With the warmer weather, Iowans are finally starting to launch into their spring cleaning projects, sprucing up both their homes and their work spaces.
Jessica Boland, a worksite wellness consultant, says cleansing and decluttering can help to improve your mood and your productivity level while reducing stress, though she reminds, don’t stress yourself out by trying to tackle too much at once.
Jessica Boland (Gundersen photo)
“Make a plan for maybe doing one room in your home at a time,” Boland says. “Think about cleaning out drawers, closets, cupboards, and maybe organizing things into different piles. So maybe you have a pile for donation, keeping and recycling.”
Once you get your space looking like you want it, Boland says you should consider what it will take to maintain that level of organization and to keep the clutter from reappearing.
“Maybe it’s doing a load of dishes every day in your kitchen, and then that will keep our counters free of clutter,” Boland says. “Maybe it’s doing laundry once a day, if possible, and maybe even it’s just sorting through your mail for five minutes every day to keep your counters free.”
Once something is stuffed in a closet, some consider if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind, but Boland suggests you dig into those closets and be realistic about what you’ve saved.
“So if you have clothes in your closet from high school, maybe just ask yourself, ‘Do I really need these?'” Boland says. “Maybe you just think about, ‘These clothes were nice when I wore them in high school but I don’t need them,’ and maybe sometimes even taking a picture so you have a memory of that item.”
Boland is a wellness consultant for Gundersen Health System, which has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.