Nobody likes a messy house. It looks bad. It’s hard to move around. You lose all your important things. You might even end up with a smell that you can’t locate no matter how hard you try.
And yet, it seems like if we take one lazy day off of home cleaning during the week, the dishes are overflowing, mail and magazines are piling up on the kitchen table, and the floor is covered animal hair and empty Amazon boxes.
But did you know that not having a clean house could actually be affecting your health? You might be thinking that this is only true if you live in piles of trash and soiled clothes, but the truth is that a few lazy days without cleaning could be putting you and your family’s health at serious risk.
So next time you leave your wet clothes on the floor after a shower or neglect to do the dishes after dinner, first consider these health benefits of a good home cleaning.
7 Health Benefits of Home Cleaning
1. Sanitation
There are dozens of places throughout your home where bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms can grow and replicate. This can lead to diseases such as E. Coli, staphylococcus, and salmonella-causing foodborne illnesses and infections.
It’s important to use a strong disinfectant on surfaces in the bathroom, kitchen, and other areas to prevent these and other diseases caused by microorganisms.
This is most prevalent in the dirty dishes in your sink and the area around the toilet in your bathroom. But bacteria can grow anywhere, so it’s a good idea to be ready to sanitize the surfaces in your home regularly.
2. Keeps Bugs and Rodents Away
You might not be able to smell that glass of Root Beer you spilled on the carpet, but the ants and gnats outside your home will, and they’ll find a way in.
But it’s not just annoying bugs that you have to worry about when your home isn’t clean. Mice, rats, raccoons, and birds can all find ways into your home or garage if they smell food, and a locked door isn’t always going to stop them.
These pests and animals can carry deadly diseases with them, and are typically unsanitary, putting you at even more risk. For example, it’s widely believed that rats caused the bubonic plague in Europe which killed over 25 million people. Keep that in mind next time you leave your crackers out.
3. Reduce Risk of Injury
It may sound silly, but according to the CDC, over 800,000 patients a year are hospitalized because of a fall injury, most with a head or hip fracture.
Even if you consider yourself to be an exceptionally graceful person, the fact is that a cluttered home increases the risk of either tripping over something, or having something fall on you unexpectedly.
Simply getting into the habit of putting things away after you’re done using them can go a long way in preventing you and your family from getting injured and racking up costly medical bills.
4. Eradicate Mold
Mold comes in a thousand different strains and it can cause a variety of adverse health effects including rashes, headaches, dizziness, nausea, hay fever, and asthma attacks.
The tricky thing about mold is that it spreads by releasing spores into the air which latch onto areas of moisture and continue to grow. These spores can get into your lungs and cause serious lung infections, so it’s better to not just clean mold, but prevent it from growing in the first place.
Don’t leave your wet towels or clothes out after a shower, and if possible, vent the room while bathing, running the dishwasher, or cooking to reduce the amount of water vapor collecting on surfaces.
5. Allergies
While mold can cause extreme reactions in people with a mold allergy, it’s not the only indoor allergy that can arise from an unclean home. Dust mites and pet allergens are extremely common in the home and can lead to asthma or lung infections in people who are allergic.
It’s very important to clean your mattress, sheets, pillowcases, etc to remove allergens. If you have wall-to-wall carpets, aim to have them steam-cleaned at least once a year (or more) to get rid of dust mites and pet allergens, and keep them away for good.
6. Mental Health
Having a clean home isn’t just good for your body, it’s good for your mind! Let’s face it, you know you get more stressed when you go to make dinner and find a sink full of dishes. And stress alone can be detrimental to your health!
If your house isn’t clean, it tends to nag at you throughout the day, especially when you decide to try to sit down and relax, because you know that you should be cleaning instead. And the worst feeling in the world is when you’re late for work and you can’t find your keys because your house is too messy.
Don’t live your life as a worn-out ball of stress. You owe it to your mental well-being to have a tidy and sanitary home!
7. Break a Sweat!
It’s not an hour at the gym, but cleaning your house gets your body moving, burning calories and getting your heart pumping. Depending on how intense your cleaning session is, you may even shed a pound or two in the process.
If you’re looking good and your house is looking clean, what more could you ask for?
Conclusion
So now that you know the benefits of a clean and sanitary home, why not get started right away on your home cleaning and have your carpet steam-cleaned by professionals? Or get to work on those dishes? Or de-clutter your living room?
Whatever task you decide to tackle first, the key to overcoming procrastination is to just start doing it.
Don’t feel guilty about having a messy home. It happens to everyone. But don’t let it pile up for one more day or you could be jeopardizing your own health and your family’s!
Kill the mold, kill the bacteria, and kill your stress by cleaning your home today!
