House keeping tips for less stress

I watched a US documentary series called ‘Hoarders’ which portrayed the real life struggles of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding.

Despite the fact that I don’t have a hoarding personality, after watching a few shows, I found myself going through my house to make sure I had not accumulated ‘stuff’.

Truth be told and as I like to put it jokingly, I am seriously allergic to untidiness of any shape or form. Yet there was something about the show that caused me to take a deeper look at my relationship to ‘things’.

The end of the series heralded a new beginning for me. What am I holding on to all the clothes that didn’t fit any more for? 

Was keeping them till I could go back to the size I was 10 years ago a reality, a figment of my imagination or a fantasy? 

What about all those old magazines I would probably never find the time to read? What about that box of cassettes I had stored away?

The stories of some of the people I saw on the show might not apply to everyone but if we would be honest with ourselves, we can agree that most of us have the inability to get rid of certain things. 

Why else do you hold onto things that no longer serve any purpose? You know items such as empty margarine containers, jars and empty perfume bottles, expired make up, dried up nail polish, appliances that no longer work? Look around you. 

Do you have some things that are just taking up space because you have managed to convince yourself that you might need it one day? 

Perhaps someone else could put it to better use, don’t you think so? 

Let’s be real here. ‘One day’ has really been a long time in coming around, hasn’t it? One empty container after another, empty rice sack here, old jam bottles there, and very soon what you have is clutter.

Have you ever heard yourself make the statement, “I might need it one day”? By the way, according to the dictionary, clutter is "a collection of things lying about in an untidy mass." 

After a busy day at work and after navigating through horrendous traffic, you want to walk into a home that provides rest and relaxation. Powerful antidotes to stress.

If you have a cluttered or somewhat disorganised living space, home relaxation can be almost impossible. 

Let’s face it, clutter can be stressful. While everyone may have a different comfort zone with how neat things need to be, most people find a cluttered home to be a bit of a subtle yet inescapable stressor.

Walking into a home that has piles of paper on every surface, stacks of laundry that needs to be folded and put away, and random items scattered everywhere feels different than walking into a neat, orderly environment. 

Do you know that the state of your surroundings does affect your emotional well-being and productivity? You may not have thought about it, but it does. 

Most of us don’t realise how much disorderliness causes stress, but it’s been proven that living in a mess can drain you of energy, time and even money.

Your home should be a place where you're able to unwind and relax after a stressful day. A home that is disorganised, chaotic and full of discord is not a relaxed one.

While I don’t think I could ever qualify for an episode of Hoarders, whether at work or home, I think a lot about creating a comfortable organised space and I always look for ways to create an organised space.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing some of these simple housekeeping tips that help me to make my home more pleasant and peaceful to return to at the end of a busy day. 

Till next week, I want you to think about these questions: 

• Is your home organised enough that you can generally find everything you’re looking for without having to search?

• Will you be ready for visitors after they give you 10 minutes notice?

• Can you truly relax in your home, or is it an energy drain?

If you are not able to answer ‘yes’ to either one or all of these questions, you might find the tips I will be sharing beneficial. 

Watching the series, ‘Hoarders’, my own experience and hearing from others on how they have reduced stress inspired me to write this article. I hope I have inspired you as well.

Here’s to a healthy lifestyle! Cheers!

The writer is a Lifestyle Coach & Author of The Seduction of food’barbs_sai@hotmail.com