Spring Cleaning For Your Mental Health: Easy Ways to Make Your Home Tidy and Organized

Hello Lovely Family! Dr. Oriowo here to give you a brief intro. Once a month, I will be recruiting guest bloggers to give varying perspectives. At the end of those blogs, you will find a heading "Dr. Donna Nods." That section will give my advice and other info. Enjoy!

Easy Ways to Make Your Home Tidy and Organized

We all want a clean and tidy home. Sometimes, we'll find motivation, only to let things slide, and let clutter and mess reassert their presence. This can make the process of maintaining a neat home tedious and time-consuming. But there are plenty of super-easy ways to turn tidiness into a habit that can transform our homes into a place of relaxation.

Create Routine

Routine has plenty of benefits, cultivating stability and consistency. Maintaining positive habits can ensure days start productively without being onerous or time-consuming. Begin mornings by making your bed. Make it a routine to end nights by spending some time arranging things and putting stuff where it belongs. Vacuum or sweep each day as well. Even if it's only for a few minutes, it's an easy habit that builds up over time. Include your family, too. Encourage everyone to pick up after they're done using things, and consider having everyone pitch in for more thorough cleaning days. This could range from 15 minutes each night, to a few hours per week on a particular room. It's a simple, easy way to share the burden and make cleaning less daunting.

Organize, Organize

Organizing and decluttering your home may sound like a large task, but it doesn't have to be. You don't have to transform your home overnight, and practicing other tidiness habits will allow you to do this at your own pace. It may be prudent to first focus on rooms most frequented. Designate areas, like counters and cupboards, for specific items and consider converting a few drawers into storage for various possessions. That can take a lot of the pressure out of decluttering, allowing you to focus on organizing essentials and tidying up. Once things are organized, you can better determine what can be let go of during the clear-out process. The less you have, the less you have to clean. Get creative by using using jars or cans for items like scissors and pens. You might even convert a dresser drawer into storage to place under beds. Don't overlook basics either, like designating a location for shoes. A clean and decluttered home will be a systematic process, but the results can be dramatic. Organization can make your home feel spacious and open, and give peace of mind that can benefit your overall well-being.

Clean in the Moment

Cleaning reflexively is another tidiness habit that can be an asset to maintaining cleanliness. Picking up as you go can keep the list of chores from building and becoming so unappealing that they're avoided. When you get home, put your clothes away instead of throwing them wherever. Address spills as they happen, put dishes in the dishwasher instead of the sink, and start readying pots and pans for cleaning as you cook. Apply that same mentality to everything, from folding laundry to wiping down your shower after you wash. These are quick habits that can become instinctual over time and create change over time. It's better to quickly deal with it in the moment rather than let messiness accumulate.

Make Cleaning Peaceful

Cleaning isn't particularly relaxing; however, the results can be like a breath of fresh air for one's state of mind. There are ways that you can directly give your home a relaxing ambience. You can add more plants and scent diffusers to give your rooms a soothing feel, and add some natural color to bring serenity even when cleaning. When doing your day's chores, consider listening to music or an audiobook. Music can be a great motivator, both for you and your family, and may have everyone dancing or otherwise feeling relaxed and more enthusiastic about performing some essential tidying up.

A clean house can be transformative to life. Not seeing clutter in our living areas can give us a whole new perspective of our homes. By creating super-easy habits, we can take away a lot of the stress that mess creates. Involving our loved ones, too, can nurture a greater appreciation for family responsibility and the benefits of a well-maintained home.

Dr. Donna Nods

When you are feeling particularly anxious, or sad, or like things aren't going right, one fix that many of my clients (and friends) have found to be helpful is cleaning. It can help because of the physical act of clearing things away. Let's not also forget that cleaning can count as exercise (depending on how vigorously you are working it) which can help you to also get blood pumping and release feel good chemicals. I'm not saying make it a habit, but I am saying TRY IT OUT! Let us know how it goes by commenting below.