The Mental Health Benefits of Decluttering Your Workspace

The various mental health benefits of decluttering apply to any area you spend time in—including your workspace.

Whether it’s an office, a desk, or just a corner of your kitchen table, a clean workspace can make a significant difference in your mood. It can also help you stay more focused on the task at hand.

Decluttering isn’t a cure for a bad work environment or an overbooked schedule, but it is a small thing that you can do right now to improve your working life and take more control over how you feel. Here’s what to know about the mental health benefits of decluttering, including small things you can start doing today to create a less stressful workspace.

Why Decluttering is Important

There’s a strong connection between clutter and mental health, particularly when it comes to the negative impact that clutter and mess can have on your day-to-day mood.

If you’re wondering why you should declutter, consider things like the link between clutter, stress, and depression, or the many ways that clutter can interfere with focus and productivity. All of these things are detrimental to your ability to get work done, and even more crucial, they’re detrimental to your mental wellbeing. That’s why taking the time to declutter is essential. It also helps explain how cleaning up your workspace can have a positive impact on other areas of your life.

Psychological Benefits of Decluttering

Before we get into the mental health benefits of decluttering, it’s important to note that even something as simple as cleaning up your immediate desk-space can have long-lasting benefits. Instead of getting bogged down in the details—or overwhelmed at the thought of getting started—set small decluttering goals and see what happens as a result. Some of the benefits of cleaning and decluttering that you should experience include:

  • Improved mood
  • Increased focus
  • Less stress
  • Feelings of greater control over your environment

What would you be able to accomplish if you weren’t feeling so stressed every day? How might your relationship with work change? While decluttering certainly isn’t a cure-all or a replacement for therapy or necessary structural changes in the workplace, it is one thing that you can do to feel more content in your environment. And considering how much time we spend working, that can count for a lot in the long run.

3 Easy Ways to Start Decluttering

Big or small, with any change that you make you have to start somewhere. How you declutter is up to you, but here are three tips for starting the process:

  1. Do something every day. If sitting down and cleaning your entire workspace at once sounds like too much, break up the task into pieces and tackle a little bit each day.
  2. Involve others. Add some accountability to the mix, either by getting friends or coworkers to join you in your efforts or by letting someone know about your goal for a cleaner workspace.
  3. Make it part of your daily routine. Keeping up with clutter should be as routine as your morning cup of coffee. Take simple steps toward maintaining a clean workspace and repeat every day, such as always putting your pens away or wrapping up your cords and placing them in a desk drawer before signing off.

Decluttering your workspace is one of the easiest things that you can do for a mental health boost, especially work stress and lack of focus. For additional support, please contact us to learn about our mental and behavioral health services.