191: Mental Health And Clutter: What's The Connection

Maximized Minimalist Podcast

Katy Wells

Self-improvement, Mental Health, Education, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 936 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You may not realize this depending on how long you've been a listener of the show, but my passion for helping other simplify wasn't born because I love to help people make their home look pretty and organized...

it's because decluttering was the catalyst that turned my mental health around and helped put an end to 24/7 stress, anxiety and depression.

While I don't think that clutter wasn't the *cause* of my mental health struggles, there certainly was a correlation which became more and more obvious the more stuff I got rid of.

Now, several years later having helped thousands of students and hearing story after story about how their stress levels have improved, they feel happier, hopeful, have a more positive outlook, less depression and so much more...

it only reinforces the idea that we are intricately connected to our environments...

and when we change our environments, our thoughts, emotions and even actions can change, as a result.

Today's episode, to kick-off the start of mental-health awareness month, I share some fascinating studies focused on just how clutter and mental health are connected.

I hope you find it inspiring, encouraging and just the words you needed to hear today.

xx Katy

P.S. Know someone who's struggling like I was? Please forward them this episode. It's a powerful thing to know we're not alone. 💖

Transcript

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0:00.0	What does it mean to live more with less? I'm Katie Wells and welcome to the Maximized Minimalist
0:07.7	podcast. If you found yourself caught up in the hamster wheel of modern day motherhood and want to
0:14.1	rewrite the script, congratulations you're in the right place. I'm here to be your guide and help you take
0:20.6	back your motherhood
0:21.6	and achieve a simpler, more joy-filled life.
0:25.3	Cheers to being a maximized minimalist.
0:28.2	Enjoy the show.
0:29.8	We live longer than our forefathers,
0:32.4	but we suffer more from a thousand artificial anxieties and cares.
0:40.8	They fatigued only the muscles. We exhaust the finer strength of the nerves. Edward George. So a few years ago, I was preparing to do a
0:47.6	speaking presentation to a group of about 500 people about decluttering and the benefits of
0:53.3	decluttering and minimalism. And this quote smacked me
0:57.0	right in the forehead as I read it. And I'll never forget the way it made me feel. And as we are
1:03.3	heading into March, which is a mental health awareness month, we are getting really close to that.
1:09.2	I wanted to have this conversation because
1:12.0	I think it's one that is underestimated and undervalued and it's just not really talked about.
1:18.0	And that is there is a larger issue at stake when it comes to clutter and the stuff in our
1:24.5	homes. And that stuff is not passive like a lot of people think it is.
1:30.3	We continue to pay for our stuff long after we swipe our credit card. And a lot of people can
1:36.8	recognize that clutter impacts our physical space in a very obvious way, right? Piles, boxes.
1:50.2	You know, our homes are bursting at the seams so much so that a large amount of people end up getting storage units.
1:55.8	But some people don't realize that clutter can have negative mental health effects too.
	...

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