Humans thrive when they have order and structure in their lives.
And honestly, there’s a particular reason for this.
Humans are a cooperative species.
They’ve been working together, hunting together, and living together for millions of years.
To a pretty significant extent, this is what has led to us being the dominant species on the planet.
But with that being said, it’s also true that it takes work and effort to maintain a semblance of order.
Now, don’t get it twisted.
The goal isn’t necessarily to create so much order that we live in a state of increased stress at all times of the day.
Sometimes, over-organization can be a stressor in itself.
The goal is to create enough order in your life that it facilitates better health and wellness outcomes by facilitating lower levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, and higher levels of feelings like safety, security, and hope for the future.
Let’s talk about how to make this a reality.
1. It Helps You To Feel ‘Safe’ In Your Life
When you do things like keep your house clean, keep your car maintained, and make sure to balance your bank account—you’re not just staying on top of a collection of arbitrarily selected chores.
You’re actually contributing to your future safety and security.
This is why people whose living space tends to get really messy, and/or people whose bills are piling up and/or the car is breaking down, can tend to feel increased levels of stress and anxiety.
It really all comes back around to that safety/security issue.
The truth of the matter is that we need to feel good about our surroundings in order to have hope for the future—and maintaining household structure is important for that.
2. It Will Make You Happier
While it may not seem like house cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, and doing the dishes would necessarily be actions that would promote happiness—it’s also true that when you look at these things in the long term, that’s exactly what they do.
Everyone would rather sit in a clean environment than in a dirty one.
Everyone would like to feel like their home is nice, presentable, and welcoming—as opposed to being filled with dirt, grime, and/or invasive insects.
When we take responsibility for keeping our household in order, we actually facilitate greater long-term happiness.
And this is really good for your overall health and wellness outcomes.
3. It Empowers You To Take Pride In Yourself
When you do a really good job of keeping your household in order, you’ll also undoubtedly feel good about it.
As you should.
This gives you a compelling reason to feel proud of what you’re accomplishing.
Now, don’t get it twisted.
It’s absolutely true that forcing yourself to be obsessed with cleaning and order is probably going to have a detrimental effect as opposed to a helpful one.
But we’re not talking about getting obsessed or going crazy with the cleaning and order.
We’re just talking about taking some common sense, rational steps toward keeping your house clean, maintaining your space, and just in general providing yourself with a safe and sanitary living environment.
It really matters, and it’s important.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has helped you to see some common sense reasons for why keeping your house clean and ordered is important.
If you tend to struggle with this type of thing, consider making yourself a daily to-do list that facilitates you getting the most important chores done without overwhelming you.
Sometimes, this is all it takes to really tip the scales over into favorable territory.
