Clean Space, Clean Mind: The Cognitive Benefits of Maintaining a Clear and Tidy Space

May 13

Many of the things we devote our time to are designed to benefit us. The nutritional value of our breakfast, the discipline we show in our routine—even how we present ourselves aesthetically—are all common fixations under the general umbrella term of lifestyle. In the grand scheme of things, is folding or not folding your sheets important? Is buying that extra storage shelf that imperative?

While these decisions may feel small and cumbersome, the reality is that space has a funny way of changing how we think, feel, and function. Maintaining a clean and organized space may feel like the least of your worries, but I hope to convince you to bump it up a few rows on your to-do list this spring.

Focus

A clean and tidy space, in short, gives your brain one less thing to do.

Clutter is a form of visual distraction that overloads your working memory, and can inhibit your ability to process and interpret important visual information. We might like to think of ourselves as skilled multitaskers—eating lunch, watching a show, and playing Wordle all at once—but the truth is that multitasking decreases our effectiveness in each activity. Multitasking can lower productivity and cognitive performance, especially for tasks that require deep concentration or critical thinking. So, the more things we try to do at once, the less effectively we do each of them. While putting an extra stack of papers on your desk may not seem like much of a problem, our brains subconsciously treat processing this new item as a task.

Productivity

Research in psychology has shown that people are generally less irritable and more productive when they have an uncluttered environment.

Think about how long it takes to find something in a messy room. Whether it’s your keys, papers, or your favourite pen, clutter can make easy, everyday tasks seem more irritating and overwhelming. When everything has a place in your room, it’s easier to proceed slowly and intentionally throughout your day.

Fun fact: Just the act of moving slowly has benefits for your nervous system! Slow, deliberate movements activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates our stress levels and helps us stay calm. This activation can also lower our resting heart rates and blood pressure levels. So, if your task at hand allows, I encourage you to move more intentionally.

Stress and Anxiety

Clutter can lead to increased stress and anxiety by overwhelming our cognitive resources and creating a constant sense of unfinished business. We may feel guilty for not upkeeping the tidiness of our rooms or living spaces, feeling as though it is a burden on our to-do list that keeps getting nudged to the next day or next week. Simply thinking about cleaning up a mess can contribute to a stressed psychological and physical state, which can cause agitation and shutdowns.

Fun fact: Interestingly, studies show that the mental load of clutter, though certainly felt by anyone and everyone, particularly affects women’s stress levels. In 2010, a study was conducted on a couple, measuring their cortisol levels in response to clutter and a messy home. When the wife viewed the home as cluttered, her cortisol levels increased significantly during the day, whereas those not experiencing cluttered rooms typically see decreases in cortisol.

So, What’s the Solution?

Cleaning up your room is often easier said than done. Sometimes, busy schedules make it difficult to truly make a place tidy. However, there are ways we can either tidy things up in small ways or simulate tidiness for our cognitive well-being.

Shedding

As someone who doesn’t like to “get rid” of things, I understand how it can be difficult to shed things from our everyday environments. I do, however, think we can still accomplish this in some small ways.

For instance, unbox a package as soon as you are able to. Letting an unfinished task linger in the corner of your eye can be a visual and psychological burden. Tasks like this are easy, but often get pushed back since they may not be considered urgent. It may also be a good idea to limit our consumption and purchases, as to avoid having too much to organize and declutter.

Organizing and Allocating

Investing in an extra storage unit, bookshelf, or desk organizer may be the difference between being messy and having an organized mess. These organizers keep things in a smaller unit, which makes it easier for us to identify where things are, and also makes it harder for us to knock them over or lose them, avoiding the mental stress of addressing these situations.

Moreover, if your goal is to improve productivity, I encourage you to designate spaces as workspaces, areas for play and whimsy, and more. While working in bed may be convenient and comfy, blurring the lines between work and rest can make us feel trapped. It’s important that we physically allocate spaces for rest and productivity, and understand the purposes of each.

Painting a Picture

Lastly, I want to note that organization is hard. Spotless tables, alphabetically coded files, and perfectly folded laundry straight out of the dryer aren’t really the goal. From a cognitive standpoint, we don’t actually need spaces to be neat, we just want a space to feel neat.

We can “trick” our brains into thinking a space is neat just by taking action towards neatness. If we cannot accomplish a fully organized or neat workspace or living space, small actions towards tidiness can still be beneficial. For instance, folding your sheets in the morning takes just a few minutes, but can make us feel accomplished and help us start the day with a completed task. Putting things in your drawers—even if those drawers are a bit messy—can still be a good thing, as long as they are out of your immediate sight for the most part.

Maintaining a tidy space is not always easy, but these simple tasks—making your bed, vacuuming the floor, and installing that extra shelf—can be just what our brains need for optimized productivity, focus, and mood.

Cindy C.