Engl 1120 Haley Bonner

Leah Gautreau
Ms. Bonner
Engl 1120
10/18/2023

Decluttering and a more Positive Lifestyle

We live in an era of DIYs and Marie Kondo asking you if you’re finding out what

items spark joy in your life. If you look around your living space, what do you see? Do you see

pieces of yourself or maybe your roommate or significant other? Are you feeling anxious about a

stack of papers and books you told yourself you were going to go through one day? Maybe

you’re admiring some posters up along your wall that remind you of something you’re currently

into. Regardless, what we surround ourselves with often impacts us and those around us in

different ways. But can decluttering have a positive impact on your life? What is the link

between clutter and our own happiness or unhappiness and the link between decluttering and

changing our perspectives? Below are 5 articles that delve into this complex topic.

This first article is “Home and the Extended-Self: Exploring Associations between

Clutter and Wellbeing.” (2021) It delves into a research study that utilized many varied ways of

looking into the general population’s view on clutter and decluttering and how that affects our

lives. The research was conducted with a population sample of 1111 adults. While this is a fairly

large sample size, unfortunately it was mostly skewed towards women and lacked data on race

and ethnicity. I do not think this makes the research lesser, only that it cannot be used to see if

more nuanced correlations in different cultures and genders.

Some of the focuses of the research was on the PERMA model which measures Positive

Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. This model directly

addresses some of the positive aspects of decluttering that I wanted to explore and see. Another
Engl 1120 Haley Bonner

item used in this study was The Clutter Image Rating Scale (CIRS) which basically utilizes

pictures of the same rooms but with varying degrees of clutter and then participants were asked

which best resembles their living situations.

The conclusion of this study was such that clutter was normally seen as causing some

levels of stress or negative impact on most people. However, the objective clutter one

experienced was less important to one’s state of being than one’s subjective view on their clutter.

Most people experienced some level of betterment in their life through decluttering. This varied

from mental improvement such as increased self-esteem to physical improvement such as

improved sleeping habits.

The second article “The Cultural Practice of Decluttering as Household Work and Its

Potentials for Sustainable Consumption.” (2022) focused more on the concept of decluttering as

being a form of self-care and how it can ultimately impact sustainability. It emphasizes how what

we accumulate are products and goods and that we are a society that is actively consuming.

While decluttering is the method, this article focuses more on the concept of minimalism,

specifically being the source of happiness. Therefore, this article focuses on how the individual is

affected by clutter and decluttering, but overall how that may affect the world’s environment at

large.

This article delves into an on-going research project from Germany. It is looking into

whether decluttering can support sustainable consumption and help avoid similar patterns in

accumulation and consuming habits. It entails 6 workshops, of which only the first 2 results are

available currently. The project as a sample size of more than 1,000 participants all over

Germany. Only gender was taken into account for socio-demographics. Thus far the conclusions

have been that decluttering on the one hand may actually contribute to throwaway culture and
Engl 1120 Haley Bonner

another may show that people as a whole have interest in global sustainability and that there is an

inherent relationship between our own self-care and care we place out into the world.

The third article is “Hoarding and Emotional Reactivity: The Link between Negative

Emotional Reactions and Hoarding Symptomatology.” (2015) This article focuses on the more

negative aspects of clutter. While it is important to explore the positive of decluttering, it is also

vital to view what the darkest side of clutter can look like if left unchecked. One might argue that

the utilization of decluttering is the prevention of developing clutter maladies. The study started

with 852 participants who self-identified with hoarding and was then narrowed to 628

participants who met criteria for problematic hoarding tendencies. Participants varied into

different age groups and different ethnic groups. The results showed a link with emotional

reactivity to hoarding. The more impactful emotions were felt through the acquisition of items or

in the difficulties in discarding it, but not necessarily in the clutter itself.

The fourth article is “Spring Clean Your Home and Heart.” (2022) which is a more

narrow article specifically geared towards nurses and how decluttering can help impact them in a

positive manner. This article is more of a “How-to” article and gives very simple but direct

instructions on how to refresh yourself to live a more peaceful life and avoid such negative

things like burnout and compassion fatigue. This is a look at a specific community and how

decluttering can help with other negative symptoms in one’s life even if they aren’t related to

clutter in their house, but outside stressors in their life.

The last article is “Goodbye Materialism: Exploring Antecedents of Minimalism and Its

Impact on Millennials Well-Being.” (2023) which as its title states, is a look deeper into

materialism and minimalisms in Millennials and their well-being. Some topics explored in this

article are environmental concerns and sustainability, resource sharing and minimalism, and
Engl 1120 Haley Bonner

general well-being. This research project had 482 participants with a fairly balanced sampling

between men and women ages 18-40. The conclusion of this study, while still referencing

declutter as a factor, emphasized that minimalism itself was linked to a positive relation of well-

being.

In conclusion, these five articles all point of the more well-researched topic of clutter and

its negative impact on individual’s lives and those around them. While showing the detriment of

clutter or the perceived subjective understanding of our clutter, I hope to contrast that to the

various explorations of positive research from decluttering. I will be able to explore mental,

physical, and social positivity growth in individuals who practice decluttering. I want to utilize

very clear and clean cut data as well as a more simple view on people who are affected by clutter

and decluttering. Decluttering is not the answer to being discontent, but I intend to explore how it

is an invaluable tool in us finding and building our own happiness.

Engl 1120 Haley Bonner

Annotated Bibliography
Rogers, Caroline J., and Rona Hart. “Home and the Extended-Self: Exploring Associations
between Clutter and Wellbeing.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 73, Feb.
2021. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libproxy.unm.edu/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101553.

Viola Muster, et al. “The Cultural Practice of Decluttering as Household Work and Its Potentials
for Sustainable Consumption.” Frontiers in Sustainability, vol. 3, Aug.
2022. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libproxy.unm.edu/10.3389/frsus.2022.958538.

Shaw, A. M., et al. “Hoarding and Emotional Reactivity: The Link between Negative Emotional
Reactions and Hoarding Symptomatology.” Journal of Psychiatric Research, vol. 63,
Apr. 2015, pp. 84–90. EBSCOhost,
https://doi-org.libproxy.unm.edu/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.02.009.

Karam, Samantha. “Spring Clean Your Home and Heart.” ONS Voice, vol. 37, no. 5, May 2022,
p. 21. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=a9h&AN=156790780&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Jain, Vijay Kumar, et al. “Goodbye Materialism: Exploring Antecedents of Minimalism and Its
Impact on Millennials Well-Being.” Environment, Development and Sustainability: A
Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, June
2023, pp. 1–27. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.libproxy.unm.edu/10.1007/s10668-023-
03437-0