The Neuroscience of Tidying Up
With the holidays winding down and a new year looming, many of us are in a transitional mode. As we begin to take down the holiday decorations and assess where to put our new gifts, we consider that we might need to tidy up in some significant ways.
A few years ago I gave this interview with my friends at WTVR, CBS-6. Cheryl Miller is such a lovely human to talk with and I really enjoyed our conversation, even chatting a bit about my own uncomfortable journey to prioritize items and declutter! Give it a watch!
Some of the key points from that interview:
Our brains get overwhelmed by too much information and too many things. We’re easily distracted and our brain wants to pay attention to everything. Removing excess stuff allows us to focus on the things that are most important, meaningful and that spark joy.
Even if you’re good at finding items in a cluttered space, your brain will appreciate you removing clutter. The hippocampus is the memory center of the brain, and to find items it connects to cortical regions around the brain to recreate the story of when you last saw the item, what it was used for, where it might be now. That process uses lots of neurons which chew up tons of energy, depleting your brain’s resources for later challenges. That can lead to arguments with your spouse, making poor choices at dinner, or just feeling too exhausted to take on new projects.
Decluttering our mental space is just as important as decluttering physical space. Meditation and exercise are examples of times when you can examine your thoughts, prioritize, and let things go. Actively use lists and calendars to schedule your free time as well as your work time. By organizing your play time, you’ll be better able to make room for all the fun goofing off that you want to do! Be mindful of how you are spending time and what you value.
I reference the Marie Kondo book and Netflix show in this interview. Since then, I’ve also read The Year of Less by Cait Flanders and also really enjoyed it.
Original show on 2/28/19; “The Neuroscience of Tidying Up”; CBS, WTVR, Virginia This Morning.
