Spring Awakening– 3 Ways Spring Cleaning Can Make You Healthier
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Spring is here. Ahhhh. The days are growing longer, the temperatures warmer, and the world appears as if coming back to life. As we look at our surroundings with renewedeyes, we also begin to see our homes more clearly. It’s spring cleaning time!
Spring cleaning offers so many benefits beyond the cleaning. It is good for your physical health and your mental health. Spring cleaning also helps us discover lessons for a more enlightened life. All that and it makes things smell good too.
Spring Cleaning Health Benefits
Allergies and Respiratory Issues
If you are at risk due to allergies, or other respiratory illnesses or conditions, spring cleaning can be very helpful. Dust and pet dander gather in homes over the winter and can really attack the immune system. Additionally, mold and bacteria can build up over winter months. According to a study by the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunity, cleaning your home and de-cluttering your space can help you avoid allergy symptoms and make you feel healthier.
Sleep Issues or Insomnia
Spring cleaning can help with poor sleep patterns. Eliminating clutter can help the mind settle and promote much needed rest. Plus, in a poll conducted by The National Sleep Foundation, 75% of participants claimed tosleep better on clean sheets with a fresh scent.
Exercise and Physical Activity
Spring cleaning puts your body to work. Researchers at Indiana University researchers made an interesting connection between cleanliness and exercise. The cleaner the house, the more physically active the person. Not only does spring cleaning reward you with the benefits of movement, it also makes you more likely to take control of other areas of your life, like weight management and exercise.
Spring Cleaning to Settle Your Mind
A cluttered home can cause issues with your mental well-being. According to Psychology Today, home organization and cleanliness are a top five stressor. But spring cleaning can help. Here are some ways spring cleaning can help settle your mind:
1. Removing clutter helps you be less distractedand more focused. De-cluttering can alsoboost your creativity.
2. Indulging in nostalgia while spring cleaning –such as old pictures or letters – can make you feel more connected, joyful, or satisfied.
3. Prolonged housework has been shown in studies to cut stress and anxiety by as much as 20 percent.
Spring Cleaning Can Offer Life Lessons
It may sound silly, but the way you approach spring cleaning can also be great life lessons. For example:
Finish what you start. Spring cleaning is generally done top to bottom and doesn’t end until the whole house is complete. Otherwise it is not effective and the dirt and clutter you left behind will quickly make its way back into the rest of the house. The same is true of life.
Let go of perfection. Spring cleaning teaches us that we do not have to be perfect to have big results. In fact, chasing the perfect can sometimes keep us from attaining a whole lot of really good. Have a plan, do the job well, and then let it go. You don’t need to be perfect.
Make healthy, environmentally friendly choices. Spring cleaning is a process that forces us to make choices. Everything from the chemical composition of the cleaner to the disposal method for trash and clutter must be decided. As we make healthy and environmentally friendly choices in our spring-cleaning plan, it reminds us to make similar choices in everything we do throughout our days.
Act with love. Spring cleaning is an ultimate act of love. Whether you live by yourself or with others,the decision to commit to a spring cleaning is a decision to make your world a better place. If we choose love as the motivator of our actions, we are increasing joy and happiness in and around us.