Do you find it hard to focus on normal tasks? (even things like sending someone a message, washing dishes or even writing a blog post!) Do you find yourself exhausted by the end of the day even if you feel like you didn’t do that much to begin with? Are you starting a task, only to find yourself distracted, and start a different task? Do you constantly feel like you are under pressure or that your house or life are simply not good enough? Do you look around your house and feel overwhelmed and unsure how or where to start?

Your messy house is causing all of these reactions in you and causing stress that you may not even be processing! You may not realize just how much stress is from your house because you may have a busy job or busy schedule with kids and are blaming the mess on lack of time. You may not even consider how much your messy house is adding to your stress.

Constantly being overwhelmed and overstimulated by your environment wreaks havoc on your body and your mental health. You don’t even have to do anything but wake up to feel the sense of being overwhelmed with it all! If you start your day at 60% max stress, you don’t need your day, partner, or the kids to add much stress to make you tap out at 100%! Your messy house can be the cause of it all!

It is way easier to become burnt out!

You can become burnt out so much more easily when your house is messy than when it is tidy. If your house is messy, you can’t relax or recharge the same way than when it’s tidy. As you walk around a messy house, you’re probably making a mental tally of all the tasks you see that you need to do. Whether you write it all down and cross things off as you go or keep the list in your mind, it is adding a ton of stress and feelings of doom.

You forget stuff. Even the important things!

“I wonder why the dentist is calling….oh no, what time is it?” It is so hard to stay on top of everyone’s schedule on a good day, when the house has been running smoothly and your meal plan is working and you’ve arranged that kid to get a ride so that this kid can go somewhere else, so that you can finish your meeting, I mean, it’s a lot to manage right? But add on top of that the fatigue from living in a constant mess and boom! Things are getting forgotten every day. Tracking everything on a calendar is great if you make the time to check it in the morning. Otherwise, you might have the dentist calling you, asking why you didn’t show up to your appointment!

So much time gets wasted!

“I know I just put that pen down. Where is it??” Sound familiar? It could be a phone, keys, or even a wallet. When the house is messy, not only do you forget where things are, but even important things get lost quickly because they simply become part of the backdrop. The backdrop is cluttered, so when you put anything down, it just adds to the backdrop and won’t stand out when you’re looking for it later. The time spent running around and rushing to find something and the stress that adds to your day is just not worth it!

Other non-negotiables get put on the back burner!

When you are overwhelmed in your personal safe space, you may not prioritize actual high priority or non-negotiable tasks. They should happen every day, but you just may feel too overwhelmed to do them! Things like washing the dishes after dinner, brushing your teeth before bed, or even having a shower in the morning. Even other jobs like putting out the garbage or tackling laundry feel too hard. They just don’t seem important or like they will make a difference when your house is already messy.

It’s so hard to muster up the energy to actually start when it feels impossible! Spend some time reflecting on how your mess is actually taking over. Notice that it’s not work or even the kids that are causing the most stress! It may just be your house.

Stay tuned so that you can get proactive about your mess with my tips coming on Friday!

Thanks for coming home!