Decluttering for sanity’s sake

7:30pm. I just put my kids to bed and decide to grab a cup of tea (okay, glass of wine). As I walk through the corridor towards the kitchen, I stumble on a digger, then step onto pieces of building blocks all over the living room while kicking a few bits and pieces of toys I can’t even recognise near the kitchen. Sounds familiar?

For me personally, one of the hardest things about parenthood is the mess that comes with having children. While I like to think that our kids do not have a lot of ‘stuff’ (e.g. toys they do not play regularly with), I still struggle to keep it all organised.

With a very inquisitive toddler and a 6-month old baby at home, I am embarrassed to admit that our place turns into a complete mess almost every single day. I love to have everything neat, clean and organised and the lack of the above makes me feel anxious and overwhelmed.

So I wasn’t surprised when I recently read an article about how clutter is directly linked to depression and anxiety. I did some research on the matter and there is actually a lot of information and even scientific studies on this topic out there.

Turns out messy homes and workspaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless and overwhelmed. Yet, clutter is rarely recognized as a significant source of stress in our lives.

Women seem to be more affected than men (definitely true in our household…ha!) and researchers have found a strong link between high cortisol (stress hormone) levels in female home owners and a high density of household objects.

Research has also found that even families that want to reduce clutter often are emotionally paralysed when it comes to sorting and ditching objects.

Yeap, clutter is a stress factor and that gets amplified when you have children – the amount of toys, gadgets etc that accumulate in most family households is a well-known fact.

So what can we do to improve this situation and feel better?

Start with de-cluttering your home, room by room. There are many different websites giving advice on how best to do this, here are a couple of my favourites: creative ways to declutter and organising kids rooms.

Just as important as de-cluttering is making sure that, afterwards, you don’t keep adding to the clutter and falling back into old habits.

When it comes to toys, we try to drastically reduce the amount of stuff we buy. It is difficult to resist children when they really want something in a shop but I believe I won’t be doing them any favours by caving in. Obviously we don’t want to deprive them completely, but also don’t spoil them. For Christmas or birthdays, we like to give them a few great things or experiences rather than a whole bunch of stuff..

It goes without saying that this is one of the reasons we created Purposit. More meaningful and useful gifts = less stuff that is not needed = less clutter at home. That simple!

Aside from this, I am also trying to relax and let go of my expectations of how organized our house should be. It’s a challenge for me but I think with two boys I have to get used to some chaos and try not to let this constantly stress me out. Breathe in, breathe out…

What about you? Is clutter an issue for you or your partner? Share your stories with us!