The Conduciveness of Cleanliness
Compelling Reasons to Clean Your Room
Kara Demmers
Issue date: 2/25/10 Section: Opinion
Have you seen the movie E.T? Do you remember the boy's room, how it's full, crowded and stuffed with toys? Okay. That's what our dorm looks like. It is a disaster.
As I look around I see every color of the spectrum imaginable. We have half finished bags of chips, a donut box containing one donut, empty pop tart boxes, a roll of paper towels, stashes of chocolate candy bars, Christmas cookies and several babushka Russian dolls.
We have two fridges: one modern and one faux-wood fridge from the 70s whose only purpose is to help me get to my bed.
The board game Hungry Hungry Hippos lies beside the TV, which is clogged with video game cords. We have tons of DVDs, VHSs and board games. None of our beds are made; they're all ruffled and unkempt. I sleep in a broken sleeping bag, so my bed looks childish.
Our walls are covered with posters of bands, movies, Tinker Bell, and Star Wars characters. Yes, Luke Skywalker and Disney Princess posters coexist on the same wall.
On my roommate's desk there are around 20 books, a shoe box, Harry Potter figurines, bottles of silly string and an upside-down stuffed cat.
Like I said, our room is a disaster. I don't know how we make ourselves presentable out of our colorful and fuzzy abyss. But should I clean my room?
With my messy room, I could potentially be making myself less smart.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University looked at historical British databases of information on twins to determine that "disorganized" homes tend to produce children with lower cognitive skills. However, home order also correlated with parental socio-economic status and the level of parental education.
The study's authors claim they took all that into account; the messy home was the problem. I know that this is a study done on children, but if children don't develop properly in a messy home, then what about our development?
Research shows that the frontal lobe of the brain--the part involved in judgment, organization, planning and strategizing--gets all its gray matter by age 11 or 12. But the myriad connections from the frontal part aren't completely wired to function like an adult for at least another decade. So we could still be affected by our chaotic environment.
Also, a homemade study conducted by Gretchen Rubin, best-selling writer who wrote the new book The Happiness Project, found that 89% of over 20,000 people said that their outside surroundings affected their happiness level. So if I clean my room...I could be happier!
Disease of the Week
While I was in Georgetown, Washington D.C., a friend and I walked by a homeless man who had the hugest, most bulbous hands we had ever seen. The back of his hand was swelled to the size of a softball. Each finger looked like a small balloon. I had to take a second look!
I'm not sure what he was infected with, but perhaps he had bulbous impetigo, caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. The pictures on Google of impetigo do not match what I saw. Perhaps it was axillary vein thrombosis, which is due to a blood clot in the axillary vein or subclavian veins. A symptom of this is hand swelling.
As I look around I see every color of the spectrum imaginable. We have half finished bags of chips, a donut box containing one donut, empty pop tart boxes, a roll of paper towels, stashes of chocolate candy bars, Christmas cookies and several babushka Russian dolls.
We have two fridges: one modern and one faux-wood fridge from the 70s whose only purpose is to help me get to my bed.
The board game Hungry Hungry Hippos lies beside the TV, which is clogged with video game cords. We have tons of DVDs, VHSs and board games. None of our beds are made; they're all ruffled and unkempt. I sleep in a broken sleeping bag, so my bed looks childish.
Our walls are covered with posters of bands, movies, Tinker Bell, and Star Wars characters. Yes, Luke Skywalker and Disney Princess posters coexist on the same wall.
On my roommate's desk there are around 20 books, a shoe box, Harry Potter figurines, bottles of silly string and an upside-down stuffed cat.
Like I said, our room is a disaster. I don't know how we make ourselves presentable out of our colorful and fuzzy abyss. But should I clean my room?
With my messy room, I could potentially be making myself less smart.
Researchers at Pennsylvania State University looked at historical British databases of information on twins to determine that "disorganized" homes tend to produce children with lower cognitive skills. However, home order also correlated with parental socio-economic status and the level of parental education.
The study's authors claim they took all that into account; the messy home was the problem. I know that this is a study done on children, but if children don't develop properly in a messy home, then what about our development?
Research shows that the frontal lobe of the brain--the part involved in judgment, organization, planning and strategizing--gets all its gray matter by age 11 or 12. But the myriad connections from the frontal part aren't completely wired to function like an adult for at least another decade. So we could still be affected by our chaotic environment.
Also, a homemade study conducted by Gretchen Rubin, best-selling writer who wrote the new book The Happiness Project, found that 89% of over 20,000 people said that their outside surroundings affected their happiness level. So if I clean my room...I could be happier!
Disease of the Week
While I was in Georgetown, Washington D.C., a friend and I walked by a homeless man who had the hugest, most bulbous hands we had ever seen. The back of his hand was swelled to the size of a softball. Each finger looked like a small balloon. I had to take a second look!
I'm not sure what he was infected with, but perhaps he had bulbous impetigo, caused by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. The pictures on Google of impetigo do not match what I saw. Perhaps it was axillary vein thrombosis, which is due to a blood clot in the axillary vein or subclavian veins. A symptom of this is hand swelling.
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