Books. A few boxes. A prom dress. Shoes. Other miscellaneous items. These objects are scattered around my living room, and they’ve been there for over a week, nearly untouched. Recently, to complement the style of our front room, our kitchen has accumulated piles of dishes in the sink and food crumbs on the counter.
The filth disturbs me. Although it’s minor, each time I walk into these areas I immediately see another task to be done. With an item of importance constantly in my view, I never feel fully relaxed or at peace in my apartment. Perhaps, if I had put forth every reasonable effort to scour the vicinity of any dirt or misplaced item, I would feel satisfied. Yet, I have only procrastinated the cleaning job.
In the Bible, cleanliness gets repeatedly emphasized. Actually, it’s important enough to be clean that no “unclean person . . . hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God” (Ephesians 5:5). Now, this verse has greater depth than analyzing if your house is messy or not, and I’m not using it to say that if your house isn’t perfectly clean you won’t go to heaven.
Rather, in the Bible, the repetition of cleanliness shows how important it is for us as humans.
For one, obviously, the degree to how clean something is can affect our physical health. Eat dirty meat off a dirty counter and you’ll probably get sick. In addition, something talked about less often is that cleanliness also effects our mental and emotional health.
In a study by Princeton University, researchers found that clutter hinders a person’s ability to focus on a task (such as writing this blog). As the visual cortex becomes overwhelmed by objects not related to the task, focus and efficiency decrease.1 Naturally, incomplete tasks often lead to additional anxiety and stress, on top of the organization still left to do.
On the flip side, the physical action of cleaning, along with the result of a cleaner home, helps to reduce stress, feelings of anxiety, and depressive systems.2
Many times, I battle to gain the will to clean. Normally, my inward fight is against doing the dishes, putting away laundry, or some other necessary basic job. However, at the times when it feels the hardest, if I complete the action of cleaning, I not only feel less stress—I feel a sense of reward. As silly as it is, a sense of accomplishment washes over me and I’m much happier with the results of cleaning, than the results of procrastination and neglect.
If life feels overwhelming and stress looms over you, take a look around. Is the responsibility of cleaning an additional nagging stress? If it is, pick something to clean (perhaps the thing that is needed most). Do the dishes, dust the shelves, or fold and put away the laundry. It may seem daunting, but unless it’s an extreme case, these chores often take less than an hour—if not less than half an hour—to do. A small part of the day to dedicate it to.
So, clean the clutter in the home, clean the clutter in the mind. With small steps, you’ll experience less stress, and not a perfect home, but a cared for home.
1McMains S, Kastner S. Interactions of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms in human visual cortex. J Neurosci. 2011 Jan 12;31(2):587-97. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3766-10.2011. PMID: 21228167
2Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Physical activity reduces stress.
Read MRC 