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Calm spaces can reduce stress and cognitive load, making it easier to get important work done.

Decision-making, another cognitive process, can make de-cluttering harder.

Building a habit of keeping what you want, tidying, and shedding what you don't is the core of decluttering.

Breaking things into small tasks and making them a pleasant part of your day makes decluttering less daunting.

I am not a pack rat by nature. For years, I didn’t really have to think about Spring cleaning. As renters, we moved every year. Each time we moved, we cleared out all our clutter and tossed our collection of old spice jars, half burned candles, and mismatched socks. I will admit to holding on to way more books—and, yes, old vinyl records—than we should have. But still, everything we owned had to fit into a car and then the smallest U-Haul we could rent to move.

Then we had kids and later a house. We moved every three, then seven, then 20 years. I discovered why people made a tradition of spring cleaning. All you have to do is look at my basement and attics.

A Problem of Cognitive Psychology

A raft of psychological research shows that cognitive psychology has much to teach about clutter. It is often discussed in the context of why we should declutter.

Cluttered spaces are rarely calming. When we perform a cognitive task—writing a blog post, for example—being surrounded by clutter reduces the cognitive capacity we have to give to that task, because some part of our mind is processing and then actively ignoring unrelated stimuli. Decluttering the area around us reduces distraction so that we can give more of our attention to the work at hand.

Tip: I teach statistics. Learning to use new software is often stressful and........

© Psychology Today