Clearing the mind: self storage and mental health

It is easy enough to find psychological research into compulsive hoarding, and analysis of the mental benefits decluttering and spring cleaning bring. However, having been neglected, self storage now calls for similar academic attention. Any volunteers?

Why spring cleaning feels good

It seems to be the broadly held view that a well organized home indicates a well organized mind and, with that, a well organized existence generally, spreading into all fields: financial, physical, emotional…etc.

There is a purely practical aspect to the benefits of an orderly home: you can find things quickly, meaning you spend less time making decisions about material objects and are not distracted by things getting in the way. Life is simply more efficient.

Go one step beyond this, and it is not hard to see parallels between a chaotic house and a chaotic mind. This is why clutter can be seen to have a psychological impact.

In an article in the Daily Telegraph entitled “Health: Why a spring clean is good for you”, Karen Krizanovich quotes Sue Kay, spokeswoman for the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers:

“I’ve seen people in depression because they feel they can’t even do the simple task of keeping their house clean. It is why a thorough spring clean has a definite feelgood factor. It not only clears space, it helps wipe that ‘to do’ list that constantly accumulates in your head and keeps you awake at night.”

The psychology of compulsive hoarding

Such broader psychological implications also apply to hoarders. Hoarding has been associated with “information processing deficits”, i.e. the inability of the brain to process information in the usual way.

“Hoarders have a fundamental inability to keep things organized,” says Randy Frost, professor of psychology at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. “Not just their possessions, but other things, like finishing tasks.”

Compulsive hoarding (as opposed to casual hoarding) is associated with a number of disorders, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), depression, and chronic pain or grief. It can also be a serious social problem leading, in extreme cases, to public nuisance, public health issues, and costly intervention from local authorities. As a result, it has attracted a considerable amount academic research.

This has mostly focussed on brain function, using monitoring equipment such as PET (positron emission tomography) scanners. Dr Sanjaya Saxena reported on research carried out in 2008 at the University of California, San Diego:

“We found that patients with compulsive hoarding had a unique pattern of brain function abnormalities… It looks like compulsive hoarding is truly a distinctive diagnostic category, which has big implications for both diagnosis and treatment.”

Wanted: academic research into the psychological benefits of self storage

So where does self storage fit in? Well, clearly in many cases it serves a useful, practical function, providing temporary space for people moving house, carrying out rebuilding projects, or going through a lifetime event like inheriting furniture that they cannot immediately house, and so on.

It can also help the declutterers, and bring those positive benefits associated with spring cleaning. Organise your house ‒ organise your life!

Some self storage clients may be hoarders. Having the extra space allows them to indulge harmlessly in their propensity to hoard, outside the home.

Self storage will not, however, be a long-term solution for the compulsive hoarder, who will simply empty one space to fill a second, in order to start refilling the first. In other words, for them self storage simply offers displacement for a problem.

So the psychology of self storage is complex. There are plenty of positives, but also some negatives ‒ and, in truth, many self storage clients probably feel a bit of both.

That is why the psychology of self storage would provide an excellent subject for a PhD thesis. Perhaps someone has done one already ‒ in fact, given the size of the US self storage industry, it would be remarkable if some work in this field had not been carried out. If so, we haven’t been able to track it down. If you know of any, please tell us! Otherwise, it looks as though the field is wide open.

2 Responses to “Clearing the mind: self storage and mental health”

1. Mental Health Advocate says:

   September 4, 2010 at 9:16 am

   Not sure I agree with the concept of organized house = organized mind, but I do agreed that a thesis on the psychology of self storage would be great. Any volunteers?

2. Paul D Reynolds says:

   September 28, 2010 at 10:29 pm

   I read elsewhere on the net that clutter in a home makes it difficult to be calm and centred. We tweeted a few times that using self storage [www.selfstorall.com] was way to help reduce stress in the house.