If you're in college, odds are you're likely to be very stressed. You're busy juggling school work, a social life, and a job or two. Although college is a time where you have the world at your fingertips, everything is up in the air in terms of your future and everything you do is exciting or new, it oftentimes leads to extreme stress.
Something I've found while in college is that cleaning is very therapeutic. When I'm stressed, the act of cleaning, for whatever reason, leads me to feel less stressed. I think it has to do with the simple act of taking a dirty or disorganized space, and cleaning and organizing it. This may be me just being a control freak, but the feeling of being in complete control is soothing. In a time and place where complete control of actions and decisions is minute, the controlling of an environment that comes with a good deep cleaning is monumental.
However, it's not just the act of cleaning, itself. Having a clean, tidy space, whether it be a study space or the kitchen, leads me to be much more productive. I am by no means at all a clean freak, but if I find my workspace or living space to be too untidy or dirty, I can't focus on anything else. I like to have a space where I can find things easily and isn't extremely cluttered.
While there are studies that show messy and lazy people are more intelligent, I disagree. I fundamentally believe that an organized, clean space is needed in order for me to be as productive as possible. I can leave a space messy for a few days, but after a while, it becomes overbearing and causes more stress.
For cleaning to reach its maximum therapeutic effectiveness, I believe that you must do it with some music blaring in the background. I find myself the most productive and motivated when I'm jamming along with my favorite tunes while mopping the floor or scrubbing countertops. It's similar to a workout; most people prefer jogging with a motivational soundtrack in the background.
Another factor that makes cleaning so relaxing is that it's a pretty mindless task. It doesn't involve much more than body movements, so you enter a kind of zone where nothing else exists except for the sponge you're holding. You'll be able to focus on a cleaning task rather than that really big exam coming up in a week. Or, if that doesn't suit you, you can just mindlessly scrub while you think about the exam coming up — whichever thoughts least stress you out.
For most people, cleaning is a chore that is a drag. But for me, I find a strange satisfaction in turning something untidy and dirty into something neat and clean. In a time when small accomplishments mean a lot, cleaning feels like a ginormous victory.
