Ecstasy of Cleaning

The Ecstasy of Cleaning

Most people think that cleaning is just drudgery and their least favorite activity. However, from another perspective, there can be a true and powerful sense of joy to be found in carrying out these simple tasks. Before you decide that I have lost my mind, let me explain.

There are many reasons why cleaning can be an act of great joy, even ecstatic:

The mind is focused on simpler, less distressing things than most of our lives are filled with: difficult interpersonal interactions, work stress, health issues, difficult decisions. Cleaning is unambiguous, consists of mostly easy decisions, results in lowered stress, and may improve health.

Unlike many efforts we must make in life, cleaning usually produces immediate rewards. Most our activities require much longer to produce results, but the benefits of cleaning show up as soon as we are done, and maybe even before.

Cleaning is or can be a gift we give ourselves, a message that we are worth the effort, that we deserve a clean home, that we do not have to depend upon others to make cleaning worthwhile.

Cleaning can be a meditative act that focuses us on the physical aspects of life, an often- neglected area. We frequently over-prioritize our mental life, paying little attention to our bodies. When we clean, we have an opportunity to notice what our bodies are doing and how they do it.

Cleaning gives us an opportunity to discover how to make things work better. While we clean, we may notice that something will easier to use if move to a different position, that we can do tasks more easily if they are done in a certain manner, or that our work will flow more easily if we re-arrange things. Making things work better gives us a sense of pleasure and satisfaction.

Cleaning often helps us identify objects that we no longer use and therefore do not need to keep. We may also realize that we need things that we do not have, allowing us to address that need, such as a bookcase or file cabinet.
Most events in the world are completely outside our control, but cleaning is totally under our power. The rest of the world can be a chaotic mess, but your home is what you choose to make it.
Done intensively, cleaning can be a form of exercise, with many of the same rewards as a good workout, and can help us stay in shape and manage our weight.
Cleaning can give us a sense of lightness, of satisfaction of deep impulses. Deep in our hearts, we all know that clean environments are better than dirty ones, that we function and feel better in clean surroundings, and that cleanliness imparts a sense of harmony. When we satisfy this need we feel better about ourselves, not just because of social conditioning, but because we are meeting our own deepest needs.
Whatever our esthetic sense may be, cleaning enhances our ability to express it.
Cleaning helps us find lost items.
Cleaning can be therapeutic for dealing with mental health issues, especially depression (movement is an effective antidote to depression), anxiety (focusing on the small and mundane is soothing and calming), anger (cleaning can provide a safe outlet for expressing anger: take that you dirty so-and-so), feeling overwhelmed (cleaning reduces the number of things covering over you and needing to be done).

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