As winter begins to recede back and we try to come out from hibernation, we start to notice a few things that were overlooked in favor of staying warm. Cleaning is one of the last things you feel like doing if you’re cold and uncomfortable, but spring changes all that. If you’re not one for spring cleaning, we hope to show you why spring cleaning is so important for your home.
There’s a lot one can say about the concept of minimalism. It’s a trend that has garnered a lot more traction nowadays thanks to our overly busy and cluttered lives. Minimalism is the idea that we don’t need a ton of material possessions to be happy, and enough people make it work that they might have a good point. A minimalist lifestyle can even be a great way to help others if you decide to donate the old possessions that you no longer need. We’re going to go over a few of the benefits of a minimalist lifestyle, so you can see how even small minimalist changes can have a big impact on your life.
Moving is a time for new beginnings—out with the old and in with the new. Unfortunately, if you are someone who has a difficult time getting rid of things you don’t really need, it can also be a time of stress as you try to sort through everything you own. We are all guilty of having more than we really need, but that becomes more of a problem when the time comes to pack up and move somewhere new. How much space will you have at your new place? How will you know where everything is once you get there? Lots of questions like these may trouble your mind. We want you to know how to sort through your stuff before moving so that unpacking and starting fresh is that much easier.
Here at GreenDrop, we talk a lot about how your decision to donate your items can benefit other people’s lives. But we’d like to discuss how getting rid of all that old stuff can be very beneficial for the person doing the giving. There’s nothing wrong with gaining something when doing a good deed. This cycle of positivity is what creates people who love to give back and help others.
When we consider how decluttering can help the person getting rid of their stuff, a large portion of the benefit comes from how much better they feel, both physically and mentally. The health benefits of decluttering are worth considering when you’re looking through your old things. This article will show you how doing some spring cleaning might just improve your well-being.
Despite the fact that your eyes are closed and you can’t see the mess surrounding you, your brain never fully lets go of the clutter you keep around. If you have trouble sleeping or feel like the kind of sleep you get isn’t really refreshing you the way it should, it might be because there’s too much in your room for your brain to fully shut off. All that visual noise that you leave around makes your brain work that much harder to calm down for sleep. By decluttering your room of clothes and trash, you create a much more relaxing space where you can focus on getting a good night’s rest.
Have you ever wondered why humans tend to prefer things to be neat and tidy? The answer could lie in our brains. Our brains do their best to make sense of the world around us. The more orderly things are, the easier this is for our brains. However, if you enter a highly disorganized space with countless items strewn about, it can cause your anxiety levels to rise. That heightened anxiety isn’t good for anyone, yet plenty of people go through their lives with their homes completely out of order. Tidying up and organizing will put your mind at ease and allow you to experience less anxiety whenever you are home.
In the same vein as anxiety, stress is one of the worst things with which humans can deal. Our daily lives come with enough stress stemming from things we can’t control, such as issues at our workplaces. We don’t need to add to that stress by creating it on our own. The constant thought of, “I need to clean all of this up,” or, “I don’t even know where to start with this mess,” can make for an extremely stressful situation in your home. As you declutter, you will find that this stress will wane. Reducing stress is one of the best things you can do for both your mind and body, so don’t overlook this simple way to help yourself become healthier.
Visual noise created by clutter doesn’t just affect you when you sleep. It can also have a profound effect on how productive you are while at home. Clutter of any kind can take away your ability to focus on what you’re doing. It’s quite hard to focus on work or a hobby when there’s a huge mess right in your line of sight. This is especially important for those who work from home, as they must fight the temptation to simply leave everything where it is and clean it up later. If you can make yourself tidy up your personal space, you will find that concentrating on both work and leisure is much easier and less of a hurdle.
One of the health benefits of decluttering that affects your physical body involves the amount of dust and allergens you inhale on a daily basis. Clutter, no matter what it may be, creates more surface area for harmful dust and allergens to accumulate. Breathing these in can cause serious health problems over time. Some irritants can cause illness directly, while others can contribute to the development of allergies that you wouldn’t have developed if you weren’t breathing in these particles so often.
Clutter affects more than just the person who put it there in the first place. If you live in your home with anyone else, they have to deal with the clutter getting in the way of their lives as well. This is very important, because all humans are social creatures. Your relationships with roommates and loved ones are crucial to your mental health. When you get rid of the clutter, you remove one possible point of tension between you and the people with which you live. This can also contribute to a decrease in your overall stress.
We could all benefit from having a more positive outlook on life. Unfortunately, a cluttered home can directly affect how positive you feel that you can be. Too much clutter can cause your brain to believe you don’t have your life together. As the amount of clutter grows, your brain can start thinking there is no way out of the situation. With a little bit of deliberate and methodical effort, you can challenge this thinking and get back to a more positive mindset. Being more positive is a reward in and of itself, as it colors the way we feel about both the hardships and good parts of life.
We want everyone who donates to GreenDrop to come away from the experience feeling good about themselves and their future. This includes both our donors and those who receive donations. There are so many benefits to decluttering, not even counting the sense of purpose and satisfaction you get from knowing that you’re helping someone in need. If you’re ready to get started, you can check out one of our clothing drop-off locations. This way, you always know where to take that clutter you no longer need. We’ll be waiting with open arms and a helping hand whenever you decide to donate your old items.
There are plenty of people that take their homes and the amenities within them for granted. Not everyone gets to have a roof over their head every night or a bedroom all to themselves. For those of us who understand how fortunate we are, hearing that others go without things that we consider essentials is disconcerting at best and heart-wrenching at worst.