3 Ways Mindful Organizing Will Improve Your Life
Mindfully organizing your home is a powerful way to bring more ease and joy into your physical and mental space. Instead of forcing you to adhere to some external criteria of how your home “should” look or how your closets “should” be organized, mindful organizing allows you to create your own rules for how your space is organized.
1. Create Space For Important Things
The most compelling reason to invest time in organizing is to create space for what is truly important in your life.
Most agree that the most important things in life are not things. But stuff can get in the way of living a life of fulfillment and ease. Many of the folks we work with feel they cannot and engage fully in life with so much STUFF hanging over their heads.
Organizing with mindfulness offers opportunities to explore your inner beliefs and thought patterns about the objects in your life. Which “spark joy” for you? Which had you completely forgotten about?
2. For Your Health And Well-being
Experts agree that physical clutter can take a toll on your happiness and create “mind clutter.” In 5 Reasons To Clear The Clutter Out of Your Life, psychology professor Susan K. Whitbourne cites five reasons to eliminate clutter.
Whitbourne points out that cluttered environments often lead to:
- Low subjective well-being
- Unhealthier eating
- Poorer mental health
- Less efficient visual processing
- Less efficient thinking
Whitbourne writes “… cutting through the clutter can benefit your physical health and cognitive abilities. Start getting out that trash bag, whether virtual or physical, and you’ll soon feel better able to enjoy your surroundings while you think more efficiently and cleanly.”
3. Mindful Organizing Feels Good!
Have you ever gone on an organizing blitz and noticed how good it feels to know where things are?
The mental-physical connection between you and your stuff explains why organizing makes you feel so good. Releasing physical objects and activities that no longer bring you joy eliminates not only physical clutter but “mind clutter” too.
If you’ve ever had a sinking or heavy feeling when entering a disorganized room, you have experienced the negative effects of “mind clutter.” Even stuff that can’t be seen takes up space in your mind. If you have been unhappy for some time about disorganization in your life, you may think that you don’t even “see” the problems any longer and that they have no effect on your mental state. But even if you’re not consciously aware of it, pretending that you don’t see hidden or visible areas of disorganization takes a toll.
Do you long to organize more mindfully MOST of the time? Let’s talk!
This is great advice. I find that after I’ve organized a room, it leads to clearer thinking and better decision-making in other parts of my life. I hadn’t put the two together until reading your article! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for you comments, Janice! You are so right that our outer environment also affects our inner landscape. A cluttered space can also lead to “mind-clutter” and clearing the space really does make thinking easier. 🙂
Organizing the things in the right way is a very good habit, and this help you make your life easier, and more comfortable.
Thanks a jillion, Lillian!
Amazing, This is the best way to Mindful Organizing Will Improve our Life. thanks for sharing this advice.
Thanks so much, Brecken! Glad you liked the post.