Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight by Peter Walsh Read Free Book Online Page B

they’re really the same problem: Household clutter gathers in piles on your tables and bulges out of closets because your home was only built to carry so much stuff, and your possessions go over the limit. And if you weigh too much, you’re carrying more fat than your body is designed to hold.
    In addition, they both represent an imbalance. You brought too much stuff
into
your home but not enough
out.
So it’s cluttered. If you’re overweight, you took too many calories
in
but didn’t burn enough
off.
    Over the years, I have noticed that very often when I knock on homeowners’ doors, the people living in these cluttered homes are struggling not only with the volume of stuff in their homes but also with the physical weight ontheir bodies. Please understand: I’m not suggesting that cluttered people are automatically overweight, or that all overweight people are struggling with clutter. It’s not that simple. But my experience tells me that this clutter-weight connection is no coincidence. In some cases, one problem may encourage the other to develop.
    The chaos in your house nudges you toward making poorer eating and exercise choices.
    If you’re out of shape, you may become too easily fatigued and winded to tackle a big decluttering project. If your home is heavily cluttered, it may literally hold
tons
of extra stuff that you’d need to haul out. Decluttering is definitely a physical challenge.
    But often, I think, other factors fuel the growth of clutter and body fat at the same time.
    As you’re standing in the checkout line to pay for items—groceries to eat or clothes to hang in your closet—you’re buying them for reasons you don’t realize.
    If you’re habitually unfocused and daydreaming, the decisions you make while you’re mentally checked out can gradually push your home toward chaos and your body into obesity.
    If you feel like you never have the time or energy to make substantial improvements to your weight or your home, and your busy schedule leaves you no time for exercise, the best you can seem to do is shift around piles of clutter. You lie awake at night stressed, and you start the next day already tired.
    I’m not the only one making these connections. A growing body of scientific research offers support for my suspicions.
    The Hoarding-Obesity Connection
    Other researchers are noticing the same thing as David Tolin: Excessive clutter and excess pounds may be related.
    In a small 2011 study that included 12 people with a diagnosis of hoarding, researchers noted that 11 were overweight or obese. How come? Here’s onepossibility: A cluttered environment can lead you to make poor food choices. In 2013, researchers asked 34 students, one at a time, to answer questionnaires while sitting for 10 minutes in an orderly or a messy room. The messy room had the components found in many cluttered homes: extra furniture, papers strewn about, and objects piled where they didn’t belong. The clean room was streamlined and tidy, with everything in the right place and no needless clutter. When they left, the participants were given their choice of two snacks. Those leaving the clean room were more likely to take an apple than a candy bar as opposed to those leaving the cluttered room.
    People who merely have too much clutter, but
don’t
have hoarding disorder, may be more likely to have weight problems. A 2008 study included a group of people who said they struggled with clutter, but didn’t meet all the criteria of hoarding disorder. These people were 77 percent more likely to be overweight or obese compared to participants taking part in the study who had a family member with hoarding-type behaviors.
    Another study found that people who met the criteria for hoarding were significantly more likely to have a higher body mass index (BMI), and to be obese. Your BMI is a measurement of your weight in relation to your height. This number