There is a concept called clutter blindness that our brains use to help us, but it can also accidentally hurt us and our plants.
Clutter blindness is where you become so used to the clutter in your house that you no longer consciously see or acknowledge it.
Just as we don’t always notice the sound of the refrigerator or the fan in our home, we can become blind to our clutter, too. And that includes our plants.
It’s our brain’s way of deprioritizing what it doesn’t need to see or focus on because if the brain allowed us to focus on every bit of stimuli available (every smell, sound, sight, etc) we would feel overwhelmed all the time.
The downside to our brain’s adaptation is that we can accidentally get used to a much more cluttered home than we actually want to live in.
Like the proverbial frog that doesn’t realize it’s in a pot of boiling water because the temperature slowly increases over time, our clutter slowly increases around us and our brains do not fully acknowledge it.
But what does this have to do with our plants? How does this affect our ability to love our plants?
As we buy more and more plants, the areas where we grow them become more densely packed together.
At some point, our beloved group of plants might begin to look like one big mass of greenery at a quick glance.
The individual plants and the subtle differences of the leaves get lost in the mass. The artistic placement and choices of the pots all meld together.
Now the brain starts to register this spot as too much visual stimuli to fully process each time we look at it and begins to deprioritize it, just as it would with the annoying sound of the refrigerator.
And even though our brain might not be focused on it, the clutter is still negatively affecting us.
How does clutter negatively affect us?
- Our brain has a harder time focusing in a cluttered space (after all, it takes effort to block out all the unimportant stimuli)
- We can’t process information as easily
- Clutter makes us feel more stressed, anxious, and depressed
- It affects our ability to fight off illnesses due to the constant stress on the body
- It negatively affects our relationships
- It even prevents us from going to sleep as quickly and staying asleep as soundly as we would in a less cluttered environment
- And more
Check out the full article used to create this list from The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, What does clutter do to your brain and body? 25 Jan 2019.
Decluttering our plants (and our homes) brings back a sense of peace and excitement to each plant.
At least it has for me. I remember what I fell in love with about each plant originally.
I now notice all day every day all the ways the plant is striking and unique, instead of only when my eyes happen to see that plant when I’m watering it or doing something else with my plants.
I see when the plant is changing, both for the better and for the worse, and I can intervene much faster than I would when the plant was lost in a sea of other plants.
I still have many, many plants. But they feel more special, more alive, more exciting than when the groupings were green blobs.
And I loved those green blobs, but I couldn’t appreciate them or care for them as fully as I wanted to. They became too numerous.
That has changed now.
If you feel inspired to declutter your plant collection but aren’t sure where to start, I’ll share the technique I’ve been using to declutter mine over the past 15 months.
It’s been a process and it’s not over yet. I’m still in the middle.
Despite not feeling 100% done, I can say that I am a much happier healthier person than I was 15 months ago.
Having less stuff, including plants, has made me feel more fulfilled and peaceful.
Note: I purposefully do not mention any specific number of plants that we should aim for because that number is different for everyone!!
I still don’t really know what my own number is.
I do know that my number from December of 2023 was way too high for me to be happy and that I’m working my way down to the right number for me.
Disclaimer
This advice may not work for every houseplant grower, but it works for me and my plants!
If you do something different that works better for you, share it in the comments below!
That’s how we learn and grow as a community.
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