*This* Was the Best Thing My Teen Son Did for His Mental Health (And Go Figure, It Came From a YouTube Influencer)

Being my 18-year-old son is way different from being me, go figure. After all, there’s all those evolving things happening in the teenager brain (big feelings, underdeveloped impulse control) that causes him to act out and react in novel ways, whether with guarded teen body language or full-on anger. But there’s one thing I discovered that affects us equally—a self-care practice that was recommended not by a psychologist, but by 23-year-old YouTuber and social media star Emma Chamberlain.

The idea couldn’t be simpler—we’re talking a closet cleanout.

More than 2.9 million viewers watched Chamberlain’s recent hour-long video, in which she makes a case for why getting rid of 90 percent of her wardrobe was the best thing she ever did for her style and self-esteem. Chamberlain explained how, after six years of being an online personality, she felt she needed to collect more and more clothing items. “I thought having a closet filled with clothes could bring me joy would inspire me,” she says in the video. “I thought I would be infinitely more fashionable and stylish. I could not have been more wrong.”

Like Chamberlain, my son is an avid thrift store shopper. And he loves searching out secondhand buys online. However, after recently starting college, he realized that piles of clothing crammed into drawers, two-to-a-hanger shirts and towering piles of jeans and sweatpants were stressing him out. On top of that, he never knew what to wear. He was having a similar experience to Chamberlain, who said that there was so much in her closet that she couldn’t even grasp what she owned. “I wound up wearing the same thing every day because there were too many choices,” she said, or “I would choose a piece then try to build a look around that, but it would sometimes take as much as two hours, so I was always stressed out and always pressed for time.”

There’s some science behind this my-closet-is-holding-me-hostage feeling (which I share, by the way). One study showed that jumbled visual stimuli (like an overstuffed closet) leads to overwhelm and stress; another study shows that cluttered homes lead to spikes in the stress hormone cortisol compared to homes that were more streamlined.

So, when my son suggested I help him clean out his closet, I did the natural thing. I said, “No way that’s a drag and you need to do it.” Seriously. I just couldn’t…but thankfully, he could. I may have bribed him with a pizza, but over a weekend, he piled rejected clothes on his floor, then I did a final sweep before folding and loading into contractors’ bags for donation.

He followed Chamberlain’s rules for rejects, and got rid of:

• Everything that he had sentimental attachment to, but didn’t wear
• Everything that didn’t fit right
• Items that were too loud and flashy

Now, there’s a slice of vacuumed floor space where there used to be crumpled shirts and jeans, and room in his closet as well. And all of this has led to more room and peace in his brain: Most of his dark denim and plain T-shirt ‘fits are interchangeable, so putting together a look quickly is helping him get ready faster, and he’s also finding calm like Chamberlain’s now that his wardrobe has “a cohesive vibe.” In short, he’s got a capsule wardrobe…

Additionally, my son is feeling more comfortable in his room, and I think he’s finding it easier to fall asleep, having enjoyed the satisfaction that comes with tackling a long-avoided chore. I don’t know if he’s ready to hop off the “fashion hamster wheel” that Chamberlain describes, but I do know that I’m proud of him for setting himself up for focus in a restorative environment before he starts school.

Now of course, I have to wonder: if I dangle another pizza, would he tackle the garage?