April 15, 2015

By Alena Purpero

As someone who is the queen of tossing clothes into a pile, exceeding my closets carrying capacity and allowing my busy life to get the best of my residence hall room’s organization, I’ve learned very quickly the importance of taking care of your home.

That’s right, home. I may live in a cubicle of a room in the residence halls, but at the end of the day, that’s where I go to recharge, gain sanity and gather myself.

To be blunt: when your home is at its messiest, your life will portray that same messiness.

In case you do not believe me, I took the noble initiative to conduct a study featuring myself and my room.

Although my room is the epitome of perfection and tidiness, and never has a pillow out of place, I thought I’d shake things up for the sake of research. (Please note the immense utilization of sarcasm and fabrication.)

I’ve learned through my own experience of being so busy and scatterbrained that my room turns into a repulsive representation of my hectic life that week. It was easy to see that coming home to a room that stressed me out as much as my day did is a toxic environment.

Environmental factors contribute to health more than we take into account. It touches on almost every realm of wellness, these being: physical, social, intellectual, occupational, spiritual and emotional.

As far as physical health goes, it can be contributed to the foods that you eat.

“Clutter is stressful for the brain, so you’re more likely to resort to coping mechanisms such as choosing comfort foods or over eating than if you spend time in neater surroundings,” Dr. Eva Selhub said according to Shape.com.

Following what your environment does for your physical health, your fitness specifically correlates with your environment.

If you have a room that only offers your bed to sit on, one which you do all of your homework on, you are clashing the relaxing space with the productivity space.

Having nowhere to go in your room but your bed will only result in you developing lazy habits. Not only will you fail to get things done, but it will turn your room into an outlet strictly for sleeping and lounging around and not a place of productivity.

Providing a designated area that is available for doing at-home exercises will make you more likely to do them.

You can do this by finding a space to put a yoga mat down and avoid letting anything intrude in that designated area. This way you always have the idea of doing a workout right in front of you.

Similar to having a designated area for exercise and sleep, the same goes for studying.

I, for one, have been guilty of using my desk as a kitchen or vanity table.

Nothing will invite you to study more than a cleared-off desk.

To create a healthy home for yourself means to provide not only designated spaces for productivity and daily functions, but to provide resources for yourself to access a healthy lifestyle.

This includes filling your fridge with whole foods. It’s a simple yet true concept: if you have healthy food, you’ll eat healthy food.

Lastly, adding simple things like air-freshener diffusers (or candles if you do not live in a residence hall) and opening the shades or curtains to let natural light into your room will add to creating a healthy and peaceful haven for yourself.

Making platforms for productivity available and allowing access to healthy foods within your home will naturally make you feel able to partake in a healthy lifestyle.

Reconstruct your hectic home of hoarding to a healthy haven and the results will be inevitably positive.