Sometimes my room turns into a depression room. I call it a depression room because I find myself too mentally exhausted to clean anything.

I’ll be surrounded by mountains of laundry, dirty dishes, food wrappers, garbage, and late homework assignments. Frankly, it’s pretty gross.

This is the spare room in my apartment. In other words, this is a depression room that’s constantly out of hand and way easier for me to close the door and ignore.

Then I feel even worse mentally because of how gross and disorganized my living space is. It’s a vicious cycle of negative self-talk and a cluttered environment that can be extremely difficult to break.

Other times, I avoid my depression and procrastinate all my responsibilities by cleaning, or stress clean.

All of my responsibilities will be piling up around me and all I can manage to do is clean my room. I convince myself that since I’m being productive and getting chores done, then it’s okay to procrastinate more important things that actually have deadlines, like homework and my internship assignments.

Personally, my makeup desk is one place in my room that I can’t seem to keep decluttered

Am I Clean and Organized or Do I Have a Control Problem?

Good Housekeeping’s article, “How Spring Cleaning Can Help Manage Stress, According to Psychologists,” mentions cleaning as a way to cope with feeling out of control, overwhelmed or anxious. “We want to be able to do something when we get anxious, and what we really want is to be in control and take action,” says Alicia H. Clark, Psy.D, “While there are times we have to accept some situations in life, we do not have to accept an untidy home.”

This made a lot of sense to me. The cleanliness of my apartment is the easiest for me to control and requires the least amount of mental exercise. I like that I don’t have to think about what I’m doing; I can focus on getting pasta sauce and crusty eggs off of a plate instead of the four chapters of criminal justice I need to read. Cleaning can be a sort of mental break at times. While I don’t prefer to live in a mess, it’s always satisfying to see my apartment transform.

Some Tips and Tricks

While the cleanliness of my apartment is a pretty accurate representation of my mental state, a clean apartment isn’t a bad thing. Over time, I’ve found some things that have helped me stay organized and may be helpful to others:

• If you have roommates, it’s helpful to discuss a cleaning schedule or system for the house. My roommates and I all just help each other clean as we go. For example, if the kitchens dirty we all help clean it at once.
• Keep weekly to-do lists in your planner (see photo); I like to have one to-do list of cleaning tasks I need to get done that week and one list of miscellaneous chores I need to get done. It’s helpful to see these tasks in my planner where all my assignments and due dates are located so I can decide when to do each task.
• Actually put your laundry in the laundry basket. It sounds really simple and easy but somehow I forget all the time and constantly have laundry all over the house.
•  Wipe counters daily; this also sounds simple but a clean counter makes a whole space look ten times cleaner and it takes about 45 seconds to do.
• Try the Marie Kondo method, I’d highly suggest watching her show Tidying Up on Netflix for inspiration and helpful tips. She’s an organization expert and gives helpful advice without being condescending. Check her out on social media @MarieKondo on Twitter and @mariekondo on Instagram or on her website!

 

Ultimately, everyone copes with mental illness differently and also cleans their homes differently, so some trial and error may be necessary to find what works best for you.

Personally, while I do need to work on prioritizing, there are mental health benefits to cleaning.

Declutter Your Mental Space

Growing up, I didn’t understand why my mom was so strict about deep cleaning the house every Sunday night. Now that I have my own apartment and responsibilities, I can’t imagine starting the workweek with a messy space.

I’ve found that if I start my day in a cluttered space, my mind also feels cluttered the rest of the day. If I don’t clean my apartment before work or class, I’ll stress myself out and that will be all I’ll think about all day. Rush University’s Medical Center refers to this as disrupted concentration.

A cluttered environment impacts your ability to focus; “A 2011 study published in The Journal of Neuroscience mapped the brain’s response to clutter and found that it can limit the brain’s processing capacity. When we’re surrounded by stuff, we’re much more distractible and less able to focus” (The Health Benefits of Cleaning).

Decluttering is also good for your health by nature because you’re getting rid of dust bunnies, which have their own health issues associated with them.

UW Medicine’s Right as Rain  compares clutter in your home to visual static. Radio and TV static makes it hard to concentrate on a show or song like clutter in your home makes it hard to relax or focus. Check out the article (see Right as Rain link), “Is Decluttering the Secret to Less Stress and Better Mental Health?” by Kristen Domonell for more information about clutter and mental health.

At least someone isn’t bothered by the clutter

Just Try Your Best

The most import thing I took away from my research on cleaning and mental health is that everyone should take 10-15 minutes a day to declutter their space. Doing this will minimize stress and anxiety while making you feel more equipped to manage your responsibilities. Dr. Alicia H. Clark explains, “since there are other concerns occupying your mental state, you cannot tolerate disorder/clutter because you need tolerance for what is going on with the bigger issues in your life.”

As difficult as it can feel some days, try and clean up a little bit each day. It’s always easier to do the dishes for one meal at a time versus letting them pile up for a few days, then deep cleaning it all at once.

It can be helpful to reach out to friends if you relate to this post at all. In my experience, friends that also experience anxiety and depression can be particularly helpful. They tend to understand what you’re going through and can offer support. Check on your friends!

As my peers reviewed this post prior to what you’re reading, I realized something else worth noting. I’m not alone in this habit. Stress cleaning, and stress not-cleaning, are common coping mechanisms for anxiety and depression.