How Staying Organized Helps Me Feel Less Anxious

When I feel stressed out about something, I organize. And when I say organize, I mean that in a pretty far-reaching way: organizing to me means not only organizing, but also cleaning, downsizing, basically anything that falls under the umbrella of getting my affairs in order. I don’t know how common this is among others. But I would like to at least try to explain why staying organized is so helpful to me.

Why Staying Organized Alleviates Anxiety and Brings Peace

Organization, at its heart, means creating order out of chaos. It is, in the smallest way, a method of making the world a bit easier to manage.

I don’t know about any of you, but when I see a bunch of stuff on the floor or stacked up against the wall, I can’t help but think that it "isn’t supposed to be this way.” Everything has its place, and when I see something like that, I can’t help but think that something has to change. Maybe I’m odd, but it’s hard for me to feel comfortable if I’m in an environment like that.

So every so often, I’ll take some time, often an entire day, to do a massive deep-clean of basically everything I own. My goal is that, when I finish, I want to feel like literally everything I own will be in its proper place, even if I know it won’t last forever.

What 'Staying Organized' Entails

Like I mentioned before, staying organized doesn’t just mean “organizing,” and if you want to do something like I’m suggesting, you should prepare to do a lot more. Go through all your stuff (as much of it as you realistically can) and decide, one by one, what you think is worth saving. Anything that you’re unsure about, throw it away. Keep the rest.

Give everything you have a nice deep cleaning. Sweep or vacuum all your floors, and wipe down the relevant surfaces.

Take a look at everything you have on shelves. If you feel like things need to be rearranged, rearrange them. If you need to buy more shelves, and you can, perhaps think of doing that too.

And don’t think all this organizing should stop with just physical things. Look at your files on your computer, and go through those too. One of the things I even take pleasure in is periodically going through my Facebook profile and removing friends who I am not in contact with in an attempt at keeping that pared down. Honestly, doing that makes me feel like I’m getting rid of all the excess in my life.

Ultimately, I highly recommend taking some time at least once a month to do as much organizing as you can.

How does staying organized affect your anxiety? Share your stories in the comments.

See also:

• "Organizing the Anxious Mind for Less Crisis, More Plan"
• "Getting Organized Helps Ease My Anxiety Symptoms"
• "Clear Mental and Physical Clutter To Improve Mental Health"