How Spring Cleaning Can Boost Your Mental Health

Spring is a time for rebirth and renewal, which makes it the perfect time to refresh both your physical space as well as your mental space. The annual ritual of spring cleaning isn’t just about keeping your home clean – it’s also undeniably beneficial for your mental well-being.

Here’s what you need to know about the wellness benefits of spring cleaning and tips to make this spring cleaning season your best ever.

The Main Benefits of Spring Cleaning for Mental Health

If your home is cluttered or dirty, it could be impacting your mental health. It’s important not to underestimate the ongoing traditional significance of spring cleaning; the phenomenon is wildly popular for a reason. So when you prioritize spring cleaning, you’re also prioritizing your mental health.

Here are four major benefits linked to spring cleaning.

Reduction of Stress and Anxiety

If you spend all of your time in a super messy space, it may subconsciously affect your stress levels and contribute to feelings of anxiety. Cleaning helps reduce stress and anxiety linked to your messy environment. In fact, one scientific study found that participants who had messy homes were more likely to have elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol throughout the day compared to those with cleaner homes.

“When somebody is used to a cluttered, disorganized, or messy space, they might not realize how much it’s actually impacting their anxiety or stress,” says Amelia Pauley, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner with Grow Therapy. “Once they start to take the steps to clean, organize, and refresh, they often start to see those positive benefits in their mood pretty quickly.”

As a bonus, another study found that the act of cleaning itself can serve as a beneficial way to cope with everyday stressors. How’s that for multi-tasking?

Enhancement of Mood and Self-Esteem

Pauley says that when you clean and see the progress you’ve made in your home, you’ll be rewarded with dopamine hits. Dopamine is a feel-good chemical linked to motivation and reward. When you are close to finishing or done with a task, your brain releases dopamine, which makes you feel good. Small wins such as organizing your closet, doing the laundry, or finally doing those dishes that have been stacking up will ultimately improve your mood and make you feel accomplished.

Not to mention, a messy space could be messing with your self-esteem. “Sometimes we can internalize the clutter as a reflection of ourselves, and if you’re already struggling with depression or anxiety, that can reinforce any kind of negative biases or stereotypes we have about ourselves,” says Martinique Moron, a licensed clinical social worker with Grow Therapy. Taking action, cleaning up your clutter, and killing those dust bunnies can help you gain a sense of accomplishment and a sense of control  – challenging those negative beliefs about yourself and improving your self-esteem.

In a 2024 survey of Americans who engage in spring cleaning, 70% of respondents said that cleaning gives them a sense of accomplishment, and 66% said cleaning boosts their mood. Not bad, right?

More focus and productivity

In a post-COVID world where many of us work from home, it’s important to focus effectively at home. According to the Harvard Business Review, research using fMRI imaging showed that having disorganized clutter in your field of vision while trying to work can tire out your brain by depleting your cognitive resources. This makes it harder to focus on what you should be focusing on. On top of affecting your focus, a cluttered environment is also linked to procrastination, research shows.

When you keep your space clean, it allows you to focus and get productive more easily, Moron says. By investing time into spring cleaning, you’re setting yourself up for more productive, focused work sessions – leading to a more satisfying professional life right from the comfort of your own newly tidy home.

Promotion of Better Sleep

If you have trouble sleeping at night, a messy space could be (at least partially) to blame. A cluttered room can impact how well you sleep – and good sleep is crucial for positive mental and physical health. If your room is neat and organized, it can help calm your mind and cut down on distractions, leading to a better night’s sleep. Simply tidying up and practicing good sleep hygiene can make a positive impact on your shut-eye time.

Here are a few more tips to consider when setting up your bedroom for the best sleep:

• Having comfortable, supportive pillows and mattress

• Keeping the room temperature on the cooler side

• Keeping the light out with dark curtains or a sleep mask

• Using earplugs, a white noise machine, or fan to block out bothersome noise

• Putting your electronics away and out of reach from your bed

Practical Tips for Effective Spring Cleaning

For many people, spring cleaning is easier said than done. Here are a few therapist-approved practical tips to help you get started.

Setting SMART Goals

When it comes to completing any major task, setting small, achievable goals is always a good idea. Moron suggests setting SMART goals, which means they are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Relevant

• Time-bound

It can be super overwhelming to have a goal of cleaning your whole house this spring. You have no idea where to start or how to actually do it. You get overwhelmed by the thought of cleaning your whole house and end up cleaning nothing at all.

It’s much more helpful to set a SMART goal like, “I am going to spend one hour a day organizing my bedroom closet to finish by the end of this weekend.” This is much more action-oriented and achievable than the general goal of cleaning the whole house. Breaking it down step by step can help prevent you from feeling too overwhelmed.

Incorporating Mindfulness and Positive Thinking

Double up on the self-care benefits of cleaning by stacking your tidying with another practice. Cleaning lends itself well to a mindfulness practice. If you want to practice mindful cleaning, Moron suggests dialing back on the distractions like keeping the TV on and instead paying attention to what’s going on in the moment.

For example, you can intentionally carry out each task while tuning into your senses. Notice the refreshing smell of the lemon-scented cleaner you’re using. Feel the different fabrics of the clothing you’re putting away. Listen to the sound of the broom rhythmically brushing across the floor. Taking the time to notice all your senses keeps you in the here and now, reducing your anxiety. You can also allow some thoughts to come up without judgment and check in with yourself to see how you’re feeling, Moron says. Proud? Accomplished? Exhausted? All of the above?

Another self-care practice you can incorporate is positive thinking with a gratitude practice, Pauley says. Instead of looking around and thinking all those negative thoughts about how much you don’t want to clean, give it a positive spin. Pauley says you can think about what you’re grateful for in your space – a roof over your head, all your clothes, your knick-knacks and souvenirs that remind you of happy memories, and more. You might even feel grateful for your body and physical health for giving you the ability to get up, move around, and clean the house.

Creating a Maintenance Plan

Now for one of the hardest parts of spring cleaning: keeping your living space clean. Creating a maintenance plan is super important to ensure all the effort you’ve put into decluttering and organizing doesn’t go to waste.

Here are a few ideas:

• Determine what tasks are most important to keep up with, and set SMART goals to reach them.

• Have a visible chore calendar or to-do list, keeping certain days of the week dedicated to certain tasks. (For example, Mondays can be a day you work on laundry, Tuesdays for tidying up the bedroom, and Wednesdays you vacuum the living room)

• Maintain an organized home by having clear, designated places for everything. When you know that certain items have their own “home,” you’ll know exactly where to put them back.

• Do a five to 10-minute clean-up at the end of the day in the room of your choice. Before you wind down for the night, pick a room where you’ll spend a few minutes tidying up quickly.

Incorporating these daily and weekly habits into your routine will help you maintain cleanliness and order. Plus, it will lessen the need for extensive cleaning sessions down the line. Regular maintenance not only keeps your space looking great, but also helps you reap the mental health benefits of a clean space all year round.

Psychological Barriers to Spring Cleaning and How to Overcome Them

If you’re the kind of person who dreads spring cleaning, you probably face a few psychological barriers when it comes to cleaning. For example, are you a big procrastinator? Are you easily overwhelmed by large, time-consuming tasks? Do you feel super attached to your possessions? If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these problems, we can help.

Procrastination and Overwhelm

Feeling overwhelmed and procrastinating go hand in hand. If you feel completely overwhelmed thinking about the tasks that lie ahead of you, you might find yourself shutting down and putting off the work until tomorrow, then the next day, then the next day.

Some people are simply more prone to procrastination and overwhelm than others, but two conditions that could also play a role are depression and ADHD. When someone is depressed, they likely lack motivation to do anything, let alone clean. Their energy levels might also be super low, making it hard to do the physical work, says Pauley. When someone has ADHD, they may get super overwhelmed and experience ADHD task-paralysis, when they can freeze up and avoid things they need to do. They also struggle to get started and remain focused on the task at hand.

When you feel overwhelmed, take a step back and revisit the idea of SMART goals. By setting tiny, achievable goals, you will set yourself up for success. On this note, Pauley also recommends sticking to one thing at a time to keep yourself from feeling too overwhelmed. Just take things step by step. She also suggests setting quick timers, even just for five minutes, where you can push yourself to get at least a little bit done. You might be surprised at how much you can do in such a short amount of time, and you might even feel inspired to keep going.

Attachment to Possessions

Attachment to possessions can cause a roadblock in your spring cleaning. If you find yourself feeling very attached to your things and having trouble throwing them out, this could contribute to why you don’t enjoy cleaning up. Knowing what to keep or get rid of can be stressful and sometimes even emotional.

But look at it this way: instead of focusing on what you’re giving up, think about what you’re gaining. You’re gaining more open space, less clutter, and countless mental health benefits. So, go ahead and toss that sweater you haven’t worn in five years in the donation bin.

We have a couple of tips for you to declutter and get rid of items effectively. If you’ve watched Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, you know the first tip. Pauley suggests taking a page from Kondo’s book and asking yourself, “Does it spark joy?” If it doesn’t, get rid of it.

Alternatively, take a more objective approach and ask yourself, “Have I used this item in the last six months, and will I use it in the next twelve months?” If the answers are no, Moron says this means you can part with it.

However, if you experience severe stress and anxiety surrounding getting rid of items or if the amount of clutter is becoming a safety hazard, Moron says this could be a sign of hoarding disorder. In this case, it might be time to talk to a mental health professional to get the help you need.

Integrating Spring Cleaning Into a Holistic Mental Health Strategy

The benefits of spring cleaning go far beyond a visibly cleaner home, which is, of course, a nice bonus. Decluttering and cleaning can enhance your day-to-day mental health by reducing stress, improving focus, boosting productivity, lifting mood, and helping you get great sleep.