were more likely to be feel depressed and tired than people who described their homes as clean. The women with the messy homes lowered their levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, far more slowly than women with homes they described as clean too, which generally indicates a poor outlook. This doesn’t surprise anyone who makes it their business to clean people’s homes, as they see first hand the mental health benefits that their services provide. For instance:
Reduced Stress
There are few things more stressful than a messy, cluttered home. Sometimes, you can walk in and feel yourself tense from seeing the grime. Of course, a big part of that stress is from thinking about how you will have to clean the house. Facing it on your own is not the natural state of things, so knowing that someone else will help make it as clean as possible takes a great burden off your shoulders. Not only this, but the cleaning service can organize your home so that it stays decluttered for longer, prolonging the time that you feel rested in your home.
Increased Ability To Focus
Cluttered homes have a lot of items strewn around your visual field, which pulls your attention away from whatever you are supposed to be doing. The distraction compounds when you go hunting for the things you need to finish a task and find yourself stumbling upon a million more tasks that need to be done. The result is that nothing gets finished and you feel even more distracted by all the unfinished projects.
Preserves Relationships
We humans are a group species, and we reap many mental health benefits from hanging around other people. In fact, one sign and serious contributor to emotional distress is social isolation. People in cluttered homes are often embarrassed to invite others to their home, so they can become more isolated.
The clutter also leads to low-level conflict with the people you live with as things get lost or broken, and people take to blaming each other for the damage. Your roommates also resent cleaning up after other people. A professional cleaning service prevents the inevitable fight over whose mess it is by doing the cleaning for everyone.
Anyone interested in feeling a boost in mood could do worse than to hire someone professional to clean their homes. Clean Haven, for one, can work with your busy schedule to set up a cleaning schedule that will preserve everyone’s mental health.