Why I Clean

You know how sometimes you feel like everything around you is in a state of complete disarray? There is too much to do and never enough time in which to do it. Relationships are murky, responsibilities are overwhelming, your senior recital is in two and a half weeks, and you still don't have a lightbulb in your room. And you come home after a long day, and all you want is a piece of toast--but then you realize that impeding your pathway to the toaster is a mountain of dishes upon which is found enough food particles to make a small meal.

So, you put on the rubber gloves and fill the sink with hot water, rinsing off the little bits of broccoli, tuna, tomato sauce, cheese, spaghetti, etc. as though they were, in actuality, representative of all the distressing bits of your current state of being. You watch it all go down the drain, fairly certain that eventually, it will result in a clog--but for now, all is well.

I always feel like I'm making a contribution to my community when I clean, too, which is probably why I do it a lot when I'm feeling low. I can easily see a positive change in my environment brought about by no one but myself, and that is fulfilling in a small sort of way. I may not enact meaningful changes in the lives of those around me, but at least my little changes are for the better. It's comforting to make order out of chaos, even if one is only doing so by turning a countertop full of dirty dishes into a drying rack full of clean ones.

I wish it could translate so easily into real life, though.