Dia duit agus Failte – that’s Irish for hello and welcome – to this blog about how to reduce RA and other autoimmune disease symptoms naturally. Today I’m talking about the health benefits of decluttering your life and home.
Are you curious about the title of this post? Do you wonder how the health benefits of decluttering could possibly reduce the symptoms of RA and other autoimmune diseases? Are you interested in decluttering your life, your home AND reducing the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis? Have you heard of decluttering and minimalism and think they sound interesting but aren’t quite sure what they are, what benefits they may offer and how to integrate them into your life? Do you want to know how to start decluttering? Then, this may just be the post for you.
A quick note about the photos in this post. I love capturing the beauty in a plant; these photos come from National Parks and other places along the way. I hope they lighten your heart as much as they do mine. There is such perfection in the tiniest flower; the beauty shines through in the simplest way.
Keep reading to learn how decluttering improves your health and life and simple ways to declutter your life, your home and your mind.
Table of Contents
Our most recent experience with the health benefits of decluttering our life.
As I write this, we have just sold most of our belongings and moved from a 20-acre homestead into an 84sqft conversion van. Yes, we have decluttered life and home and it feels equal parts scary and liberating. I have long believed that in order to make space for something new, one must release the old and I am putting this to the test with our latest adventure. Now everything we own is either in the van or in an 8×10 storage unit which we share with three of our kidlets!
If my hypothesis is correct, in order to create a bright new future, one full of possibility and hope, we must make space for that possibility and one way to do that is to declutter.
What are the health benefits of decluttering your life?
By now you may be asking: How does decluttering relate to rheumatoid arthritis and how can it possibly reduce my autoimmune disease symptoms? We already know that mental and emotional health impact RA (read this post) and that stress, depression, frustration and anxiety all exacerbate the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Clutter causes stress that negatively affects our cortisol levels, our creativity and our experience of pain. When we eliminate the causes of these negative experiences, we can improve our symptoms.
There are studies showing the negative impact of clutter on our health. Joseph Ferrari PhD, says “An overabundance of “stuff” can have a detrimental effect on a person’s mental [wellbeing].” Link. Another study suggests a connection between clutter and high stress, procrastination and lack of focus. Physical clutter can also reduce our cognitive function, impact work performance and our relationships. Link.
Can you see the direct link between clutter and our health and in particular its impact on our mental and emotional wellbeing as it relates to rheumatoid arthritis and chronic illness symptoms?
What is clutter?
I don’t know about you but I like to maintain some semblance of organization in my life – I put my keys in the same place, hang my clothes before I go to bed each evening and have separate drawers for baking supplies, canned goods and veggies.
And then there’s the messier side of life – everyone has a junk drawer, don’t they? If you don’t have a junk drawer, you might want to skip this post and check out the one about yoga or essential oils!
What about the bottomless to-do pile? This is where I place bills, papers to be filed and generally stuff I don’t want to deal with when I first touch it. Of course, the experts say you should only touch an item once – address it and be done with it. Who are these experts and is there anyone on the planet who follows the 1-touch rule?
The problem with clutter, stuff, mess or whatever you want to call it is that is causes stress and anxiety and takes up physical, mental and emotional space in our lives.
For me, clutter is not just the physical items that fill our homes, cars, lives. Rather, clutter is anything that feels messy. Clutter can include:
- Stuff – obvious, I know, but just how many necklaces, jars of cinnamon or pens do you really need?
- Endless lists of tasks or to-dos.
- Social media feeds and other digital interactions.
- An overflowing file box or inbox.
- Too many social engagements.
- Work that spills outside your work place or is beyond your scope of responsibility.
How decluttering improves your health and your life?
I have learned over the past 4+ years of dealing with rheumatoid arthritis that my biggest trigger for symptoms is stress so I try very hard to minimize anything that causes stress in my life. In addition, I also try to bring the opposite of stress into my life – happiness, calm, serenity etc…
I have found the health benefits of decluttering and minimalism help in the following ways:
- Letting go of stuff creates space for healing to begin.
- Instead of holding onto things from the past, we can release them and focus our energy on being in the present.
- You will no longer waste time or feel frustrated rummaging through everything to find the one thing you need.
- You will likely find yourself living a more intentional life.
- With fewer things, those items you choose to keep will give true joy.
- The air will be lighter in your home. Removing clutter reduces dust and improves air circulation.
- Your heart and mind will feel clearer and brighter.
- A spacious, more open home and life leaves us feeling less anxious, more in control and gives a greater sense of time and freedom.
- Having a less cluttered life reduces decision fatigue.
- Choosing to declutter forces you to be more mindful of the things, activities and worries that add or detract from your life.
- This sleep study from 2015 showed that people sleep better when there is less clutter. Read this post about sleep and RA.
11 simple suggestions to declutter your life
There are hundreds of articles and blogs about decluttering and minimalism which offer much more in depth guidance than I can. To get you started, here is a short simple list for how to begin decluttering so you can reduce some of the symptoms of autoimmune disease and rheumatoid arthritis:
- Focus on why you are decluttering. Perhaps even create a mantra to guide you through the often-challenging process. Something like: “I create space for peace and joy to enter my life.”
- Set positive goals for yourself – organization, freedom, lightness, calm.
- Don’t take on your entire life or whole house in one go. I like to start with the quickest and easiest project to give myself momentum.
- Break each project into bite-sized chunks and set a timer; 15–30-minute increments seem to be the healthiest and most successful for many people.
- Meditate to clear your mind. Even five minutes will help ground and center you before you embark on a project.
- Label boxes: Donate, Sell, Give and Trash. When you discover something that no longer serves you, place it in the appropriate box.
- Tackle your inbox for 15 minutes at a time. Act on (e.g. unsubscribe, pay the bill, create folders), respond to or delete each email as you come to it. Sometimes, we want to keep an email – can you pop it into a “read later” file?
- Consider limiting time on social media or reducing the number of platforms/engagements.
- Learn and practice saying no to activities or requests that take up space, time and energy with little or no joy, calm or abundance benefits.
- Reduce your to-do list by hiring someone to do those tasks you hate, are not good at or cannot fit in and feel guilty about. I’ll bet there is a neighborhood kid who would mow the grass or pull in and out the rubbish bins. We hired our neighbor’s son to weed our huge beds and it was such a gift – my body appreciated it enormously and just taking it off my to-do list was such a weight lifted from me.
- Be sure to finish one decluttering task before moving on to the next, even if it takes three weeks to empty that inbox.
5 action steps to declutter/minimize high stress:
- Your bed-time routine: I like to brush my teeth and wash my face the first time I run to the loo after dinner. It serves two purposes – the before-bed to-do list shortens and I no longer want a snack. (Eating too close to bedtime can disrupt sleep. Learn more about Sleep & RA)
- Your outfit: Set tomorrow’s clothes aside to reduce decision fatigue in the morning. I love to walk first thing so my walking clothes sit at the ready – I no longer have to decide what to wear and because I’m already dressed, I might as well walk – double win!
- Distractions: Turn off all notifications from social media platforms. If things feel overwhelming, remove them from your phone completely, even if only for a short period of time.
- Meals: Use a 1- or 2-week menu rather than constantly having to come up with new ideas for dinner. This is one area where I have struggled as I love to cook and experiment with new recipes. I finally learned that allowing myself one experiment day per fortnight satisfied my creative urges while having the menu reduced the daily stress of meal choices. To learn more about how diet impacts rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, read this post.
- Tasks: Delegate what you can. Hire out what you can afford. Automate where possible. And cull the nonessentials.
Final thoughts
When I was first diagnosed with RA, I went through the expected torrent of emotions – anger, fear, sadness. I elected to work with a natural medicine physician who guided me through dietary changes, put me on supplements and emphasized the impact of lifestyle.
While I remain on a lightly-restrictive diet and I still take supplements, I have learned that my emotional and mental health is perhaps the most important element in reducing and healing my RA symptoms. Stress has proven to be the most damaging trigger for my body and I take the reduction and removal of any stressors from my life very seriously. I hope learning to declutter will reduce your stress levels and you will feel the health benefits quickly and noticeably.
As I prepared this article, I was delighted to find so many studies that show the powerful health benefits of decluttering your life and home. I hope you have found the inspiration and reasons you needed to start decluttering; please drop any advice you have for others in the comments below.
Reading what your article categorized as clutter made me realize that we may have a lot of random items scattered about that can classify as such. If we can gather all of our stuff and figure out what’s no longer useful to us, we could definitely get them cleaned out or donated. I’ll do this and then find a dumpster rental service who can help us dispose of what’s left.