Psychologically, a messy room can represent: A disorganized mind. Feeling overwhelmed. Difficulty letting go (common for hoarding behaviors) Trouble focusing on a task.
Messiness can actually be a sign of creativity and freedom. Or it may mean a teen is busy with school, hobbies, and socializing, and hasn't made time to clean their messy bedroom. However, a messy room can also be an outward sign of feeling disorganized or overwhelmed.
Clutter can affect our anxiety levels, sleep, and ability to focus. It can also make us less productive, triggering coping and avoidance strategies that make us more likely to snack on junk and watch TV shows (including ones about other people decluttering their lives).
Indeed, according to psychological research, sloppiness might be an indicator of emotional distress. Like someone with OCD who feels they need to micromanage every aspect of their life, someone who is chronically disorganized may suffer from depression or another mental health condition.
If you feel bad for not getting on the Marie Kondo bandwagon, don't. Having a messy home can actually be a sign of intelligence and creativity. According to research people who live in an untidy environment tend to be more open minded and clever.
Creatives tend to have a messier space because they don't lose themselves in small details, their brain is trained to see the big picture and this is why putting a pen back in a drawer is not a priority.
People with ADHD who have a hard time keeping things tidy usually aren't being lazy or thoughtless. They have trouble with a group of skills needed to tackle cleanup tasks and stay organized. These skills are known as executive function.
In some instances, the state of your room might be linked to a psychiatric condition. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder, for example, may become so preoccupied with keeping things germ-free or symmetrical that they spend excessive amounts of time sterilizing or organizing their living space.
When Stress Causes Clutter. Sometimes, living with anxiety, depression, or stress brings on clutter. If you're overwhelmed by sadness or other negative emotions, you might not have the energy to clean and organize. Or, you might use shopping or accumulating things to manage your feelings.
If your daughter is refusing to clean her room, it may not be that she's defiant or that she lacks awareness about her cleaning habits. In some cases, when a teenager has a messy room, depression may be an underlying issue.
Improve Your Mood
Additionally, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America indicates that the physical activity of cleaning coupled with the end result of a cleaner home helps reduce stress, feelings of anxiety, and depressive symptoms. 8 Cleaning can also reduce fatigue and improve concentration.
According to Dr. Brown, cleaning your space may help reduce your cortisol levels, turn down the volume on the visual noise, and help you focus on the things you need to, and that could potentially improve your mood.
Clutter in the bedroom:
Probably the most important room in the home to keep clutter-free, excess stuff here can reveal several things; intimacy is not cherished, connections are broken and life force is dim. It can also indicate deprivation of restful sleep, resistance to solitude, and inability to relax.
And 70 percent of men and 82 percent of women agreed that a messy apartment was the biggest turnoff.
Clutter bombards our minds with excessive stimuli (visual, olfactory, tactile), causing our senses to work overtime on stimuli that aren't necessary or important. Clutter distracts us by drawing our attention away from what our focus should be on. Clutter makes it more difficult to relax, both physically and mentally.
Unconsciously, our room has a tremendous influence on our mental health than we think. Living in a messy and disorganized space will likely make you feel overwhelmed and frustrated.
Cleaning will help ensure that you have helped rid the air of dust particles and allergens that may otherwise be in the air. Being able to breathe will lead to a much better night's sleep. Moreover, regularly cleaning your home (and bedroom) can help ensure that there are not any viruses or bacteria harbored there.
Abstract. The messy house syndrome (Diogenes syndrome) is present when, owing to a disordering of the personality structure, a person is unable to keep order, for example, in the household or his finances. Such persons are also referred to as "messies".
Differences in emotions in people with ADHD can lead to 'shutdowns', where someone is so overwhelmed with emotions that they space out, may find it hard to speak or move and may struggle to articulate what they are feeling until they can process their emotions.
4 in 5 Americans have one room that's always a mess! NEW YORK — No matter how tidy your home is, there's usually one spot that just attracts chaos.
Clutter Affects Your Brain and Your Work
They also found that when participants cleared clutter from their work environment, they were better able to focus and process information, and their productivity increased.
Albert Einstein once said: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?”