It’s a chore to be sure. But now is a good time to focus on decluttering. It’s spring after all.

Tidying up not only makes your environment more organized — it can improve mental health and help you make better money decisions, financial experts say.

“Clutter tends to induce stress,” says Sonya Britt, an associate professor of personal financial planning at Kansas State University. “Individuals under stress are less able to make rational long-term decisions.”

Cleaning out those closets, filing cabinets and messy junk drawers could help everyone in the household feel calmer. “Studies show that families who live in cluttered environments have higher stress levels,” says Mary Gresham, a psychologist with Atlanta Financial Psychology who specializes in both financial and clinical psychology.

There are both practical and psychological reasons to get organized, she says. On a practical side, it makes it easier to find things, gives people more space to live in and allows those once-overstuffed drawers and cabinet doors to close more smoothly. On the emotional side, "less clutter creates a sense of calm," she says. "Holding onto possessions is more about nostalgia for the past and fear of the future than living in the present."

Whether people realize it or not, living in a cluttered environment "often makes us feel bad,” she says. "Most people say that they wish they had done this sooner when they have finished the process of clearing out what they no longer need.”

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