Last December I was commissioned to write a feature on the benefits of spring cleaning for your mental health for the March issue of Sainsbury’s Magazine. The outcome of this piece, for me personally, was much more positive than I could have imagined, as I found myself putting into practice a lot of the advice I’d gleaned from the experts I interviewed.

• When you’ve been made redundant

• lost a loved one

• and are spending a lot of time at home

then it’s easy to lose motivation, feel overwhelmed and be submerged by a deluge of delivery cardboard boxes…

Several studies show that a tidy house can lower stress and lead to clearer thinking. ‘Tidying your house isn’t just beneficial for having a tidy house, but it’s beneficial for you to set yourself that kind of goal and achieve it,’ says Sophie Scott, neuroscientist at University College London. ‘It’s one of the simplest ways to improve your mood – have a little to-do list and do those things.’ Tidying is also a way to keep active and helps release those feelgood hormones, she says.

‘The idea of tidying and being neater can give you a feeling that you’re capable of achieving goals, which is one of our key drivers,’ adds Dr Chris Stiff, senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University. ‘If you can look at a new area of organisation, it’s good for your self-esteem and can make you feel like you can master the next challenge, too.’ Be careful how you get others in your household involved though, he says: ‘Doing a task to avoid the "punishment" of being nagged reduces "intrinsic motivation", the desire to complete a task for sake of it. Instead, the person will be powered by "extrinsic motivation" – motivation from an external source, which is much less pervasive and effective. Once that motivation is removed, people tend to stop doing the task. For kids, a sense of competition can work well – who can tidy their room the quickest? Again, some structure may be needed to make sure they don't just sweep everything under the bed!’

Below are five practical pieces of advice that have become part of my daily and weekly routines, which as well as keeping my home tidy has freed up time lost to procrastination, helped me focus and given me a sense of order and positivity, without turning me into a cleaning obsessive.

1. Regularly editing your life helps you understand your consumption habits and what relationship you have with stuff, says decluttering psychotherapist Julieanne Steel. Once you’ve done an audit and weeded out excess possessions, she says it’s easier to stay on top of cleaning. She recommends a 15-minute daily to-do list that covers the basics: making the beds, putting out rubbish, clearing and wiping surfaces and putting a laundry wash on every day. This stops you becoming overwhelmed and distracted

2. Cleaning and dusting are much easier to maintain when there are fewer things on surfaces, says Julieanne. She’s a big believer in clutter attracting clutter. So, if you leave your purse on the sideboard, other people’s items or your own will soon join it. Try to keep surfaces clear and have proper storage for items so everyone knows where they are and more importantly where to store them. Keep essentials, such as keys, umbrellas and shopping bags, in prime places.

3. Set time for an admin sort once a week so it doesn’t turn into a sky-high procrastination pile you can’t face. Put everything that’s delivered in a box and then reallocate or bin it at the end of every week. Paper trails are the hardest to sort as reading everything takes time, so put keeping on top of paperwork on your weekly to-do list, advises Julieanne.

4. Leading by example is the best way to show somebody how to keep a space clear and clean, says Julieanne. ‘If you can show people you are ordered, and you can go to things when you need them it’s a way of saying to other people and showing them in practical ways that this makes sense.’ It’s also easier to get children and teenagers on board if there are hooks for their coats and laundry bins in their bedrooms. She says if someone you live with has a hobby that comes with lots of supplies, make sure they have the space and freedom to pursue it and a place to store their things.

5. Don’t tackle everything at once, just pick a cupboard, a room or an area and focus on the one goal. Pull everything out, make piles for recycling or restoring and action. Job done.

For more advice on decluttering and cleaning go Julieanne’s website unclutteryourlife.co.uk

Read Gretchen Rubin’s Outer Order Inner Calm

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