Mental And Physical Health Benefits Of Having A Clean Home

3 April 2015
 Categories: Business, Articles


With your busy life, it can be hard to keep up on cleaning your home regularly. It is easy to let the piles of papers accumulate on the kitchen counter or computer desk, and dirty clothes collect on the bedroom floor. It is important to keep your home clean by doing it yourself or hiring it out because a messy home can affect your health. Here are several ways your dirty and cluttered home can affect your mental and physical health.

Effects on Your Physical Health

When your home becomes dirty from the accumulation of dust on your carpets, sofas, tables, and other surfaces, it can cause allergies. Dust particles are made from dead skin cells, dirt particles, pollen, and mold spores. When these dust particles are not vacuumed and removed properly from your home, they can get caught in the air. Then, when you breathe them in, they can start an allergic reaction in your body. Allergies can range from skin rashes, to asthma, and even headaches and nausea. 

Also, harmful bacteria and viruses can collect on surfaces around your kitchen and bathrooms. When these are not regularly cleaned, they can sicken you and your other family members. 

Your kitchen faucet handle has been rated as one of the ten dirtiest places in your home. A recent study by the CDC found a kitchen faucet handle to have as many as 13,227 bacteria per square inch. It is important to clean and sanitize surfaces in your kitchen and bathroom to eliminate any E coli or other food poisoning bacteria and the chance of food poisoning. 

By using a simple solution of 1 teaspoon of chlorine bleach to 1 quart of water, you can disinfect your home's surfaces. Several times a week, use this solution to disinfect the sink and faucet in your kitchen and bathrooms, your table and countertops, and your toilet bowl. This can help to clean some of the dirtiest places in your home.  Also, replace your kitchen towel and cleaning cloth daily, then wash them in hot water and laundry soap.

It is also important to clean regularly behind your home's appliances to wipe up any crumbs or spilled food, which can attract pests into your home. Pull out and clean behind your fridge, stove, washer and dryer regularly to sweep and mop up any debris that could attract mice and cockroaches. Mice can bring diseases, such as salmonellosis and hantavirus into your home. Cockroaches carry organisms on their body which cause diarrhea, and food poisoning.

Effects on Your Mental Health

A messy home can cause several mental problems, including stress. Too much clutter in your home can cause you to lose important documents and items. When you lose something, your stress levels increase as you search for the missing item. 

Having a messy house can make you feel overwhelmed and tired. As you see all the clutter and disarray in your home, it can seem like too big of a job to begin, so you don't have the desire to start cleaning. 

Messes and clutter can also make you feel depressed. A study revealed that depression and your self-esteem are linked to having clutter in your home. Depression can also cause your home to be cluttered because you can't tackle such a large cleaning job while you are depressed. Then, all the clutter in your home can increase your depression even more. It can become a never ending cycle.

When your bedroom and bed are cluttered, you are not going to be able to sleep well. Not getting good rest at night over a long period of time can affect your mental health. 

Take the time or make the arrangements to keep your home clean for your mental and physical health. And for emergency cleanings, like water restoration, etc. don't be afraid to contact a 24 hour emergency cleaning service.


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