What does porn have to do with cleanliness??
Food porn is carefully arranged and well lit photographs of food laid out in an aesthetically pleasing manner to make the person looking at the picture feel a certain way; at ease with the lack of chaos in the picture. The lighting and arrangement make the food look sumptuous and delicious.
Organised porn vlogs and blogs work in the same way, rows of coloured pens, laid out in size order can make some people feel relaxed in the same way that a caramel brownie drizzled with chocolate sauce makes some people feel ravenous. What is it about neatly laid out belongings that make people feel so satisfied? What is it about these organisational porn blogs or Pinterest blogs that make people scroll through the pictures to help them to organise their drawers or certain areas of the house. Why do these sites help to satisfy your inner neat freak?
Being organised can be really good for you, and science can prove it. So what makes staying organised so difficult?
1. You have too much clutter....
As we navigate our way through life we gather certain items, and attach emotions to those items. It may be that this is a learned behaviour, because this type of almost hoarding often runs in families. In our household, if its not useful I will get rid of it, and my family accuse me of donating absolutely everything. My perspective is that my wider family just hold on to unnecessary things. We have very different perspectives on this, but I do feel having a house with no clutter just helps me to clean, stay organised and importantly not have my thoughts clouded by unnessasary stimuli. I used to be so bad that when I lived alone and met my husband, he actually said when he walked in to my house "Does anybody live here"..... we have had to compromise!
Ask yourself, could someone make better use of this item? Is it just taking up space? Do I need this. If at all possible just get rid of it. Donate it to charity, give it away.
2. You’re too busy?
Not having enough time, makes you feel like you’re pushing water up hill. This is a common occurrence in my life. I’m busy, running my own business, and I have a family, only cook meals from scratch and have a hareem of animals. It’s tough.
I run a hygiene business though right, so I love cleanliness and tidiness. My solution to this is to do a little bit every day. Every morning, I do something ‘extra’ around the house. This morning, I dusted three rooms, and cleaned all the mirrors and some of the bathrooms… then later after work, I’ll quickly hoover and mop a couple of the floors downstairs. This means my home is never show home ready, but it does mean we live in a clean and tidy house that is maintained every day.
I find this approach works for me. What I’m saying is I never have nothing to do in the house - I’m too busy for that, but it never drives me insane with the mess or bits on the floors. I’ve also ‘trained’ my family to pick up after themselves - which in the beginning was more work than just picking up after them myself, but this morning I found my 7 year old daughter independently tidying her room and wiping surfaces down with a wipe. (It was a toilet wipe - but I’m not going to discourage this right). She will have to move out one day and I want her to be capable of running a clean and tidy lifestyle.
It is logical to say that providing a clean, tidy and organised environment can make us feel better about ourselves. It keeps us productive and will get us moving around and helping us maintain a more fit and health lifestyle than we would have if we were lying around in our own filth; covered in crisp packets. So the next time you want to moan about having to clean your home, just think how nice it makes you feel when everything is tidy and clean, and you feel organised and contented.
Maybe even try my approach, clean at least one extra thing every single day.
