A Clutter-Free Home is a Stress-Free Home

Many of us live and work in environments full of belongings that we no longer use or need but are reluctant to part with. There are some people who find it easy to clear out unused possessions and live a minimalist lifestyle but the majority of us cling to items for often, long-forgotten, sentimental reasons. We make excuses about how an item might one day come in useful, but, in truth, we just can’t bear to get rid of our “stuff”.

Not only do we want to hang on to old belongings but we are accumulating new things all the time and eventually the storage in our homes just will not cope any more. An important element for people buying new houses these days is how much storage there is. Built-in storage almost always features in new homes of all sizes and a buyer would expect there to be sufficient storage for their possessions, but just how much storage is sufficient? And even though moving home would seem to be an ideal opportunity to clear out all the old junk, this doesn’t always happen.

But can living amongst clutter really add stress to already busy lives and, more importantly, can clearing out that clutter reduce our stress?

Stress in our lives can manifest itself in many ways – we have a train to catch for work or the school-run through busy traffic all before the main part of the day starts. Then we might put ourselves under pressure to meet deadlines throughout the day but this type of stress is often there because we have chosen to live our lives in a certain way. We choose to have an extra 15 minutes in bed in the morning and are, therefore, rushing for the train, for example. But there are also the ever-present causes of stress around us in our homes that are less easy to recognise as a cause of stress and one of those is the clutter.

Stress can affect the body in numerous ways such as:

• Insomnia

• Depression

• Digestive disorders

• Skin complaints e.g. eczema

There is often no single cause of stress (it could be more serious issues like financial worries, work issues or relationship problems) but if you want to easily reduce the stress on your mind and body maybe now is the time to be ruthless with your possessions.

So when your storage cupboards are bulging, and when your loft, garage and garden shed are all full is there any alternative to throwing away your possessions or donating them to charity?

Fortunately, there is an alternative because there are numerous self storage facilities across the country so if you really can’t bear to part with treasured belongings you can still organising your possessions and store them away to get some of the stress-reducing benefits of a more minimalist lifestyle. If you only keep to hand all the items that you know you need and use regularly then you will be more easily able to find what you want. No longer will you have to hunt through stuffed drawers or storage cupboards looking for that