As you head into spring, are you ready to don your yellow gloves and give your home a once over? If you’ve been bit by the spring-cleaning bug, you’ll want to add decluttering to your list of chores. You’ll have more than a sparkling home to enjoy. Clearing out your space and tidying up your home comes with three surprising benefits.
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1. More Money
Not all clutter belongs in the trash. That’s why it can be so hard to say goodbye to certain items. Hardly used and like-new items may still have life in them, even if it’s not with you. You can find them a second home online and turn a buck while doing it!
Check out online classifieds, consignment apps, and trading communities to see if you can sell any of your clothes, shoes, electronics, furniture, and more. You might be surprised by what you can get rid of.
Once you have extra cash lining your pockets, think carefully about how you want to spend it. Before you buy more items that will eventually clutter up your home, consider putting it into savings or paying off an outstanding installment loan.
The online installment loan experts at MoneyKey recommend making extra payments against your personal loans as long as there are no pre-payment penalties. Check your installment loan contract to find out your lender’s policy. If there are no restrictions, you might pay off your debt faster and avoid late fees.
2. Better Attention Span
At its worst, clutter can be distracting for more than one reason. If it’s been a task you’ve put off for a long time, it can be a looming chore that reminds you of your failure every time you look at it.
Clutter can also create an overwhelming backdrop to your home that’s visually overstimulating. You might find it difficult to ignore the growing piles of junk covering every flat surface of your home.
If clutter competes for your limited attention, you’ll see your focus take a hit. There’s only so much you can handle at a time, so you may find it difficult to concentrate on your work-from-home job or even fun hobbies.
To give your mind a break, try tidying up your living spaces. An organized home can help you focus on what really matters.
3. Less Stress and Better Health
If you’re feeling anxious, clutter may be to blame. Data shows that messy, disorganized spaces have a negative impact on our mental health. That’s because clutter can throw your home into overwhelming chaos. In response, your body produces more cortisol, the hormone that causes stress and kickstarts your fight-or-flight response.
Chronic, low-lying stress can do a number on your mental well-being, which in turn affects your physical health. Long-term stress gets your heart racing, increases your blood pressure, and may even lead to health problems such as heart disease, headaches, and diabetes.
Removing clutter can help you take control of your space, wrestling a chaotic space into a calm and orderly one.
Good Reasons to Kick Clutter to the Curb
Who wants to clean when you could be vegging out on the couch or doing almost anything else? You might have a change of heart now that you know you could control stress, improve your focus, and earn a bit of cash.