Scientists Explain Why Watching Home-Decluttering Videos Feel Therapeutic

Can't stop watching movies on organizing and cleaning? According to experts, it's not because you're a secret tidy freak. It might be a symptom that you're stressed out about other aspects of your life. Or perhaps you have neurons to blame.

Psychology Behind Why It's Relaxing To Watch Decluttering Videos

These kinds of decluttering videos are particularly intriguing to those stressed out or experiencing despair, says therapist Caroline Given.

"To see someone finally throwing away their to-go cup graveyard and putting away piles of clothes is aspirational because we're getting visual access to an inner healing that is beginning to take place, which is inspiring," said Given per Cosmopolitan.

She said that cleaning is fundamentally behavioral activation, a treatment strategy that has been shown in several studies to reduce the symptoms of depression.

Additionally, it is beneficial to "alter" the appearance of the surroundings you have spent the last few years in. Therefore, this kind of literature might inspire hope in you as well if the epidemic has you feeling overwhelmed or caught in a rut.

Cleaning is simple and everyone can do it makes cleaning videos even more alluring. Contrary to the aspirational and polished video created by celebrities and influencers, decluttering-focused content just shows people coping with stress by performing their daily tasks. There is no need for B.S. since it is easy and doable.

Neurological Reasons Behind These Feel-Good Film

The founder and CEO of Alto Neuroscience and a professor at Stanford University, Amit Etkin, also described what is transpiring from a neurological perspective.

Etkin says that systems in charge of various higher functions, such as cognitive activities including planning, attention, reasoning, memory, and learning; emotional functions; sensory functions; and motor functions, are located in the outermost cerebral cortex layer of the brain. The emotional domain will signal in response to uncertainty since the brain perceives uncertainty as uncomfortable.

Many people have been dealing with increased, continuing worry over the past few years, whether because of the pandemic or worries about the environment. They all have an element of uncertainty that causes the brain to focus greater attention.

"So that uncertainty signal, which is usually a signal that drives an increase in cognitive control, that's what we would speculate you're hijacking with these videos," Etkin told Wired.

In other words, when you view scenes of order and predictability, your brain's uncertainty response is interrupted and your attention is diverted from these significant stresses.

What Environmentalists Have To Say

Sadly, some environmentalists urge people to cease these decluttering binges since they are just making the world's garbage problem worse.

Myra Hird, professor and author of Canada's Waste Flows at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, told CBC Canada that most of the waste that individuals dispose of ends up in landfills.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of space organization and simplification for mental health, and the pandemic's forced confinement has forced many of us to face our immediate surroundings, which has increased our drive to cleanse.

The issue is that all of that garbage has to go somewhere, and frequently that somewhere is a landfill. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada's 2020 National Waste Characterization Report, 347 kilotonnes of textiles were disposed of in landfills in Canada in 2016.

The 10.2 million tonnes of garbage produced by the residential sector were made up of 31% non-degradable materials, the majority of which were plastics, building supplies, metals, glass (including dishware), electronics, and big items like furniture and appliances.

In a 2021 poll conducted by Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Angus Reid, it was shown that people are considerably more prone to toss away home objects like outdated lamps and sofas than to try to recycle or give them.

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