mental health – With spring cleaning underway, some psychologists and Zen monks say everyday chores like sweeping, mopping and decluttering can bring a steadier mind—through mindfulness, predictable routines, and the satisfaction of finishing something tangible.
NEW YORK — When spring cleaning starts taking over the living room, it can feel less like renewal and more like a warning: the house needs work, and your attention is about to be taken.
For a lot of people, that dread turns chores into something to avoid or delegate. But experts—from Zen monks to clinical psychologists—say the simple act of sweeping. scrubbing and clearing clutter can do more than change the look of a space. Done a certain way, they say, it can also change how the mind feels.
In Zen, the goal isn’t to make cleaning feel effortless. It’s to make it meaningful. As one widely cited Zen saying goes: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
Zen apprentices, or “unsui” monks, spend much of their time cleaning and tidying. Shoukei Matsumoto. a Buddhist monk living in Kyoto. Japan. wrote in his book “A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and a Clean Mind” that “We sweep dust to remove worldly desires. We scrub dirt to free ourselves of attachments.” He also described the work as “extremely fulfilling. ” writing that the time spent carefully cleaning “every nook and cranny of the temple grounds” brings satisfaction.
Holly Schiff, a clinical psychologist based in Greenwich, Connecticut, agrees there’s a mental health benefit tied to the act itself. “I definitely think there is a link between mental health and the act of cleaning,” she said.
Schiff points to what cleaning offers the brain: predictable movement, structure, and a clear finish line. “Repetitive. physical activities like cleaning can be regulating for the nervous system because they’re predictable. structured and give a clear sense of completion. ” she said. That completion, she added, gives people “a feeling of control and grounding.”.
She also described a kind of payoff that doesn’t come with many emotional or cognitive tasks. When you clean, the result is immediate. “Plus, you can immediately see the result of what you’ve done, ‘which can be satisfying in a way that many cognitive or emotional tasks aren’t,’” she said.
For people who dread cleaning—who experience it as something looming—Schiff suggests shifting attention away from the to-do list and toward the process. “For people who tend to see cleaning as drudgery. I think the shift is less about forcing yourself to enjoy it and more about changing how you engage with it. ” she said.
One practical starting point is slowing down. Schiff said not to rush through it and instead pay attention to the physical motion and the rhythm of the work. or even small details like “the temperature of the water.” She added: “If you slow it down and focus on the sensory aspects of it. it can start to function more like a mindfulness exercise.”.
Matsumoto frames cleaning as something that can quiet the mind rather than just manage the mess. “By gently tending to your habitat, you allow your mind to naturally settle into a peaceful, unforced clarity,” he said.
He also argues that cleaning can be about more than controlling the environment. In his description, it becomes a form of care. “In our practice, we don’t see cleaning as a chore to control the environment. Instead, we view it as ‘Habitat Care,’” Matsumoto explained. “Just as our bodies maintain a dynamic equilibrium to stay healthy. cleaning is an extension of that biological process into the space we inhabit. When we clean, we are not just fixing a room; we are tending to our expanded self. It is a way of caring for the relationship between us and the world.”.
That shift matters for how people feel while they’re cleaning, especially when they’re stuck in a perfection loop. Matsumoto advised letting perfection go. “Peace is found not in the final ‘tidy state,’” he said, “but in the humble, ongoing act of emptying the space and our minds.”
He also offered a reality check from nature itself. “There’s no such thing as perfection,” he said, adding: “In nature, everything is constantly changing — leaves fall the moment you finish sweeping.”
Schiff said the problem for many people isn’t the chore at all—it’s what the chore represents. “Sometimes, the feeling of being overwhelmed isn’t about the task itself, but what it represents. That could be time pressure, self-judgment or other anxieties, for instance,” she said.
Her advice is to narrow the scope so the task doesn’t balloon in your head. “Break the task down into very small, defined actions to reduce that barrier,” Schiff suggested. “Just choose one surface. one task or one room for starters.” She added that “A lot of the overwhelm comes from anticipating the entire task rather than just engaging with that first step.”.
There’s also a social and emotional dimension to the work, according to Matsumoto. “In a clean space. even if the person who cleaned it is not there. we can feel their consideration and awareness. ” he said. He described the resulting feeling as peace and safety. saying it’s “similar to why sacred spaces like temples feel different from the busy streets.”.
Taken together. the advice points to a simple idea: cleaning may look like drudgery when you treat it as an endless obligation—but it can feel different when it becomes a structured. sensory. and even self-caring practice. And for many people in spring’s bright rush to reset. that difference is what turns a chore into something closer to a moment of relief.
spring cleaning mental health mindfulness Zen monks clinical psychologist chores decluttering nervous system grounding