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Some people really love DIY and home maintenance, and don’t need much, if any encouragement to get things in order and to deal with the kinds of clutter and chaos that can inevitably develop around a home.
Other people may not be quite so passionate about the project of keeping the home in good order, but are nonetheless very orderly and disciplined by nature, and so don’t have too much trouble maintaining things.
As for the rest of us — those who might struggle and frequently stumble in the attempt to live orderly lives, in general — it helps to understand the bigger picture, and to realise why committing to something like maintaining an orderly home can — even if it doesn’t immediately seem like it — be a tremendous step to overall life improvement.
Here are some reasons why getting your house in order can be the start of getting your life in order.
Your home environment and your mind mirror and affect one another, psychologically speaking
Have you ever noticed that your home kind of feels like an extension of “you”, almost like another part of your body? If you haven’t noticed this sensation with your home in particular, you’ve probably noticed it when driving your car.
The simple fact is that, psychologically speaking, your immediate environment and your mind mirror and affect one another to a pretty substantial degree. A cluttered and chaotic environment leads to a cluttered and chaotic mind. And an orderly and focused mind will naturally tend to lead you to want to organize a messy environment.
If you have a broken garage door that you never get around to fixing, you are sending yourself a subtle psychological message that you are powerless to improve your circumstances. Garage door repair is a small price to pay for more peace of mind.
If your mind is anxious and distracted, tidying up your home might be a great first step in regaining control.
Turning your life around requires you to start mastering your habits — maintaining an orderly home requires the same
Habit experts such as James Clear and Charles Duhigg have noted that making serious changes in your life — turning your life around, even — is largely a matter of mastering your habits, rather than a matter of summoning up superhuman doses of willpower from time to time.
Your habits are the day-to-day routines you enact on a regular basis, that ultimately shape your character, life, and circumstances.
Maintaining a tidy home requires the adoption of positive habits, related to things like cleaning. An excellent place to begin the mission of transforming your life through habit, more broadly.
Confidence and self-belief are built through small victories — getting your home in order involves many small victories and can transform your sense of the kind of person you can be
Many people struggle with a lack of confidence and self-belief, and this can be truly devastating. But it’s worth keeping in mind that these things don’t just emerge from nowhere.
To a large extent, self-belief and confidence come from winning small victories and feeling good as a result.
Getting your house in order involves many small victories, and so can transform your sense of the kind of person you can be, for the better.
