House Cleaning Tips

How Spring Cleaning Can Help Manage Stress

It formally springs cleansing season — the time of yr to freshen up your own home after the dark days of winter. Believe it or not, putting in a touch elbow grease can do wonders for your mental health — something I currently found myself.

Over the last three months, I had been handling greater-than-regular anxiety due to a private problem. My “everyday” life, which entails attending industry events, watching preferred TV shows, and socializing with buddies, is on hiatus. At the same time, I entirely juggle a circle of relatives’ responsibilities and paintings time limits. And in the ultra-restrained amount of free time that I’ve had these days, I’m no longer playing the pressure-relieving activities that commonly carry me a sense of peace, like sleeping, getting a Swedish rubdown, or doing the warrior pose on the yoga mat. Instead, I’ve been cleansing my domestic — and not because my location resembles a warfare area, however, because the act of cleaning makes me feel good

How Spring Cleaning Can Help Manage Stress 1

There was one morning while a friend texted me to discover how I turned into retaining up. My response: “Doing three hundred of laundry, including my comforter, pillow shams, and throw blankets. Also washed a gaggle of my baseball caps inside the dishwasher ?” I wasn’t sarcastic with that emoji, either.

While I’m never a slob, I’m also not a neat freak, so I’ve been wondering why I’d instead head to the laundromat or recycling containers as opposed to hopping on a rubdown table. As it seems, I’m now not the most active person who behaves in this manner. A complete 70% of Americans say tidying their home gives them a feeling of feat. Sixty-one % say it makes them feel “distressed.” Fifty-four % say they experience “rest,” in line with a survey of 2,000 adults released by OfferUp (a marketplace for neighborhood buyers and dealers within the U.S.).

The Psychology Behind Cleaning

There’s some technological know-how at the back of the connection among cleansing and reduced tension, as accurately. A small examine posted in the journal Mindfulness discovered that members who engaged in mindfully washing the dishes — meaning they took a moment to inhale the heady scent of the cleaning soap and to permit their pores and skin to soak up the warmth of the water — mentioned a 27% reduction in nervousness, in conjunction with a 25% development in “mental inspiration.

Temporary anxiety can result in cleaning greater meticulously, in line with a 2015 study from the University of Connecticut. Researchers theorized that humans gravitate closer to repetitive behaviors (consisting of cleansing) at some point of instances of stress. Why? It’s all approximately manipulate.

“We want so that you can do something when we get irritating, and what we really want is to be in control and take motion,” says Alicia H. Clark, Psy.D., a licensed scientific psychologist and writer of Hack Your Anxiety: How to Do Anxiety Work for You, in Life, Love, and All That You Do. “While there are instances, we must be given a few situations in life, and we do now not ought to accept an untidy home.”

She also explains that “healthy tension” (tension that is not debilitating or stands within the manner of 1’s daily responsibilities) is an everyday emotion that may be beneficial. “It grabs our interest to the matters we care approximately the most,” Dr. Clark keeps. “It’s power being generated without an outlet. Anxiety can cause a whole lot of angst and unresolved feelings, but it’s alleged to be motivating.”

Margie Willis

When I decided to start blogging about real estate, I knew this would be a long journey. I was right. As you can see, I've grown my blog over the years and now have many followers. The reason why I started blogging is that I wanted to share my passion for designing and decorating my own home. I want to help people with home improvement ideas, trends, and inspiration.

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