IN PRAISE OF SMALL CHANGES
A filthy room - is it a stereotype to say this is the preserve of many a male? I used to be a dedicated member of that subset of dirtbags I’m going to call the ‘superficial tidiers.’ Devotees of this form of chamber art maintain a rigid tidiness and sense of order in their rooms while not actually engaging in any kind of cleaning. This is quite different to the all-out dirty pig. No crushed beer cans and empty instant noodle detritus on our floors, thank you very much. The superficial tidier is OCD in that everything is in its place and neatly squared off, too. Only, look behind the hifi speakers in the corner and the truth will be revealed. Gigantic balls of dust. Mildew on the backs of curtains. A generous sprinkling of crumbs embedded into the carpet that only becomes apparent on closer inspection. Superficial tidiers are in this respect worse than total slobs : they pretend at cleanly domesticity. They are deceivers not even able to wear their filthy habits on their sleeves, so to speak.
In 2018 I left my residence of nearly twenty years for a new apartment. There’s nothing like a move to reveal the true extent of one’s own filthiness. The results of my vacuuming only about once every three months came to light in spectacular fashion. Who knew how much could accumulate beneath a sofa? What stomach-churning finds beneath the rugs. I resolved there and then to mend my ways in my new abode. Tabula rasa and all that.
From the first week of being in my new place I diligently dusted and vacuumed every Sunday after breakfast. This regimen soon became ingrained in me as the dirt previously had been in my carpet.
In the same way that I never fail to shower and shave of a morning, it would now be unthinkable to miss the cleaning ritual even once.
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash
However, three years into this hygienic new way of life I began to realise that Sunday morning had started to become something to dread, ever so slightly. Although I could never go back to my old ways, the fact that Sunday was blighted by this mildly onerous task cast a pall on the whole day. What to do?
I suddenly decided to shift the timing of my dust mote removal activities to Saturday at around 4pm, and to my surprise this has made an enormous difference. Sunday has now been transformed back into the day envisioned by the Christians, and Saturday is pretty decent too. After a few hours of staring at the iMac (chess, music production, etc), the mid-afternoon clean-up comes as a welcome eyeball reviver. So much better than the previous schedule. In fact it is quite amazing what a huge psychological difference such a deceptively small temporal adjustment has made.
So if you are finding any tasks in your weekly schedule have become a drag, try shifting them into a different slot and who knows what might happen to your mental well-being…