Is Minimalism Good for My Mental Health?

It certainly can be!

A lot of us have been using the shelter-in-place quarantine to clean out our closets. When you are spending nearly 24 hours a day in your home, it stands to reason that you are going to be a lot more aware of the things that need straightening up and clearing out. You will probably be even more aware of the things that your partner needs to clean up and straighten out! Tidying up your space can reduce stress and give you a strong sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Tidying Up Your Stuff

Many of my clients have initiated cleaning projects either on their own or with their partners, and most are very happy with the results. They feel lighter, more free.

Getting rid of things, we will not use doesn’t just free up space on our table, our desk, or our floor, it frees up space in our brain. Every time we see that stack of reading material, we have a shot of anxiety about how much time it is going to take to read it all. We may even judge ourselves as being lazy or slow. Every time we see those clothes that no longer fit, we get an inner shot of criticism for the body we now have and struggle to love. Every time we see that project that has been getting layers of dust on it in the back of the closet, we judge ourselves for not carrying through on a promise to learn a new skill, or for being wasteful and spending money on stuff we never use. Getting rid of these things will bring you some peace of mind.

Tidying Up Your Cloud

Cleaning out the things you don’t need frees you up to enjoy the things you do enjoy using. But what about the things in your life that are less concrete? These days many of the things we “need to do” live on our laptops—or in the cloud, to be more accurate.

There are all those articles you’ve saved to read, or the folders that need to be organized on your cloud, and there’s always email. One helpful thing you can do for electronic information is to store it in a system with a good search function. Apple’s Spotlight and Microsoft’s OneNote Search function are helpful, but a storage system like Evernote will allow you to tag items and search content, which frees you to just jumble things in a notebook without having to worry too much about organization. Put all those unread articles into notebooks, and if you ever need them you will be able to readily find them again. You can even use Evernote’s web clipper to save web pages (without all the ads!) with just one click.

If you are one of those people (as I am!) who tends to have a bunch of open tabs all the time or has bookmarked folders with names like “to read” and “to do,” get those tabs closed! It will have the same effect as going through all those boxes in the garage, or finally tossing those unfinished projects into the trash. These days, getting rid of all your electronic “trash” can have a much bigger impact than cleaning out a closet or a cupboard.

Don’t forget to clean up your desktop so that what you first see each time you open your computer doesn’t stress you out, but rather calms you down or cheers you up with a meaningful image that is unobstructed by folders and documents.

Set aside a few minutes each day or each week to clean up any email or open tabs, just like you clean your dishes each day or brush your teeth. Maintenance is key to keeping things under control electronically!

The Front End

Though we readily understand that getting rid of things we don’t absolutely love—the things that spark joy, according to Marie Kondo—we don’t often think about this on the front end, when we are buying stuff, or saving stuff on our computer for later consumption.

This is the key to retaining the peace of mind that comes from “tidying up.”

Learning to discriminate with what we buy or save is critical to the peace of mind that comes with tidying up. Now that we have been under quarantine for weeks on end, and are stretched thin for things to do inside, it is so easy to relieve the boredom by shopping online, or falling down the black hole of the internet finding all sorts of things to “read later.” There is no end to the amount of interesting information to be found online, and no end to the number of things you can buy with just “one click.”

Being mindful about buying and saving things is a real choice, and a difficult habit to build. The internet is designed to hook you in and capture your attention. Information about you is used to try to induce you to buy things that you will be specifically interested in. A lot of money has been spent on research to keep you from being able to control your impulse to buy or to leave a particular site. Setting an alarm when you are on the internet can help, as can all the apps that are now available that assist you in limiting your exposure to the tempting sites you choose. If social media is your weakness, you can find some helpful suggestions here.

Minimalism is not a magic answer to the stress of day-to-day life, but it can certainly help reduce it. A house and cloud that are free of all the things that remind you of what you haven’t done, or worn, or read, can be a sanctuary where you are free to enjoy the things you really love, start projects that you actually want to finish, and even just relax and do nothing!

If you can teach your clients to have some self-acceptance in this crazy upside-down world, then you are absolutely rockin’ it. Take a bow. Amy McManus, LMFT, helps anxious young adults build healthy new relationships with themselves and others after a breakup. Amy’s blog, “Life Hacks,” offers practical tips for thriving in today’s crazy plugged-in world. Learn more about Amy from her website www.thrivetherapyla.com.