How House Cleaning Can Help You Regain Control

House Cleaning Stressful situations are often accompanied by a feeling of powerlessness. We read the news, hear the sirens, and the brain paints scary pictures that are completely out of our control. Hands drop, I want to climb into the crib, wrap myself in a blanket and hide. Of course, external factors have little control over us. But there are islands of control over which we can easily place our flag. House order is one such island.

House cleaning tips for stress reduction

If we consider cleaning not as a burdensome duty, but as an opportunity to dictate our own terms, it acquires therapeutic properties. Remember what pleasant sensations arise when you watch a video in which a dirty room gradually turns into a clean and radiant one.

Psychologists have found an explanation for this. When we watch someone clean up, our brain fires mirror neurons. We stop being outside observers and “appropriate” the result of someone else’s work a little.

Therefore, cleaning as a way of dealing with stress, on the one hand, gives a feeling of control, on the other hand, a reward for the result. Complement this tandem with a repetition routine and get a very useful combo. But an important point – you should not take on the general cleaning right away. Make a plan and gradually put things in order in different areas. And how to do this, let’s talk further.

How to make house cleaning more enjoyable

Since we have already found out that cleaning becomes an anti-stress for our psyche due to the fact that we feel control and our influence on the surrounding space, let’s move on from theory to practice. Here are five tasks that are useful to perform regularly.

1. Reduce visual noise

Our brain is designed in such a way that it constantly clings to details, adding new bytes of information to the piggy bank of RAM for processing. And what happens if you do not clean the memory? That’s right, any gadget will freeze. This makes it harder for us to focus and almost impossible to relax.

Now carefully look around the room where you are. Take a closer look at the number of things on open shelves. To the variety of colors. All this is constantly read by the brain in the background. So it’s worth unloading it a bit:

• Put the same type of small items in a special basket or box;
• Free some of the open surfaces by putting things in the closet;
• In the bathroom, remove the labels from too-bright packages of shampoos, and soaps, or get special dispensers for which you simply buy extra spares;
• Also relevant for soap and dishwashing detergent in the kitchen.

2. Structure the space around

Clutter most often starts with things not having their own place. You would be happy to keep it clean, but every time you have to make a decision about where to put this or that thing. Everyone knows the story when you want to get one T-shirt out of the closet, and in a second you are standing in the middle of a room with a bunch of things that you don’t have time to fold.

There is an exit! Gradually consider where you store each type of item. For example, this shelf is for bedding, and this one is for T-shirts. If possible, use organizers (you can make them yourself out of the box), with their help it is easy to arrange vertical storage and have quick access to things without having to go through the entire closet.

3. Make room for the new

Many of us, until recent events, actively accumulated property. And since February 24, most Ukrainians have realized that the most valuable thing is loved ones, healthy and safe. In very harsh conditions, many have revised their attitude toward things. It turned out that in fact, not many are really needed.

There is such a useful practice: once a month in each room, find 20 things that need to be thrown away (or given away if they are in good condition, but you do not use them). Firstly, it helps to make room for something new. And secondly, regular training teaches you not to buy too much. Gradually, things that really please you remain in your house.

4. Repair on time

Remember the story of how an elderly couple was asked about the secret of a long marriage? And they answered that they grew up in a time when things were repaired, and not thrown away immediately. There was a period when there really was a tendency to immediately buy a replacement, even if the broken item can be repaired. But good news! Conscious consumption is gaining momentum and becoming an increasingly popular trend.

Related How to Quickly Clean The House 11 Efficient Tips

You should regularly audit the house in order to be able to make mini-repairs before the thing irrevocably loses its functionality and appearance.

By the way, there is another interesting trend – do-it-yourself furniture restoration. So you can not only give it a second life but get a stylish and unique element of the interior.

5. Enjoy the routine

Cleaning is not a top-secret complex operation. The main component of efficiency is repeatability. Wiping quickly with a rag a small spot on the stove is easier than washing off the dirt that has accumulated month after month like rings on a tree. In addition, habitual and familiar actions do not require the brain to actively turn on to decide how to rub: from left to right or vice versa. He goes into autopilot mode and the energy is released to make a “revision” of thoughts. Or vice versa, turn them off, concentrating on the physics of movements and the gradually manifesting result.

Realities 2023: cleaning-anti-explosion

This block of the article might not have been, but the sirens in the cities of Ukraine continue to sound, which means that considering cleaning as a way to control events, we cannot ignore one more very practical point. Namely, tips on what to do in order to take care of improving the safety of the premises when cleaning.

Here are some tips on what to do:

• Clear the window sill, especially in the bedroom. First, it becomes easier to breathe. Secondly, there is less chance that all the wealth of the window sill will cover the room with fragments.
• Remove decor from the walls. The reason is the same. Anything that can easily fall on you, break and injure you should be carefully packed and temporarily placed in a closet. It will be more wholesome.
• Remove things that burn easily in back rooms. Fire is an even more dangerous phenomenon than fragments. Therefore, the better you isolate easily combustible objects, the more chances you have to extinguish the flame that has arisen in time. For example, covering windows with stacks of books is a bad idea. They flare easily and can become a source of ignition.

The external order helps to feel the internal order. In thoughts, plans, tasks, and goals. Cleaning is not primarily about rags and detergents. This is an approach to arranging the space around. And in a situation where there is little chance of controlling the outside world, caring for the world inside your home becomes important. If you feel helpless from the news and the unknown, clean up!

FAQs