I don’t call myself a neat freak because sometimes I let dishes sit for days or leave a heap on my floor before cleaning it up, but over time I’ve grown to like cleaning.
Hear me out
Nothing makes me feel more at-home than having my space looking nice. The aesthetics of it. I like coming home to a pleasantly arranged room. Sure maybe my pajamas are in a pile, or I left some books lying around, but I know where all my things are and I can easily put away the small mess that’s there.
I used to be a full blown mess. Dirty everywhere, plates piling up from days of eating, empty bottles and cans everywhere, trash all over. But since college I’ve been a lot tidier, and that’s made all the difference for me.
Now when I get stressed out, I like to clean. There’s something to be said about decluttering what’s visible to feel a little more at ease inside.
If you have a day off, why not get around to cleaning a little? Dishes can only take 15-20 minutes too, and though washing dishes is a little repetitive I find it a good time to sing a little.
Chores don’t have to be chores if you think about it as decluttering your life. And you can just start off with 10 minutes or something. Like wash your face first, to feel clean, and then start cleaning.
If you need a little more encouragement I recommend watching Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix.
Marie is a 34-year-old Japanese mother who loves tidying up and has written this best-selling book, and now there’s a Netflix show about it. I’ve watched through it, and much like Queer Eye it’s diverse and wholesome and if you want to get into the spirit of cleaning it’s a good place to start.
The show features straight couples and gay couples, gay POC and straight POC, and families and people young and old.
And sure these people are close to hoarder-level in the amount of things they own, so it puts into perspective how little you might own in your room alone.
I know for people with mental illnesses it might be hard to get the motivation to clean things, but it only takes a little at a time and you may learn new methods in the series by prioritizing the items that give you joy rather than what’s convenient. And that helps with getting rid of unnecessary things.
Of course I’m not sponsored or anything, I just wanted to put this out there for anyone who wants to actively change their life a little at a time and at least for me, learning to enjoy tidying up has been one of the positive changes I’ve made in the past few years.
My new favorite thing to do is tell guys who have no profile photo how hot they are. Usually they’re just confused by my compliment but sometimes they get paranoid that they accidentally uploaded a profile picture.
