Why Good Design is Good for Your Health

One of the benefits of good decorating is organization. When your rooms are well designed, clutter is reduced. All the stuff that you acquire during your life is kept in an appropriate place. When you need something, you can find it. When you settle down at the end of the day for a few hours of peace and quiet, you are comfortable. You don’t feel as if you are about to drown in junk.

Cutting the clutter is good for your health, but maintaining that cleaned up look needs to be easy, or the clutter just comes back.

A typical example of this is insufficient storage in the kitchen. If you have no place to put all your dinnerware, your appliances, your cookware, your pantry goods, and your linens, your kitchen will become overrun and ultimately the last place you want to take on the task of cooking.

Consider to, the clutter that can easily accumulate in bedrooms, bathrooms, and garages. Sleeping in a room that is piled high with dirty laundry, old magazines, dusty shoes and remnants of last night’s take-out meal certainly can’t bode well for your health.

If your house is short of closet space, short on cabinetry, and your garage has no storage units, it’s very likely you are caught in the throes of clutter.

When you’re surrounded by clutter, you tend to feel overwhelmed. Your thought processes become disorganized, and it’s likely your blood pressure rises as you try in vain to locate that sheaf of papers you need for work, that permission slip for your child’s field trip, that CD you want to listen to on the way to work. You can’t find your keys without sending out a search party.

The stress will have a negative affect on your health. In the December 28, 2007 article entitled “Organize your way out of stress” on CNN.com, author Judy Fortin explains that continually living with clutter results in physical stress, which can leave people vulnerable to health problems. Psychologist Mark Crawford states, in the article, “The body releases chemicals like cortisol that actually decrease the body’s immune function.”

Adding to the stress is the sense of hopelessness at ever getting your house and garage cleaned up. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Fortunately, there are ways to reduce clutter and actually prevent it from accumulating. If possible, hire a clutter consultant, someone who comes into your home and guides you through the process of reorganizing your space.

But whether you use a professional or tackle it yourself, the first rule is to take it one section at a time. For example, at the front door there is a pile of mail, a stack of shoes, backpacks, briefcases, and a pile of keys.

• Sit down and sort the mail.
• Pair up the shoes and give them to their owners to put in their rooms.
• Do the same for backpacks.
• Put the briefcases in the home office or front closet.
• Clean out the front closet.

The idea is to take it one small step at a time. Have a garbage bag or wastebasket at the ready to throw away the things you don’t need. Have a box ready for the things that will go to charity.

Eventually you will have a clean house. The trick is to keep it that way.

As you clean out a closet, under a bed, a corner cabinet in the kitchen, decide what you need to accommodate the items that belong there. Do you need shelving? Storage bins? A closet organizer? Don’t wait to purchase it. Do it now.

This is an essential part of design. Think about how each space, be it the family room, a bedroom, or that space under the stairs, should be used. Decide what things need to be in that space. Don’t just de-clutter your space; redesign your space to include the storage and organization of your stuff.

Ultimately, you will have a well designed home. By utilizing spaces such as under the bed, unused corners, the garage, you have designed your home to accommodate your needs.

You’ll be able to find anything you need, including the Christmas lights, the extra blankets, birth certificates, and that great photo album with the baby pictures in it.

This good design tactic will make your life easier, which always makes you feel better, and you’ll have eliminated a major source of stress in your life.