Turns out there’s a neurological reason you can’t stop clicking on YouTube closet purges.
I have a confession. Sometimes when I’m alone and feeling stressed out, I’ll take a break from what I’m doing, grab my iPhone, and watch a certain type of video to take the edge off my stress: home-decluttering videos. My husband watches me scroll and keeps asking what I'm watching. I am, as you know, a professional organizer. Watching people declutter should be the last thing on my list of things to watch, but that isn't so.
Watching a stranger masterfully fold a pile of shirts into neat, vertical bundles or transfer snacks from store-bought packaging to clear, acrylic containers with pretty labels is my guilty pleasure. Frivolous as they seem, these curated moments offer an oasis of order in a world that feels increasingly chaotic. After 10 minutes of seeing makeup drawers reorganized, refrigerator shelves restocked, and laundry rooms decluttered, I feel calm, more clearheaded.
What was it about these specific videos I found so engaging?
Our brains like order and we know that having less stimuli around us helps promote relaxation. But while we all enjoy the afterglow of a cleaned-out junk drawer in real life, we still procrastinate when it comes to tackling more complex areas of clutter in our lives.
This factors into the allure of the videos so many people watch. When we’re trying to declutter our own spaces, we have an emotional attachment to those items. Whether there are memories linked to those objects or simply the guilt of getting rid of something you spent money on, the task of mentally weighing each item can be overwhelming. With a video, you see the fast-forward of how quick it is so it gives us that hope and positivity of, Oh, I can do that too.
Mindless Moments or Mindful Intervention?
To better understand what’s happening from a neurological standpoint, Amit Etkin, a professor at Stanford University and founder and CEO of Alto Neuroscience explains.
Etkin explains that in the cerebral cortex, the outermost layer of the brain, are systems responsible for a number of higher functions, including cognitive functions like planning, attention, reasoning, memory, and learning; emotional functions; sensory functions; and motor functions. Because the brain finds uncertainty aversive, the emotional realm will respond to unpredictability with a signal. Etkin says, "In other words, by watching scenes of order and predictability, I am interrupting my brain’s uncertainty response and shifting focus away from these major stressors."
Using Digital Content With Caution
Sasha Hamdani is a psychiatrist in Kansas who has both a TikTok and Instagram account. In the early days of the pandemic, she used her platform to educate people about ADHD, a topic she speaks to both personally and as a clinician.
Hamdani says the videos people are drawn to provide bite-size satisfaction. In other words, they are quick wins when people are feeling burned out and seeking a sense of control. “These other things that need to be taken care of are bigger things and longer-term things,” she says. She describes reels and TikToks as digestible bits of content that are “almost immediately engaging by design.”
If you asked me to watch a video of a person putting away groceries or straightening a drawer in real time, I’d call you absurd. But produce a video of the same activity using fast-paced cuts, rapid narration, professional lighting, with a snippet of a popular song, and I’m captivated. “It’s entertaining,” Hamdani says. “It’s a tremendous amount of data in a small amount of time.”
She says it’s fine to derive inspiration from these videos, but she cautions against unrealistic comparisons, pointing out that content providers don’t live this way all the time. She suggests asking, “How could I make this work for me? And how could I utilize this image or this video to optimize my habits and routines as of right now, to make things easier or more aesthetically pleasing for me?”
Visualization Can Be a Precursor to Change
While home-decluttering videos may motivate some people to get organized, they can also be a form of avoidance. Etkin explains that watching someone else clear out their closet in place of working on your own closet can be indicative of a “precontemplative” state of mind where a person wants to be ready for change but isn’t quite there yet. “So they are getting ready to be ready for change but oftentimes, that’s where it stops,” he says, adding that one of the biggest hurdles in behavioral change is moving from a pre-contemplative stage to any sort of action.
Just as my apps use an algorithm to personalize my feed, I have the power to personalize my digital consumption and rewire my brain algorithm so it better serves my needs. I open TikTok and search #emptynestlife, #downsizing, and finally #beachliving. Minutes later, with a surge of energy, I open a drawer that has just a few things that need to be organized, and just like that, it's done.
Declutter Deck® and Hack Decks™
We are professional organizers who specialize in decluttering and organizing homes. We have organized hundreds of homes, closets, pantries and laundry rooms, just to name a few spaces. For this reason, we are considered declutter experts. In fact, we are Certified Master Organizers in the KonMari Method® (Marie Kondo).
Our 52 organizing prompts break down the home organizing process into small and manageable parts. When pulling a card, Declutter Deck® guides you through the main areas of your home that need organization. This includes many areas of the home where organization is often forgotten. Declutter Deck® shows you ways to declutter your home, including closets, pantries, laundry rooms, mud rooms, kitchens, and living spaces. It even gets you outside to declutter your car.