What’s the point of tidying up? It’s just moving stuff from one place to another. But does it offer cognitive and health benefits, and if so why? Image: My Bed by Tracey Emin. Photo: Karen Bryan via Flickr Things mentioned in this podcast Tidiness guru Marie Kondo https://konmari.com/ McMains and Kastner (2011): clutter makes concentration harder https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21228167 Sitton (1984): we are more positive about people whose desks are messy https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-25433-001 Report about a study showing correlation between tidiness and health outcomes http://healthland.time.com/2010/06/02/what-does-a-clean-house-have-to-do-with-health/ Saxbi and Repetti (2010): correlation between perceived clutter at home and mental health https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19934011 Report of a survey showing relationship between tidiness behaviour and sleep https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20110126/want-sleep-better-make-your-bed#1 For more Cognitive Engineering episodes find us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts, or add this RSS feed to your preferred player: feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:219479129/sounds.rss