Clean and Neat Home

Clear Clutter to Make Way for
10 Positive Differences in Your Life

In our busy lives, almost everything takes priority over clearing out the clutter we’ve accumulated over time. And, clutter attracts more clutter. Soon enough, we become comfortable with clutter. But, clutter eats into our well-being in ways that aren’t apparent to us. It can cause stress, poor health, a waste of time and money, affect relationships and the list of negatives go on. The upside is that when we clean up, we clean out more than just dirt and unwanted things - we’ll clear out all the negatives that come with clutter. Clearing out clutter opens up to better health, better relationships, better outlook and the all the positives here:

Less stress

It’s official. Mess can cause stress. A study by researchers at UCLA’s Center for Everyday Lives and Families which resulted in the book, ‘Life at Home in the 21^st Century’, found that mothers who thought of their homes as cluttered had a higher level of cortisol (stress hormone).

There seems to be much truth in the saying that a tidy environment begets a tidy mind. Clutter, and its numerous visual stimuli, competes for our attention and distracts us from our more important tasks. It tells our brains that there’s a lot of work that’s not done and so, we’re not able to relax physically and mentally. This leaves us feeling overwhelmed and tired which decreases performance and increases stress.

The good news is that this source of stress is easy to remove with a diligent wipe down and tidy up of our homes.

Better Diet

A clean and well-organised kitchen inspires us to put our culinary skills to work on some delicious and healthy home-cooked meals, giving restaurants and fast-food a miss.

Interestingly too, a clean environment also seems to have a positive influence on our choice of food. In an experiment by Dr Kathleen Vohs (Psychological Science Journal), participants placed in an orderly room chose healthier snacks over those in a disorderly room.

Less Illness

 If you’re frequently down with the bug – coughs and colds, or even asthma attacks and allergic reactions, the trigger could be the accumulated dust and moulds in closed and dark areas. A good clean out makes for a healthier and more energetic life.

In the process, you may even stumble upon the source of pest infestations such as cockroach eggs, ant nests and mosquito larvae.  Here’s your opportunity to wipe out the population of these bothersome pests and their surprising incursions into your peaceful home.

Exercise

If you’re not hitting the gym or going out for a run, cleaning can give you your much-needed workout. Someone who weighs 55kg will burn about 160 calories over 1 hour of vacuuming the floor, 40 calories over washing the dishes for 30 minutes and 80 calories cooking for 1 hour. Not bad for killing two birds with one stone.

Save money

In 2014, Singapore wasted 790,000 tonnes of food. That’s about 2 bowls of food per person a day. With a tidy and well-organised kitchen, you’ll know what groceries you have and what you need. Plan your meals and buy only what you need to save yourself a tidy sum in grocery bills over time.

Another way to clean out your kitchen and save money at the same time is to skip your weekly grocery shopping trip and spend the week cooking dishes only with the groceries that you have in your kitchen. Start with the items that are close to their expiry date. This will save you from having to toss out stale groceries.

Clean and well-maintained appliances have a longer lifespan. Taking your stove hood filter as an example, these filters collect grease from cooking and naturally become very sticky and greasy over time. If left uncleaned, they become ineffective and may even become too greasy to be cleaned. It is time well-spent cleaning the filters periodically rather than to spend money and time getting a replacement.  These filters are easy to clean when cleaned regularly.

Save Time

A well-organised environment, whether it’s your desk at work or your home, does wonders for productivity. Knowing where to find what you need without having to rummage through things means you accomplish more in a day and over time, in life!

Better Prepared for Unforeseen Events

Let’s face it. Unforeseen events are very much part of life but we choose to deny it.  Don’t we all think that life should unfold as we expect it and as we’ve planned it? Ironically, when something unforeseen happens and it disrupts our lives, we’re invariably surprised and upset.

Expecting life to throw a curveball now and then lets us react to emergencies calmly so that we can handle them in the best way possible. And, a well-organised environment helps in allowing you to focus on the problem at hand.

Also, a well-organised person is likely to plan for certain emergencies.  This could be anything from just keeping $20 in the car in case you lose your purse to drawing up a Will to ensure your estate is well taken care of.

More reason to have friends over

With everything in order at home, it’s easy to have frequent gatherings. Just focus on preparing the meal and maybe dressing up the place to suit the occasion. After all, these are the things that make life meaningful and more enjoyable.  

Just Happier

A fresh, clean and tidy home exudes peace and just puts one in a good mood. Besides, cleaning can be cathartic, creating a psychological relief as we throw out unwanted things and cleaning out dirty spaces. At the end of it all, there is a sense of accomplishment and it leaves us more time to relax and enjoy more of what we’d like to do in life.

It’s Good for the Kids

With things in their proper places and hygiene observed, the environment become safer for kids – less tripping over wires, less allergic reactions to dust and less of a whole load of reactions to clutter. But, more than a neat and clean home, kids become aware early in life of the benefits of an organized environment. They grow up feeling that a clean and neat home is a must-have to live a better life - one of many life’s lessons worth leaving your kids with.

When you think of it the way Benjamin Franklin viewed the value of being organised when he said ‘Every minute spent organising is an hour earned’, it’ll just be hard to resist getting down to some sorting, discarding, tidying and cleaning. Should you need storage boxes to store things, Kids Cocoon has a range, currently at a discount, to help you through. Happy Cleaning!