Have you ever felt your mood change at the sight of a full kitchen sink? Or felt a little less positive about your home in general after letting life take its toll for a few days longer than normal? Well you’re not alone because research shows that up to 90% of us feel negatively affected by mess or clutter around our homes. Not only that but more than half (54%) of people said they’ve cancelled social plans in their home because it wasn’t clean or tidy enough. (Anyone with children will know that feeling!) Research has also shown that living in a messy space has a strong correlation to feeling depressed and anxious as well.
In contrast you’ve probably also experienced that post-cleaning high, when you look around at all of your hard work, with everything in its rightful place, looking all sparkly and clean and felt content with yourself and your surroundings. There’s a lot to be said for a good spring clean!
But how exactly does spring cleaning affect your physical and mental health?
A cluttered, untidy environment actually generates more of the stress hormone cortisol in the brain. So, if your home and living spaces are clutter-free, tidy and clean then you can assume you’ll generate less cortisol and reap the rewards mentally. But it’s not just stress though, being around an untidy environment can cause unproductivity and contribute to lack of motivation.
The negative effects can also be felt on our physical health as well as our mental health. Dirt isn’t good for us and even tidy homes can still generate bacteria and mold. For example, your shower and window frames can breed mold that can make you ill, bacteria can grow anywhere that cells can be found (eg: everywhere) and all of this can make you feel bad. Cleaning your home to remove all dirt, bacteria and mold rids your environment of these harmful germs and removes their risk to you and your health.
To combat the negatives, giving your home a good spring clean can act as gentle exercise, and as we all know, exercise releases endorphins in the brain – happy hormones!
The movement as you reach, scrub, stretch, twist and squat throughout your cleaning might be just what you need to get back to a happy headspace in a matter of hours. Individual cleaning tasks alone can burn between 150 and 300 calories which is the equivalent to a dance class and the normal ‘weekly’ jobs like mopping the floor and washing up burn even more. A big spring clean could see you burn anywhere up to 2,000 calories! This means you can totally reward yourself with that slide of cake afterwards too.
And finally, practically speaking, while you might find it hard to motivate yourself to start the cleaning process, when you actually finish there’s a huge sense of achievement that comes from completing your task. Making immediate changes to your cluttered, messy surroundings will fight the feelings of stress and depression and make you feel better. Not only that, but knowing you’ve achieved that feeling on your own gives a sense of self belief that again boosts morale and improves your mood.
These things show that not only can you change the physical hormones in your brain just by having a good spring clean, but you can even improve your physical well being at the same time. The correlation between house cleaning and the potential for boosting your mental health is huge. It never looked more appealing did it?
Make sure you use our all natural and plant-based cleaning products for a good spring clean to ensure your task is as safe as possible for you and your loved ones and you’ll have the added bonus of knowing you’re saving the planet a little bit more at the same time. With no toxins, chemicals or synthetic ingredients, all Colt & Willow products have been designed to transform your cleaning experience into something that’s safe for both you and the environment. And we think they make the regular cleaning tasks a little bit more enjoyable too!
