Why Does Cleaning Our Spaces Help Our Health, Wellness, and Wellbeing?

Cleaning our spaces creates a symbiotic cleansing.

Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Unsplash

Yesterday, I had had enough.

My home office has two desks. One is where my computer lives, the second is for other projects. Unfortunately, it had become a repository of junk.

Paperwork, bills, voided checks, and other detritus overwhelmed my desk.

This was beginning to make me cranky, feel boxed in, and generally uncomfortable.

Finally, I cleaned it. I removed everything off the top of the desk, tossed out and recycled a bunch of stuff, then dusted and wiped down the desktop.

It may not seem like much — but opening that space felt as though it opened more. I felt lighter, my office became less oppressive, and I simply felt better.

This led me to the question — why does cleaning our spaces help our health, wellness, and wellbeing?

Personal space is a reflection of the self

I think the saying goes that a cluttered space is a sign of a brilliant mind. Or is it a crazy mind? Maybe both?

In my experience, I find that the more cluttered my space is, the more cluttered my mind feels. Of late, there’s been a particularly frustrating and unpleasant sense of oppression around me I’ve been unable to put my finger on.

Some of it is based on things well outside my control. Politics, terrible businesses, poor deluded fools doing unkind and hurtful things, and so on. But closer to home, things are going on in my thoughts and feelings more directly impacting my mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

When I get flustered, depressed, frustrated, or feel empathically overwhelmed, one of the first things I tend to neglect is my personal space. My car and/or my home office become cluttered and messy.

I know I’m not alone in this. When the mind is cluttered or clouded the space can and will follow.

This is why cleaning personal spaces helps our health, wellness, and wellbeing.