Have you ever walked into your home and felt overwhelmed, overstimulated, and possibly even anxious? In a 2016 study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology scientists declared environments can have a negative effect on a person’s wellbeing.

That made me wonder, what effect is all of our "stuff" having on our children?

Back in my teaching days, I planned my classroom centers with specific goals in mind. Certain areas were stimulating, bright and full of manipulatives and activity (ex. a math center), but I also planned areas with empty walls, calming colors and no clutter (ex. The reading center). It was interesting to me how children sought out the calming space, sometimes more than the active space. I also noticed the difference in the behavior of the children in these areas. Children in the bright areas were active, chatty, engaged. This area also had more emotional outbursts, aggressive behavior, and chaos. Children in the reading center, which was less chaotic, were found to be quieter and calmer. There were fewer outbursts of emotions and less negative behaviors in these areas. This wasn’t a true scientific experiment, yet I saw first-hand that clutter and stimulation effect children’s behavior, sometimes in a negative way.

What does your child’s homework space look like?

Numerous studies have confirmed my theory that clutter and chaos can have negative impacts on children’s lives. Excessive visual, olfactory and tactile stimulation may cause our senses to work overtime. If our senses are already working overtime just by being in a room, then how is a child supposed to focus on what’s important?

Look around your home, what message are you sending to your children?

This sentence makes one thing come to mind, the cardboard box. Why? Because how many times do we buy things for our children only to watch them be more fascinated with the cardboard box? What makes us buy these "things" is great advertising that makes us believe our kids will be better, smarter and have much more fun with "____" item when in truth, the best gift you can give them is your time and a cardboard box. Ok, maybe a few markers or crayons too. Let the fun begin.

They don’t need more THINGS. They just need YOU.

Which brings me back to the message we send our children. If you are constantly needing new things, new stimuli, new stuff to feel happy, then your children could possibly be observing and learning that behavior, instead of learning that happiness comes from within. They too may be feeling overstimulated and anxious from all of the "stuff" you love to buy them.