Why Decluttering Is Important for Self-Care (and When It Isn’t)

“It gives people a renewed sense of control over their environment,” says Catherine Roster, PhD, a professor of marketing and director of the Behavioral Lab at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, who has studied the effect clutter has on our psychological well-being. “When people go through the process of decluttering, they feel a sense of freedom and liberation. It’s a reclaiming of a sense of mastery and control. They feel more competent and efficient.”

Despite the benefits of decluttering, it’s easy to procrastinate when it comes to tasks that seem overwhelming or stressful — like tackling your overflowing junk drawer or sorting through the huge pile of clothes that you haven’t reached for in months. But there are plenty of science-backed reasons it’s worth the effort to start clearing things out.

Why Does Clutter Affect Our Well-Being?

Clutter affects our emotional and physical well-being in numerous ways:

Clutter in the Office Can Make Us Less Productive and More Burnt Out

“Clutter reflects an overabundance of possessions that collectively create chaotic and disorderly living spaces,” explains Joseph Ferrari, PhD, professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago. “Clutter is often the result of an overattachment to our personal items, which makes it difficult to part with them. It isn’t abundance that’s the problem as much as attachment to abundance.”

Clutter at Home May Lower Happiness and Make Us Feel Less Secure

“When there’s lots of clutter, you lose control over your physical environment, which is very defeating and can bring on stress, depression, or anxiety,” Roster says.

Clutter Can Be a Safety Hazard

Even your social life can be affected, if it gets to the point of embarrassment where you won’t have people over, Roster says.

What Amount of Decluttering Helps Anxiety and Well-Being? It’s Different for All of Us

If clutter contributes to stress, can decluttering and organizing the environment around you relieve that stress and improve your sense of well-being? Yes, but know that we all differ when it comes to what’s an acceptable amount of clutter, says Darby Saxbe, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

“Clutter is ‘in the eye of the beholder,’ in the sense that some clutter might perturb some people and be totally fine for others,” Dr. Saxbe explains.

Roster notes that clutter is a spectrum. “Some people with extreme amounts of clutter may think they don’t have a problem with it at all, while others can be quite distressed by it when there really isn’t much there,” she says.

Making an effort to declutter can make you feel as if a weight has been lifted. No matter what you physically count as “clutter,” whatever is there is a constant visual reminder of things that need to be done, Saxbe explains. “Decluttering allows you to cross things off the to-do list, which gives you a sense of accomplishment,” she says. “Removing clutter also takes away visual interruptions. It’s an easy way to cleanse the palate and have a fresh start.”

When Decluttering Is Self-Care, and When It Isn’t

Of course, you can take anything to an extreme level, so if decluttering becomes an obsession or you become super strict about having everything in a specific place, you can go overboard. As Saxbe says, “If decluttering is keeping you from turning your attention to other things in your life, that’s not helpful or adaptive.”

There’s still more work to be done in the field of positive psychology to better define the potential benefits of decluttering, Roster says. “It’s a form of self-care, just as not doing it is a form of diminishing the self,” she says.