Decluttering Your Life: How Cleaning and Mental Health Are Connected | Dawn Potter, PsyD

Decluttering Your Life: How Cleaning and Mental Health Are Connected | Dawn Potter, PsyD



To learn more about decluttering, please visit https://cle.clinic/3zuZ2lp

Feeling anxious, stressed or unable to focus? Take a look around you. Clutter, mess or an untidy work area can make some people feel overwhelmed. In fact, research shows that cleaning (or a lack of cleaning) can have an impact on your mental health. Clinical psychologist, Dawn Potter, PsyD, discusses tips for decluttering, how mess can contribute to depression and tension and hoarding disorder.

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#HealthEssentails #Decluttering #MentalHealth

[Music] hi there thanks for joining us for this episode of the health essentials podcast my name is cassandra holloway and i'll be your host today we're talking about how mental health and cleaning are actually connected we're here with clinical psychologist dr dawn potter dr potter thanks for taking the time to speak with us and welcome to the podcast thank you so if you've ever been gripped with the sudden desire to suddenly deep clean your entire home or maybe you're motivated and inspired to suddenly reorganize every closet or pantry in your house you're actually not alone and feeling this way research is telling us that a cleaning or a lack of cleaning can actually impact your mental health plus there's been no shortage of cleaning and decluttering gurus over the past several years preaching to us about the importance of keeping a clean and tidy home so with that being said dr potter what is it about a clean and well organized home that people tend to find so satisfying for a lot of people having clean and organized home can help them feel in control it can help them with their day-to-day routine they know where everything is um everything is straight forward and there's also just a peace of mind from having like an aesthetically pleasing place to you know wake up in and return to at the end of your workday or if you're working from home of course just to have your work day feel smooth and organized and put together yeah i definitely notice a difference just in my overall kind of like focus um and you know just like motivation if things around me are kind of like tidy and cleaned up a little bit you can definitely tell there's some sort of impact on your mental health absolutely yeah because otherwise you can be distracted like oh gosh i need to put those dishes away or i'm gonna have to do that later so if you start out with everything neat and tidy then you don't have those distractions and a lot of people find clutter distracting certainly what are some of the health benefits obviously on the mental side as well but also on the physical side of just that kind of act of cleaning and decluttering what are those benefits so a lot of people do find cleaning to be um very satisfying but also like to be a very good way of managing stress or anxiety so a lot of people when they are faced with other problems that maybe they can't address at the time or they're just kind of overwhelmed they find that cleaning helps them restore a sense of control i think that the the act of cleaning itself of course is a physical act and so if depending on how much cleaning we're doing how vigorous we're getting we actually may be getting a bit of a workout um and even if not it's just something that gets us up and moving and being you know in control of our environment um the other thing i think that you know in terms of health benefits for some people uh keeping things clean and tidy and avoiding clutter particularly on the floor is really important for older adults and also for people with young kids both for the kids themselves we don't want tripping hazards but also for mom or dad we don't we don't want to take a tumble absolutely and kind of along those lines with like the physical kind of those vigorous cleans like when you're cleaning the windows or you're vacuuming that could like get your endorphins pumping and kind of help you feel a little bit better as well i imagine yes it definitely could yeah and i think the final thing is that when we're stressed and again if we have some other problem in our life that we can't quite address at the time cleaning produces a tangible result that we can see and feel we and we can like look at it afterwards and be like oh that looks so great so we get that satisfaction doing something meaningful so everyone has heard of you know the spring cleaning phenomenon um right around this time of year why do you feel you know that people suddenly have this inspiration to clean and get organized around this time every every year so there's probably i mean we now we we have the uh like the pop culture kind of knowledge of spring cleaning as being a thing and that's so that's that's real that we have that just like we have new year's resolutions we have the idea of like okay spring is a time to clean but spring in general has always been a time of like renewal and kind of rebirth like in the animal kingdom that's that's often when a lot of animals are starting to reproduce and so we kind of have this idea of spring being a season of new things and i think in addition to that you know during the winter especially the further the further north you you live you have shorter days longer nights it really can affect people that lack of exposure to sunlight it's also we have colder weather so we're not going outside as much so people's energy can really be a lot lower during the winter time and we can see a corresponding like surge of increased energy in the springtime as days are brighter days are warmer people are getting outside more and they feel more energized by that exposure to sunlight along the same lines you often hear about you know pregnant women who are nesting you know they're trying to get their homes all clean and organized or their nursery ready do you think this kind of plays along the same lines as spring cleaning um yes and no i think i mean i think that that's certain there's probably a um you know instinctual component to that uh i'm not sure that early pregnancy really brings more energy though often it can bring some fatigue particularly first and third trimester however there is just that instinct that you want to because of the the new baby coming you really want to have your environment set up and like we said it kind of brings about that sense of control you know obviously having a baby or losing that sense of control and i think just kind of tightening everything up kind of sends you makes you sense like okay you know it's going to be okay things are going to be okay with this yes absolutely that i think that makes total sense you you have a lot of things happening that are just happening but you can control some of your environment and you definitely want to what tips or advice do you have for someone who kind of maybe suddenly hit with this inspiration to spring clean it could be like a big undertaking you know depending on your to-do list um where should they start anywhere honestly so depending on the person uh so if a person has the inspiration already that's awesome a lot of people when faced with like if they've really let their home get out of control over the winter time or for whatever reason maybe they've been really busy and they're looking at like every room is a mess i've got so much stuff i need to get rid of it can be overwhelming for a lot of people just to get started so honestly just start is usually what i say but in addition to that if you really like wanted to get everything together certainly have a plan and certainly like don't expect to get it all done at once so say to yourself okay today i'm just going to tackle the you know kitchen and i'm going to you know declutter the counters in the kitchen and just see how it looks depending on how you're motivated you might do the biggest job first so that the one that provides the most sort of like visual change like if you've got like big stuff that you want to get rid of that provides that sense of relief immediately or you might just start with something small and easy like okay i'm just going to take out all the recycling yeah i feel like you could just start so many different projects at one time and then kind of not finish anything and that might make you a little bit crazier than it did before so i like that advice of kind of just starting small maybe it's one closet at a time or cleaning the kitchen counters like you suggested yes definitely so we talked about you know the mental impact uh positively you know with cleaning and de decluttering um how does cleaning serve as you know a distraction for when you're trying to procrastinate or you're putting something off you know is cleaning ever not a good thing yeah sometimes sometimes cleaning can be a form of procrastination particularly if you are a person who finds the emotional like benefit of cleaning and being in control if you do have something else important that you need to do and you're cleaning something that's already pretty clean ask yourself like okay is now the time to deep clean behind the like sink in the bathroom or is that something i could do next week after my deadline i'm curious how does or if it does how does ocd play into cleaning and that kind of always having to be like tidying up what's that relationship like that's a good question so not everybody with ocd will have a compulsion particularly towards cleaning however if somebody with ocd does have a compulsion towards cleaning it's usually specific so it's usually one particular thing or or a few particular things and normally with that kind of cleaning a person they clean something over and over again because they don't feel like it really got clean in the first place or because they um feel that it got recontaminated even when it likely didn't so during uh covid you may see people cleaning door knobs repeatedly or cleaning countertops repeatedly or a lot of cleaning in the bathroom you know maybe after every single person used it in the same household you know where we might not actually the cdc may not recommend that level of cleaning kind of along the same lines like with adhd you know um people with this condition you know may have a cluttered space but they know where everything is or the opposite might be true when they put something away they may not remember where they put it away how does adhd play into cleaning as well now some common symptoms of adhd can be difficulty organizing things and frequently losing things and having trouble seeing projects through to the end so for folks with adhd cleaning and organizing can be a huge challenge however some people with adhd may actually find that that is critical to them for their other kinds of functioning so some people with adhd may require themselves to have a clean and neat workspace because as we talked about earlier that idea of clutter being distracting could be so much worse for somebody who's already struggling to keep themselves focused so you know i think one one piece of advice i give to any individual that i'm trying to work with on that clinically like on on cleaning and organizing is there is no one right way to do it but you need to do what works for you everybody needs to have some level of organization but it doesn't have to be the same for every person yeah absolutely it's very personal you know like um what works for me might not work for you kind of thing it's like what works for you what makes you the most motivated and productive at that point you got to start kind of thinking about it from that aspect yeah yeah so if a person needs to kind of have everything out on their desk even though it's kind of cluttered in order to just have it in arms reach when they want or need something then that's how that works for them right that is definitely not me if i have anything kind of on my desk i have a hard time focusing um so i have to always kind of like put things away a little bit even before i tackle kind of the first thing on my to-do list is that like a normal behavior would you say yes i mean i think individual differences vary like for example i like to have my pen out on my desk like within easy reach and a bunch of other things that i just want like right and so and i think that that as long as it works for a person is just a personality difference and so as long as it doesn't interfere with you getting started with your work day as long as you're not spending an excessive time cleaning and organizing every single day before you start your day or at the end of the day if you're having trouble disconnecting from work because you're excessively cleaning but if you've got a rhythm and a routine that works for you that you just take something out and put it back away that's awesome yeah i think it's important to kind of find that fine line you know as long as completing your tasks and being productive and it's not disrupting your day like you said yeah so according to one study from 2010 people who described their homes as cluttered or complained about you know the unfinished projects that we all have uh these people were more likely to suffer from depression and fatigue while those who described their home as restful and restorative um were more likely just to be happier and have better mental health so there definitely seems to be some sort of connection um in most people between you know the being clean and organized and having better mental health and i know we've you know touched on it here and there but why do you think exactly that is well i think they're definitely interrelated and you know it's in a lot of cases it may be that the depression or fatigue or other mental health condition is actually causing the disorganization not always however like some core symptoms of depression are low interest in things lack of motivation fatigue sleep disturbance concentration problems and so if somebody was experiencing depression they are less likely to to maintain the focus required to fully finish the task of cleaning or organizing to you know care whether or not there's dirty socks on the floor like because unfortunately that's those are some of the symptoms of depression so a person's home may become disorganized dirty cluttered as a result of that and and similar with with fatigue it may not be that they don't care it may be that they're just out of energy to do it it may bother them quite a bit um now on the flip side if a person with depression or with fatigue or with some other like barrier can push themselves or can figure out ways to make it easier to clean up to be organized conversely that that may help with the depression that may help with energy and focus oftentimes you hear about you know creative people they're often artists or writers who kind of thrive in this sort of creative messy environment i'm curious what is the difference between someone like this who's okay with mess and they thrive in this mess versus someone who has a hoarding disorder so i think the big difference is how they handle cleaning up so and also maybe the reasons why it's cluttered in the first place so when a person with a hoarding disorder is faced with pressure because often they may be faced with pressure from other people to do it to clean up and throw things out and get rid of things they will feel emotional distress they will have great difficulty you know partying with things because a core feature of having a hoarding disorder is feeling this strong need to keep things just in case i need them and so and so it can be very very distressing there's for a person who's maybe just creative a little more messy it just doesn't really get bothered by clutter it just kind of keeps things around they're likely not really keeping a lot of things around on purpose because they're afraid to let go of them in case they need them they're probably just not really all that like focused on whether or not there's clutter around so it's just not that important to them so if they are faced with often external pressure like from a partner or a family member or just you know they they suddenly have a realization like oh gosh i've really got to clean up around here they'll be able to do it without like a lot of distress they may feel bored or frustrated about like doing all the work and cleaning up but they can make decisions about do i need this or not so i'm curious how often do you see people coming to you to seek help for a hoarding disorder oftentimes you see you know those tv shows where they've just gotten the mess the mess has gotten so out of control what are some of the things that like you work with people with this disorder to do to kind of solve those problems where do they start hoarding disorder can be very very difficult to treat um and so i think it would depend on the individual on how intense they it was and and the motivation behind it however like often some components of cognitive behavioral therapy are really helpful we can help people try to challenge beliefs they have about whether or not they need an object help people identify ways to start slow practice tolerating the anxiety that comes from throwing something away so we really need to start slow because again it can be very distressing and it needs to come from the person they need to have the motivation and be ready to say yes i'm going to throw some things away are there different like varying degrees of hoarding disorder kind of from one end of the spectrum kind of you know slight all the way to very severe cases yeah absolutely and there's different um like with anything it can look different in different people so some people may be more like they like to be prepared so they have like they have like lots of canned goods stocked whereas other people may have trouble throwing away just about anything some people may just have like certain things and hoarding doesn't necessarily mean that a person is generally dirty messy or disorganized they may pile up their garage super full but keep their keep their like you know living room and dining room very nice and so like it can really vary person to person it's not all just what you see on tv so the last thing i want to ask you about today is if you're suffering from a compulsive need to you know clean your entire house or if you're really struggling with this thought that you have to have everything neat and perfect and in its place in your house what advice do you have for these types of people so what you're describing there sounds like it might fall into that personality dimension of perfectionism and so my advice is that you know perfectionism is a double-edged sword so it can help us excel at things because we strive to do them perfectly however the cost is the mental energy and effort required to do that and very very often that goes along with unpleasant anxiety about getting something right and so if you find yourself plagued by anxiety about getting something right if you find that every time you let's say are having a gathering or you know um approaching some type of landmark where you need to do spring cleaning or something like that and you are bothered excessively by it you're bothered by anxiety about it you're finding that you can't relax and wind down at the end of the day cleaning even though you're tired then that might be a time to take a step back and say do i need do i need to talk to somebody about this is this rising to the level of some type of anxiety disorder or do i just need to give myself a break and say you know what it's good enough again kind of knowing yourself knowing what works for you and knowing kind of when you do cross that boundary yeah wonderful dr potter thank you so much for being here today and sharing your insight with us thanks for having me to learn more about mental health visit clevelandclinic.org behavioral health [Music] you

#Decluttering #Life #Cleaning #Mental #Health #Connected #Dawn #Potter #PsyD

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