Remote Learning: A lesson in the importance of home organization.

Nearing the end of the school year, we hear a collective sigh of relief. This year, our homes became classrooms, playgrounds, and office spaces all in the course of a few short months. The separation between home and school and home and work became nonexistent, leaving many of us to get creative. Finding ways to keep our homes organized and functional for its new roles, we ended up learning a valuable lesson. When your home is cluttered and unorganized, it leads to a cluttered and distracted mind.

Let’s take this past year as a lesson for all of the reasons we should bring our new found need for organization forward. As our children return to in-person school and we return to the office, the need for a tidy home and tidy workspace remains a priority for a multitude of reasons:

It helps you focus.

Clutter and mess have a way of following us throughout the day. In A Princeton University study, researchers found that clutter makes it harder for people to focus on particular tasks. As your home continues to be the heart of your family, a clean and organized space lends itself to more productivity around homework and school projects. Working amidst clutter easily leads to greater distraction and difficulty completing tasks big and small.

It’s good for your health.

Studies have shown that going to sleep with a cluttered and untidy home can lead to rises in the stress hormone cortisol. Taking time each day to declutter, straighten up and organize common living spaces can help you and your family sleep better and be more rested for the day ahead. Reminds me of my mom up late each night washing dishes before bed. “A clean kitchen is the only way to start the day,” she’d say. And she was right.

It motivates you.

According to Fundera, 86% of employees say they’re most productive when they work alone from home. Keeping a clean an organized space creates a healthy and motivating environment that you want to work in. The same can be said for children as they complete their schoolwork each day. Surrounding yourself by clutter can only clutter your mind and make it difficult to commit to the task at hand.

As remote school wraps up for many and we return to office life, these lessons learned remain invaluable. Our families will gather in our homes each day and our children will come home to complete homework and projects for years to come. They’ll spend summers using their creative minds for art projects and creative thinking. Fostering our minds and the minds of those we love with a clean, decluttered, and organized space is a rule we’ve learned that we can now live by.