By Madison Aguilar
Messy room? Who cares? ... Well, you should. Having a clean room, as much as having a clean house should be important to you.
Other than the obvious reasons of being able to move around freely and having the nice look of an aesthetically pleasing clean room and/or house, studies have shown that the level of cleanliness of your room is linked to your mental state and also affects your physical state.
The Clean Bedroom website attributes a dirty room to potential breathing hazards. You may be breathing in air filled with harmful dust and bacteria, which can be especially harmful to your health if you’ve already experienced breathing problems like asthma or allergies.
As for your mental state, the PsychCentral website connects people with depression with a messy room. Psych Central goes even further to say that depression causes this messiness of your room and eventually, when your room gets really dirty you often get overwhelmed with fatigue, decreased energy, and lack of interest, along with other symptoms of depression making it extremely hard to clean that messy room.
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America states that the activity of cleaning helps reduce stress, feelings of anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Cleaning should also reduce fatigue and improve concentration.
Brooklynn Gardner, a junior at Rialto High School, states that she has a messy room, as well as a messy house. Although stating the messy room is her fault she attributes the messy house to the fact that she lives with many extended family members that contribute to that mess.
Gardner believes she feels more at peace in a messy room rather than a clean room. That it feels more comfortable. She instead states that having a clean room is more stressful than a messy one. Gardner shares, “When it’s clean, I feel stressed to try to keep it clean.”
When given a choice between a clean house (with no one in it, essentially being home alone) or a messy room (in which Gardner would also be alone to rest) she chose a messy room. As it is a “comfort space.”
Gardner believes that she remembers and is able to find her things when her room is messy rather than when it is clean.
When English teacher Kris Spears was asked these same questions, she believed that she felt better in a clean space. When asked about her house and room she stated that on a scale of 1 to 10, hers is a four.
When asked if she was happier during times when her house was clean, or rather, was a 10 or close to a 10 (using the scale she provided me with) she stated, “ I am not a visual person.” She stated she enjoys comfort but definitely is not the cleanest.
Spears went as far as to say it has no effect on her, that all she cares about is if the “blanket’s warm and the bed is comfortable.”
Although Spears adamantly stated she said if it smells bad or if anything feels sticky then it bothers her. Although the visual may not have an effect on her, the other two senses of smell and touch are definitely a big factor for her.
Although she claims the mess does not bother her, SPECIFIC types do affect her quite a bit. So in that case,…cleaner would be the safest bet, right?
When given the option between two doors, both leading to her house but one being clean and the other dirty she responded, “I’d like to be in the clean house.”
Spears wanted to share that she believes, “I think it has to do with what's inside your head too. My mental health is reflected there too.” Although not elaborating further Spears believes that there is a clear psychological link between mental health and the cleanliness of your house and room.