Tidying up, decluttering, and cleaning are all things we know we should do on a regular basis, but how often do we actually perform these tasks? If you are anything like me then probably not that often, or at least not nearly as often as we should.
I’ve always liked a tidy and clean house, but since I left the family home I would only make token attempts to bring my house up to scratch. Now that I’ve realized the productive and mental benefits of keeping a tidy house, I’m well on my way to a home of zen-like peacefulness. Keeping my work environment and house in the right condition will be a great tool in my journey to pay off my mortgage in five years.
Tidying up has a host of benefits including clearing the mind, improving efficiency, decreasing frustration, providing a sense of satisfaction, acting as a stepping stone to further change, and home safety.
Why tidy up?
Let’s look at why we should tidy up in more detail:
Tidying up allows for a clearer mind
If we want to focus on the task at hand then having a tidy home should be our first step. If our whole home can’t be tidy, then we should at least ensure the room we work in is. And if the room we work in can’t be tidy then at the very least we should ensure our immediate work environment is tidy. Having just your desk tidy will start to free up your mind. Clutter within our field of view stimulates our brain and distracts us from the task at hand. And I’m not just talking about excess paperwork and old cups of coffee. Even things we wouldn’t necessarily class as clutter – photos, ornaments, etc. – can be, and often are, more distracting than some discarded chocolate bar wrapper.
So should we remove everything from our desks? Well, that’s up to you. Let’s consider the following: maybe a photo of your loved ones helps you remember why you are slaving away 9 to 5? Maybe it’s the same for a trinket you bought on holiday. Would these items be okay? For some people, yes, and others, no. Only you can decide what is unnecessary clutter and what will genuinely motivate you or get you through the day. If you do need something on your desk then try and keep the items to a minimum. The more memories on your desk, the more distracted you will become.
Personally, I prefer only the essentials on my desk – keyboard, mouse, monitor, coffee. The rest of my home is where I keep my mementos and motivation.
For years I had a small F1 car on my desk – go Red Bull! – and it would bring me good memories of going to the Barcelona Grand Prix. This was great I thought, I mean why wouldn’t I want to be reminded of a good holiday? But every time I thought about the Grand Prix, I wasn’t focused on the task at hand. I was lowering my concentration. That F1 car could go anywhere else in my house and it would bring me just as much joy, but it would be somewhere where I could afford to daydream.
Tidying up improves efficiency
How can tidying up improve efficiency? It’s quite simple really – it cuts down the amount of time we spend looking for things and being distracted.
By keeping a tidy home, we save time looking for the things we need. Let’s consider that we are looking for a pen to make a note. We want to write that note down straight away and get on with whatever we need to. But, if we can’t find a pen in the mess we call a home then we need to go hunting. This hunting takes time and so we are already losing efficiency. But maybe we can’t find the pen at all in the mess that is our living room. We now run the risk of forgetting about the note and the troublesome pen and we move on to something else that takes our interest – maybe flicking through some pages of a magazine we unearthed during the hunt. That note may have been the start of something great.
Now maybe, if it’s one of our good days, while being frustrated at not finding the pen, we decide to tidy up and be done with this lazy attitude to home cleanliness. But even this, this positive act of self-care, has distracted us from the original goal of simply taking a note. The original task is forgotten about. This lost note and frustration could have been avoided if our home had been tidy. We would have known where the pen was. We would have taken the note. We would have gotten on with our productive day and been a lot less frustrated.
Tidying up decreases frustration
This is a big one for me. Frustration can creep into our lives so quickly it’s … frustrating. When we are frustrated, we aren’t firing on all cylinders and positivity becomes a distant memory. Frustration can make us short with others and it lowers productivity. When I walk into a cluttered room I instantly feel my frustration levels rising. I can’t relax in a messy room. I’ll find myself being moody with my family or annoyed at myself for letting the house get this way. On the other hand – when I walk into a tidy room, I’m far more likely to be at peace and have a clear mind. I relax more and I can focus on what I want to be doing – even if that want is to simply not be annoyed!
Where are my keys? Has anyone seen the TV remote? Why can’t I find a pen? I can’t find anything in this house!
Everyone – at some point
Can you feel your frustration levels rising just reading that quote?
Tidying up provides a sense of satisfaction
Even small tasks, when done well, bring a sense of satisfaction to us. We have achieved something. Done something productive. Tidying up is one of those small tasks that has such a large impact on our lives, and the result is so noticeable in everyday life, that we constantly reap the rewards from doing it. Every time we walk into a room that we have tidied, we get a little hit of satisfaction. I did this.
As there are so many benefits to keeping a tidy home, the satisfaction we feel not only comes from completing a task well, but also from knowing that we are taking steps to look after ourselves.
Tidying up can be a stepping stone to further change
When we have a clear and peaceful mind, when we are looking after ourselves and feeling good, we are in a great place to promote further change in our lives. Taking that first step into healthy eating, a new project, or even responding to a message can take a chunk of motivation to start. But motivation is hard to come by if we are beating ourselves up for being lazy, frustrated, overwhelmed, or distracted. The line between success and failure, an apple and a pizza, an educational video or Netflix, can be thin. If we just found that pen at the right time then we may have taken that note that sparked our next big project.
A tidy home is a safe home
This point is a bit of a public service announcement, but it’s a very important point all the same: having a tidy home is an important part of home safety. Imagine a power cut in the middle of the night, no light is available to you and you are navigating your way down a cluttered stairway, tripping over clothes and toys and who knows what. It’s dangerous. Even if you know what clutter is there on the stairway, you may not while you are in a sleepy state at two in the morning. You may not remember when you are evacuating your home in a panic as it fills with smoke and fire. The firefighter trying to navigate down your hallway definitely won’t know that he is about to trip over a box of books. Every second counts in a rescue, please don’t add time by having a messy house.
Tips
Tidying tips could take up a whole blog post on their own, and they will in the near future. For now, here are a few tips to get you started:
- Add tidy time to your To-Do list – even a 10-minute block will make a difference
- Tidy as you go. It’s really not that much more effort to put the wrapper in the bin than on the countertop.
- If you are starting out on a tidying journey then don’t overwhelm yourself – do one room at a time.
- Super short on time? Start small with half a room. A cupboard. But do start!
- Start in the room you need to be the most productive.
- If you have kids then have them help you. Before they go to bed at night, have them take all their toys back to their room, and preferably put them in the right place. This will not only help you, but it will teach them valuable skills in the process. Win-win.
- Close unused tabs in your browser. Having a lot of tabs open has the same effect as clutter on your desk – it divides your attention. If you aren’t using a tab then close it. If you don’t want to lose the page, then bookmark it. I bet that a chunk of your tabs won’t ever be opened again.
Conclusion
In summary – the benefit-to-cost ratio of keeping a tidy house makes it a no-brainer. Keeping on top of clutter can take as little as 10 minutes per day – even less if you live without kids or if you tidy as you go! So spend those minutes and really boost your productivity. You will thank yourself later.
If you have found this post helpful then you may also enjoy How to Declutter – 10 Helpful Tips, where I go into detail on the decluttering side of tidying up.
Signing off
Iain McClafferty – The Five Year Mortgage
