Having a cluttered space is annoying. It looks bad, you’re bumping into things, and it’s harder to find stuff.

That’s not the only thing. Clutter can actually have detrimental effects on your physical and mental health.

When you look around your workspace, do you see a space that’s covered in paperwork, supplies or trash? You’ve got clutter. If you’ve found yourself feeling down or in a slump, this could be the reason why.

You may not have thought that clutter could be such a big deal, but it is. Here are 7 of the most surprising ways that clutter affects your health.

7 Surprising Ways Clutter Affects Your Health

Thinking about clutter, most of us think of hoarders. People who have homes overflowing with trash and unnecessary stuff. But that’s only an extreme.

Clutter is something which crowds space. Do you have areas of your home packed with things? Or areas which are a disorganized mess? This is clutter, and you don’t need it in your life.

If you’ve ever wondered how clutter affects your life, here are the 7 most surprising ways.

1. It Makes You Lethargic and Unproductive

Living in a stagnant and cluttered environment saps energy away from you. It leaves you feeling tired and unproductive.

It can feel overwhelming to have clutter surrounding you. The more there is, the less motivated you are to clear it. Physical clutter means mental clutter. Your mind will feel clouded and make even the most simple of decisions into a big deal.

Getting rid of that clutter will change the way you work. Removing the clutter from your surroundings will give you so much energy back.

Remove the clutter from your home, and you’ll remove it from your mind too. You’ll be far more motivated to get things done right then, rather than putting it off for later.

2. It Breeds Unhealthy Eating

Studies have shown that cluttered environments are leading factors in unhealthy eating.

Clutter makes you stressed. Your stress hormone can cause you to gain weight and this influences your eating habits.

A natural reaction to stress is to comfort eat. When you’re in a cluttered environment, you’re more likely to eat junk foods to cope with the stress. This can become a nasty cycle.

If you clean up the environment, you’ll find you have more time and energy to make a proper meal. When you’re motivated, you’ll find you’re inspired to eat better. This, in turn, promotes a much healthier cycle.

3. It Increases Stress

As mentioned above, clutter increases the stress hormone in your body. This hormone is cortisol. Studies have found that people living with clutter have high cortisol levels.

But, when they leave it, their stress level returns to normal. In the same way multitasking overloads your brain, clutter makes you feel overwhelmed.

Remove it from your life and you’ll start to see immediate effects.

If you have a lot of stuff you don’t want to throw away, a storage unit can be the perfect place to put it all. This separates it from your environment and you’ll know exactly where things are. Learn more about how to do that here.

4. It Makes Allergies Worse

When you have lots of clutter, it means the environment isn’t getting a great clean. When your environment isn’t clean, it becomes a breeding ground for germs.

Germs and dust mites will gather here and will aggravate and allergies you may have. If you or your kids have asthma or allergies, it’ll make them a lot worse.

It can cause respiratory and other health problems down the line which can be very damaging.

Remove all clutter and give the space a regular clean with antibacterial wipes or spray. This will kill any bad germs and help to keep allergies at bay.

5. It Adds Strain on Relationships

People who are living with someone who leaves clutter are often bothered by it. This can often lead to unhealthy ways of expressing their frustration. This can include anger, irritability and even name calling.

If you live with someone who clutters your shared home, it could have negative effects. Clutter causes stress, and this can make your relationship with your partner difficult.

It can cause you or your loved one to overlook changes that need to be ma.e in the relationship and breed resentment. In extreme cases, studies show that compulsive hoarders have higher rates of divorce.

Getting clutter out of the house could very well save your relationship.

6. It Upsets Your Children

If you have kids, clutter could be having a negative impact on their lives too. Sure, kids are messy and you need to teach them to clean up after themselves. But if they live in a messy environment, it’s more likely to upset them.

Studies find that kids who live in very cluttered homes will have higher stress levels. They are often less happy and find it hard to make new friends.

Kids in cluttered homes are likely to experience embarrassment about their homes. This will lead to them having trouble making friends as they don’t want others to see the place.

Removing the clutter isn’t only good for you, it’s great for your kids. They’ll be happier, healthier and more outgoing.

7. It Can Make You Feel Depressed

A common misconception is that depression leads to cluttered, un-organised living spaces. But it works both ways too.

You can become depressed by the amount of clutter in your life. Clutter can make you feel overwhelmed and unproductive. When you feel this way, it’s a clear path to feeling depressed and hopeless about your situation.

Removing clutter can help you change your mindset and patterns of consumption. Once it’s all gone, you can re-evaluate what you actually need both physically and mentally.

It can give you a sense of relief and give you a whole new lease of life once the mental and physical clutter has gone.

Get Clutter Out Of Your Life

Clutter has a lot of negative effects both mental and physical. Getting rid of it all and leading an uncluttered life could be the best thing you ever do.

If you want to stay as healthy as possible, start by taking the clutter out of your life.

Find this article useful? Check out some of our other health posts for more healthy tips.