Cleanliness

Topic Tuesday

Cleaning Products

I am known for a clean house because for me it creates a space of peace and calmness. Right now, many of our homes seem to become dirtier quicker than usual with more meals eaten at home and with an increase in activity.

Personally, I like a deliberate and organized spot for everything. I regularly go through my clothes, drawers and cabinets to remove things I do not use. For me, it helps calm my anxiety and keep frustrations low. There are ample health benefits to living in a clean home to include lowering stress and fatigue, reducing allergy and asthma symptoms, and lessening the spread of germs.

A study from Indiana University found people with clean houses were healthier people. The study described house cleanliness as a better predictor for physical health than neighborhood walkability. Another study out of Princeton University found clutter can make it more difficult to focus on a particular task. Specifically, they found the visual cortex can be overwhelmed by task-irrelevant objects, which made it harder to allocate attention and complete tasks efficiently. The National Sleep foundation reported people who make their beds every morning are 19 percent more likely to report getting a good night sleep and 75 percent of people say they achieve a better night sleep with clean sheets.

As we are all home more, this is an exceptional opportunity for us to spend some time deep cleaning and organizing the clutter. There is a lot in our lives we cannot control but we can control the cleanliness of our homes.

One of our best home purchases was a robot vacuum. Let me tell you – it is one of the best purchases we made in our marriage. We run it just about every day (and it always picks up more dust than we could imagine). I always clean the kitchen and run the dishwasher after making dinner because starting the day with a clean kitchen is everything.

In the beginning of the year, I told myself I would go through every room, closet and drawer in the house. I generally do one a week with only a few bedrooms left. Deep cleaning can seem overwhelming to do it all at once so I break it up. I separate regular chores (like cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, laundry) from cleaning showers tubs, baseboards, fans, shutters etc. I tend to do my regular chores during the week and leave the other ones to about monthly. I try to keep the extra bedrooms to standard of cleanliness to allow friends to stop by on short notice.

With all this said, I do want to add to always be graceful with yourself. There have been times I did not complete what I hoped and that is alright. I think overall creating a standard of cleanliness helps set us up for success. Many of us are feeling more stressed and anxious than usual and cleanliness is one way that can help ease it. There is much we cannot control so let go of those areas and start focusing on what we can.

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