I was only seven when Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing found its way into my home and into my mom’s psyche. Since then, keeping a clean room has been a priority of mine.
As I’ve grown older and experienced a variety of living spaces, from shared childhood bedrooms to living in a family friend’s house, to sharing a dorm with a person I didn’t meet till the day we were moving in together. Through all of these experiences, I’ve come to realize how much of an influence the environment created in my living space has an impact on me.
Living in a dorm room this past year has especially taught me the importance of a clean space. When everything else in my life is new, dynamic, and busy, I love knowing I have my comfortable corner to return to.
Sense of Control
Coming into my freshman year at FSU, I was completely freaked out by how new everything in my life was. Making my dorm into a place of peace and stability was deeply important to me and has only become more important since then.
As my life has become busier, I’ve noticed that whenever my room is particularly messy, the stress of all my activities feels infinitely harder to bear.
Studies have shown that a cluttered, messy space can contribute to increased stress. Even if my mood isn’t necessarily affected by how clean my room is, I always have an underlying feeling of distress at the fact that my space is disorderly.
Especially navigating a small, shared dorm room this past year, I’ve learned that maintaining my side of the room has been vital in giving me a sense of control over my ever-changing life.
Getting Out of a Funk
To quote Lara Jean in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, “My life was a mess, but I could clean my room.”
I think cleaning tends to be viewed as a chore and yet another to-do on a seemingly never-ending list. While I’ve certainly been guilty of viewing cleaning this way, I’ve also found that nothing gets me out of a mental funk quite like a good, deep clean of my room.
Shifting my mindset to viewing cleaning as a mental reset instead of a chore has made the process infinitely more appealing.
When it feels like my to-do list will never shorten, cleaning my room always gives me a good place to start. Once my space is clear, I often find that my brain finally has some space to figure out how to tackle the rest of my to-do list.
Better Focus
Though I love a good side quest to the library or cafe to study, I’ve always been one to study in my room. I’ve also always struggled with focusing on one task at a time, a struggle that tends to be amplified by the environment I study in.
I love heavily decorating my living spaces, filling them with all kinds of trinkets, art, and random pieces of “trash” that I deemed sentimental enough to keep. Knowing this about myself, I’ve learned how important it is to keep my space tidy, so the combination of decoration and mess doesn’t lead me to become unfocused on the task at hand.
Research has also shown that clutter and mess can make it difficult to fully complete a task, especially because the visual clutter caused by a messy room can make it hard to focus.
I’ve found that when my space is clean, my brain has the room to quiet down and focus on the task at hand. Good for my peace, and good for my grades.
How I Maintain a Clean Space
While I’ve always loved a clean space, figuring out how to make the time to clean has certainly been a learning curve.
The best way I stay tidy is by incorporating it into my night routine. I try to clean up my space for five minutes every night before I get in bed for the evening, and have found that this is a nice happy medium to stay organized while maximizing my time.
For the days when there’s a particularly big mess to clean up, I always find a long YouTube video, podcast, or TV show to put on while I clean. I get to catch up on my favorites while also being productive — a win, win!
Though cleaning can often seem like a chore, maintaining a clean space has helped keep me focused and calm, a headspace that is super important during my busy life. Next time life feels particularly overwhelming, a clean room is always a good place to start.
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