If you know me, and I mean really know me, then you know how much I hate cleaning with a passion. You’d also know that I am an incredibly messy person, unless it comes to school, in which case everything is organized and filed away in my perfect system. But my room is a small disaster zone. And it isn’t that I don’t want it to be clean, I do. But it is very, very hard for me to find the time. As it is, the room gets messy because I come home everyday and throw everything all over the place and just get into bed to go to sleep. I go to school (even though it is online now) and I work. I used to be part time, and while I technically still am, I’m getting close to 39 hours every week at work with everything that is going on. I work at Target, and being an “essential business” means there ain’t no rest for the wicked. And truly, there isn’t rest for me.
My weeks consist of school and work. Occasionally, I FaceTime my best friend, because he moved away when everything started happening. And if I’m lucky enough, I get to see my boyfriend before we both begrudgingly head into work (we both work at Target). So where does that leave time for cleaning?
It really doesn’t. However, this past Wednesday, I found myself with a day off, one class to attend on zoom, and absolutely nothing to do with my time. I also found a messy room that was stressing me out and giving me a headache. Being home all the time now, means I need a neat space to work. No more going to the student union or the library or even the park to work on homework. So I decided to deep clean on Wednesday. A deeper clean than I have ever done. I started by taking my sheets and comforter off my bed because they both really needed to be washed. I have an extra comforter from the old days when I was obsessed with white everything, so I pulled that out and put it back on my bed since I knew I wouldn’t get to laundry until the weekend when I actually needed to wash my clothes too. I fully made my bed for the first time in weeks and was happy with how neat it looked.
Moving to my dresser, I knew it was going to be a feat. There were three overflowing laundry baskets in front of it and clothes spilling out of the drawers. I keep my record player, printer, and gaming consoles, along with their games, on top of the dresser. Everything was a mess. It took over two hours to fold all of the clothes and put them away. Doing this, I realized that I own way too many clothes, as I couldn’t close some of the drawers. So this led me to open each drawer and throw away anything that I hadn’t worn in over six months. After getting rid of those clothes, the drawers finally closed. Then onto the top of the dresser… I had to start with the printer. I could not believe the sheer amount of wrongly printed papers I had accumulating there. It was horrible. After going through all of those to make sure I didn’t toss anything important, into the trash bag they went. Then onto the video games. I own a Switch and an Xbox, so I have quite a few games, none of which have the correct disk in them, or any order to them. After organizing them, everything needed to be dusted, something I was dreading. I am so allergic to dust, so this is by far my least favorite thing, but hey, it’s got to get done.
After the dresser came my desk. I had already sort of cleared it because I had to sit somewhere for my zoom classes, but I only cleared enough space for me to work on my laptop. Everything was unorganized. My desk doubles as a vanity, so not only did I have papers, books, and pens everywhere, but there was makeup thrown into the disaster as well. The desk took the longest to clean. I own way too many school supplies, as it’s my little obsession to buy them and then never even use them. So organizing all of that and seeing what could be stored away for the next school year was rough. But now, everything is in neat containers, mugs, and rows. Even my makeup, which I own more than I actually use (I don’t know how to do makeup, I won’t lie) was completely put away by the importance of what I actually use.
My bookshelves didn’t need much help as I usually try to keep those neat. I don’t know why I do this though. Probably because books are sacred and deserve nothing but the best care. But anyway, those didn’t need a lot of help, just a quick dusting.
Finally, I hung up all the things that needed to go on my walls. I have pictures all over my walls. Photos of my travels, of my friends, my cat, Beauty and the Beast since it’s my all-time favorite movie, and a bunch of Paris related things. But half of this was all leaning against the walls and desk because they had been taken down when I repainted over winter break. Back up on the walls they went, and if I do say so myself, they all look so lovely up there that I can’t help but smile when I look at my walls.
Since cleaning my room, I’ve found that my concentration is sharper and I’m more prepared for each of my classes. I’ve also found that I am able to get into a routine with cleaning it since I make my bed after class and then go work out in my backyard. I also find that it’s really nice to come home from work to a clean room and it is forcing me to watch what I throw onto the floor when I get home. I actually hung up my purse the other night because I didn’t want to dirty my room up again.
Cleaning has definitely cleared up my head and helped me focus, as well as given me something to do in these never-ending quarantine days. Try it out, what else do we have to do these days?