TOLEDO, Ohio — Getting back into the school routine can be stressful enough, but it's possible to mitigate some of that stress by providing a clean and organized space at home.
Clutter and mess can create more stress and anxiety but by cleaning, organizing and reducing the clutter parents and students become better equipped to tackle homework and other tasks; an anxiety-free environment provides more opportunity to focus on work.
Psychologists Joseph Ferrari and Catherine Roster conducted a 2018 study in which they found that excessive clutter problems led to a significant decrease in satisfaction with life and can contribute to chronic procrastination, something that can harm academic performance.
Examples of back to school decluttering can including instructing children to keep their assignments and class information organized by subject. Each separate subject can have a separate binder, notebook or folder.
Students should also be cleaning out their backpacks regularly. Don't try to hold on to everything. Decide which returned assignments to keep--maybe the first A+ of the year, or a particularly well-written book report--and promptly find an organized location to store them. Unneeded papers and miscellaneous extras will just float around; unload them as soon as they are no longer needed.
Mike Majchrowski, the owner of the Toledo location Redbox+ Dumpsters, a dumpster rental company, advocated for regularly decluttering workspaces and home environments.
"Start with just decluttering when there's a lot of stuff in your way," Majchrowski said. "It actually can create some anxiety for individuals in the family--it can certainly impact the students or the kids inability to focus--so decluttering is one thing."
For Majchrowski, getting rid of unneeded things is only step one. Step two is tackling the things that are kept:
"Second thing that we also hear a lot about is organizing...you need to optimize that space so you can store the things that you really need in the appropriate manner."
For more information on how you can get rid of some unnecessary items in your home click here.