There’s plenty of research to show how physical mess can affect your mental health. One study by Professor Joseph Ferraria found that the more clutter people have in their homes, the lower their life satisfaction and overall productivity tends to be. Similarly, in examining a century of research on stress and wellbeing, a study conducted by the University of South Carolina noted that a comfortable environment was seen as essential to ‘mental hygiene’. A cluttered home can be bad news for your diet, too: a 2017 study showed that people are more likely to eat highprocessed food and snacks if the environment in which they’re offered a choice of foods is chaotic and they’re led to feel stressed.1