Yes, cleaning is cathartic. When you clean your surroundings, you are de-cluttering your mind. De-cluttering your mind of tension, stress, and everything else that is eating that beautiful mind of yours. Also, your mind functions afresh in a clean environment.
For years, I have wondered why I have this uninvited urge to clean my room, cupboard, shoes and every other trivial thing during exams. I have religiously wasted precious time cleaning my room before exams, EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Punctually, this uncontrollable need unfurls during exams, after all those months of procrastination. I always passed it off as my innovative way of whiling away time. My excuse from studies;but apparently it’s not.
Yesterday, my brother had an appendicitis operation and I was drowning in worry. I came back from office and immersed myself in cleaning my room. As I was almost done, I wondered why I underwent all that effort. I was leaving the PG in a week and there was absolutely no need for me to clean my room. I haven’t cleaned it in a month, so why did I bother now? I gave it some thought and realized that I CLEAN WHEN I’M STRESSED. Exams. Worry for the operation. The day before I started college. The day before starting my internship. This was my body’s way of distracting itself from mental stress. I hadn’t thought of my brother until I got done with my cleaning spree. It helped!
While de-cluttering, our mind is preoccupied and we momentarily let go of reality.People tend to turn to REPETITIVE activities like nail biting, cracking knuckles and even cleaning when stressed. Cleaning is thus an actual psychological stress relieving activity and there are many in this world who indulge in this antic to negate stress.
I have been doing it unknowingly since 15 years, until this dawned upon me yesterday. How many among you share this sub conscious cleaning fixation to assuage stress? I hope I have company, else I have just publicly proven myself strangely abnormal 🙂
UNFURLINGWORDS 
ha..ha.. laks you really have company… or maybe its in our family, i don’t know. But I do the same thing when I am stressed. I desperately need change and I start shifting furniture from one place to the other. Changing positions of sofa, bed, cupboard adding stuff and throwing away stuff. Once done, I feel my nerves relax and a new freshness in my life and surrounding…
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Hahaha..I think it does run in our family.. even uma amayi. Usha kunjamma .. and even my amma is like that.. it truly does help:).
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As you rightly said it declutters our mind. It’s our way if clearing the baggage we carried till then. Have always found it therapeutic. If you have inherited this from all of us hope it helps to go ahead in life with a clear head on a strong shoulder.
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Very nice..
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