Fall cleaning – boost your sense of comfort

What are the benefits of cleaning?

• Psychologists have long emphasized that it is a great way to boost your mood. Like any physical activity , it releases endorphins, which are among the happiness hormones. According to a calorie calculator, 60 minutes of house cleaning can burn as many as 245 kcal, which is equivalent to 14 minutes of very fast running or 20 minutes of swimming”[1]. Diving into cleaning allows you to clear your head of negative thoughts. This is why many people intuitively start cleaning when they are stressed.
• A sense of agency. After cleaning, you can immediately see tangible results of your efforts. This is especially important when work projects drag on for months without visible results. Tidying up allows you to see progress quickly and feel satisfied. You can see the direct correlation between the time and effort invested and a concrete, tangible result that lasts for at least some time.
• Tidying up helps make better use of our living space. We should organize seasonal clothing in a way that makes it easy to access. Meanwhile, items that won't be needed for a few months should be placed on more remote shelves. This makes daily life easier.
• Looking at things that bring us joy improves our well-being. This is especially important when it’s gloomy outside and many people are struggling with low moods.
• You will remind yourself what you already own. This will make it easier for you to cut back on further shopping and save money. Sometimes, a "rediscovered" blouse can bring you as much joy as buying a new one. Furthermore, you won't clutter your home with more items that take up your space and require maintenance.
• You can donate unwanted items to charity or resell them. This way, you will regain space and feel the satisfaction of doing something good and eco-friendly – in line with the zero wastephilosophy.
• Less food in the trash! Pasta, groats, juices, and canned or jarred food – even though they have long shelf lives, they still have an expiration date. If you don't organize your kitchen cabinets regularly, some products will unfortunately expire. This is not only a waste of your money but also of the resources and labor that went into producing them!
• A cluttered space makes you feel overwhelmed. It makes it hard to relax, not just psychologically, but also because it’s simply difficult to find a clear spot. When you see how many things need tidying up, you usually feel even less motivated to do a deep clean. By tidying up regularly, you’ll spend less time on it and won’t feel so drained.
• By taking care of your immediate surroundings, you are taking care of yourself and your loved ones. When we enter an organized, clean, and harmonious space, we feel calm and relaxed. It’s more pleasant to be in such a place. We are more eager to return to it. Of course, this doesn’t mean it has to be as sterile as an operating room. For many people, an overly sterile environment feels too cold to be comfortable.
• It is harder to concentrate and be creative in chaos. Many people still work from home at least part of the time. A "creative mess" in an artist's studio is something completely different from a cluttered apartment full of scattered clothes, unwashed dishes, and dust.
• Clutter causes conflict. Very often, arguments at home are caused by the proverbial socks left on the floor or a child's messy room. Of course, we all have different needs for order, and what is sufficient for one person may be unacceptable to another. A person with a lower tolerance for disorder, unable to get help from other household members, will eventually start cleaning up themselves—but they may end up feeling used and frustrated. Let’s show more empathy for our loved ones and try to reach a compromise so that we can all feel comfortable in our home.
• Clutter is dysfunctional. If you have trouble accessing your things, or worse, don't even remember where things are, you have to spend much more time finding what you need. And when you can't find it, irritation sets in, and your self-esteem and mood may even drop.
• When you accumulate too many possessions, it’s easy to forget that experiences bring more happiness. I described this mechanism in the article Buy experiences, not things
• We usually associate objects with specific situations or people. That is why we are so eager to bring back souvenirs from vacations and keep things that remind us of loved ones and fond memories. Tidying up allows us to revisit these images.

In summary: Organizing your space provides a sense of physical and mental comfort due to an important psychological aspect: it clears your mind, gives you a sense of agency, and improves your well-being.

You can find plenty of practical tips on how to clean for maximum effect—including psychological benefits—in Marie Kondo's bestselling book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up". Remember that thanks to MultiLife, you have access to Legimi, a platform with thousands of e-books and audiobooks. The expert emphasizes that when we start to consciously choose the things we surround ourselves with and learn to be grateful for what we already have—instead of constantly craving more—we will feel that we have much greater control over our lives and emotions. We will feel happier!

_{[1] https://kalkulatorkalorii.net/trening/95-60-sprzatanie+domu/700}