Does Cleaning Help With Depression
If you’ve ever felt stressed out, frustrated, or just plain overwhelmed when your house is a mess, you probably recognize the connection between cleanliness and mental health. That’s why cleaning up and decluttering can sometimes feel so good—and even a bit therapeutic.
“I think a lot of times people think of depression as just having a sad mood, and they forget that it has other symptoms—and a big one is a loss of motivation,” says Karen Lynn Cassiday, PhD, a clinical psychologist and managing director of the Anxiety Treatment Center of Greater Chicago. “Depression tricks you into feeling that nothing’s worth doing, that tasks like housework are pointless.”
Along with a lack of motivation, according to the Mayo Clinic, depression can also cause:
Trouble concentrating
Tiredness and fatigue
Lack of energy
Loss of interest in activities once enjoyed
Unexplained physical pains, such as back pain
Slowed thinking or movement
Feelings of hopelessness
Keeping Clean for Your Mental Health
“Our outer worlds invariably affect our inner worlds and vice versa,” says Danielle Roeske, Psy.D., vice president of residential services at Newport Healthcare.
Studies over the years have linked mental health to environmental exposure. A 1997 study indicates that childhood living conditions significantly impact health in adulthood, and a 2000 comparative study linked improvements in housing quality to residents’ improved mental health. More recently, a 2020 study in Korea associated substandard housing conditions, especially paired with housing unaffordability, with depressive symptoms in residents. Residents in a 2021 study in China were more likely to report good health when living in tidy homes.
Can cleaning your space help your mood?
If depression and untidiness are connected, can tidying up make you feel better?
“If mess occurs exclusively with your depression, taking steps to clean can feel hopeful,” Teresa says. “It can remind you that you are capable of doing hard things and promote feelings of accomplishment and capability, which in turn, begin to improve your mood.”
However, on the flip side, “chances are if you do feel depressed but are used to mess, then trying to tackle it may not have the same positive impact,” Teresa says. “Instead, it might be better to prioritize caring for yourself in a way that does feel good.”
But cleaning up and its result can help improve your mood, according to Maggie Holland, a Washington-based licensed mental health counselor at Choosing Therapy. “The finished product can give you some much-needed serotonin and endorphin hits (happy, reward brain chemicals),” Holland says.
7 Ways to Manage House Cleaning if You Have Depression
If you have depression, here are some simple ways to help you start tackling house cleaning duties if you’re struggling to keep up with them.
Start Small You don’t have to clean your whole house in one swoop, adds Mairanz. “Starting small sets us up for success with larger projects,” she explains. “Starting with something manageable, like putting clothes in a hamper, will help maintain motivation through positive feedback loops.” (Positive feedback loops are actions that help to reinforce change, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Try it by identifying the three most important things you need to do (when it comes to your house cleaning goals). Focus on completing the first of those tasks, then try to tackle the others one at a time. Concentrating on just those small steps makes it easier to get started and build that inertia to keep going, Cassiday says. “It’s like jump-starting a car when you have a battery that doesn’t work,” says Cassiday.
Reframe Negative Self-Talk “People with depression will start to criticize themselves and say, ‘I’m so lazy,’” says Cassiday. This negative self-talk can actually end up hindering your productivity rather than motivating you to get things done, she says. If you notice that you’re speaking negatively to yourself, it can help to immediately replace those thoughts with positive ones. Positive self-talk can help increase self-esteem and boost motivation, which in turn can lead to improved productivity, adds Cassiday. Some strategies for positive self-talk, according to the Mayo Clinic News Network, are:
Be encouraging and gentle to yourself by responding to negative thoughts with affirmations of what is good about yourself.
Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to someone else.
Don’t Wait Until You Feel Good to Get Started When people with depression have good days and they struggle less with their symptoms, they may use those feelings as motivation to complete a task, says Cassiday. For example, they may clean their kitchen because they know it will bring them a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment later on. But you can’t rely on feeling good as your motivation strategy all the time. Part of the reality of having depression is recognizing that there will be some days when you don’t feel good — but you’ll still need to get things done on those days, too. “So, we have to teach people to first learn to ignore the part of you that says I need to feel good in order to do it,” says Cassiday. “I can’t wait to feel good. I have to think about something that’s really important, which is that action creates motivation.”
Prioritize ‘High-Impact’ Cleaning Tasks Cassiday recommends choosing tasks that create a “high impact” first to help you better recognize the value of your efforts. What that means: “A bed takes up a large chunk of space in a room, so if you actually make it, it has a rather large effect in terms of the aesthetic appearance compared to maybe picking up five pieces of trash,” she says.
Ask for Help If a family member or friend can assist you with cleaning duties, the extra help may jumpstart your motivation. “People with depression tend to withdraw and self-isolate. Reaching out to a friend or loved one is a big step towards combating depression and can have immediate effects, not just on the physical space but on the emotional,” says Mairanz. If possible, Cassiday says, do your best to ask for help before you feel embarrassed by a mess. For instance, if you haven’t been able to fold and sort laundry for a few weeks, it’s a good idea to try to reach out for help before the situation becomes unmanageable. Also, if you have the resources, hiring a cleaning service may be a valuable option.
Track Your Wins, No Matter How Small Actually write them down, Cassiday recommends. Include cleaning-related accomplishments, as well as other wins. She calls this a “‘What I Did’ list,” as opposed to a “to-do list.” “When people are depressed, they tend to vastly underestimate the effect and value of their efforts,” Cassiday explains. “This helps you see, ‘I’m actually getting somewhere.’”
Give Yourself Grace You may also need to adjust your expectations when it comes to keeping your living space clean. Realize you may not have the energy or focus that you used to — and that’s okay, says Cassiday. It’s important to remind yourself that a messy or disorganized house doesn’t mean you’ve failed in any way. “You are not alone in having a hard time with this, and it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We all go through ups and downs with our mental health, and our space is often a reflection of that natural process,” says Mairanz.