Spring Cleaning For Mental Health - Without Adding Stress

Spring is here, bringing with it warm weather, longer days, and the perfect opportunity to spruce up your space and boost your mental health: spring cleaning. But if you're like most people, the thought of doing a deep clean overwhelms you and increases your stress. If you're struggling with anxiety or depression, cleaning can feel downright impossible. Let’s explore some of the ways that a little spring cleaning can help to boost your mood and improve your mental well-being without adding to your already-too-long mental load.

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A clean and tidy space can reduce your stress levels by giving you a sense of calm and peace. By decluttering your home, you're creating a peaceful refuge that you can retreat to when you need a break from the chaos of daily life. But it doesn't need to be pristine. Not at all! When it comes to tidying your space, we're totally fine with "good enough."

Set yourself up for success by breaking down your cleaning tasks into small, manageable tasks, such as cleaning out a single drawer or cabinet, clearing one stack of papers, or taking one pre-gathered box to be donated or recycled. Unless you are hyped up and want to do a cleaning marathon, just try short bursts. If you're struggling emotionally, move through tasks with abundant self-love and positive self talk.

To make cleaning less dreadful, we recommend making it as fun as possible. Turn on your favorite upbeat music and set a timer for any length of time that doesn't sound awful. Somewhere between 5-20 minutes is a great start, and you'll probably be impressed with how much of a difference you can make in that amount of concentrated time. When the timer goes off, if you're in the zone, feel free to continue, but you also have full permission to stop and pick up again for another burst later. 

Logistically, you'll need some basic cleaning supplies, and likely a big box or bag for donation items. Other than that, don't worry about doing anything perfectly. The most important thing is your mindset. Try speaking to yourself the way you would a sad or scared child: "I know this is hard. You're doing really well. I like the way you folded that towel. Let's keep going for a few minutes and see how much more we can do."
 
Now, sometimes when you're cleaning, things get worse before they get better, which adds to stress and feelings of failure. We don't want that. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you do one small area at a time, or one specific category at a time, such as dishes or laundry or paperwork. Don't look at the whole picture, because that's certain to lead to feelings of overwhelm and futility. Make small, incremental progress in one area or category.

Perhaps the most important way you can care for yourself while cleaning is to approach cleaning as a morally neutral task. Your space is not a reflection of you. In fact, as KC Davis suggests, we strongly believe that your space should serve you, not the other way around. If you wear a lot of clothing that doesn't need to be folded, don't fold it! Hangers, drawers, or bins are perfectly fine, so long as they don't contribute to visual clutter that adds to your stress. We carry a lot of "shoulds" around with us when it comes to how we keep our space, and they simply don't serve us well. 

Finally, spring cleaning is a great opportunity to get rid of anything that no longer serves you. If there are items in your home that bring up negative emotions or memories, now is the time to get rid of them. If there are items in your home that you simply don’t need or use, focus on what really matters to you and donate them. Bringing this level of intentionality into your space will help create a positive energy in your home and provide you with a fresh start.

Sometimes it can be difficult or emotional to let go of things, which is understandable. We often have feelings of scarcity; what if you someday need that teambuilding retreat tshirt from 2005? You won't, but letting go of the shirt can feel like letting go of memories. Remind yourself you get to keep the memories no matter what. If you're truly struggling to let go of things that most people view as having little value, you might consider working with a therapist to understand what's underneath that difficulty. 

Cleaning can sometimes feel like a chore, but it can also be looked at as an opportunity to care for yourself. So if you're feeling stressed or down, why not take some time -- even 5 to 10 minutes -- to declutter and organize your space? You'll be surprised how much of an impact you have have by simply taking a few minutes to collect the laundry into one pile, the dishes into the sink, or take out the garbage. You may just find that it makes a world of difference in your mood and well-being.