Geeking-Out January 26, 2024

Does Cleaning Stress You Out?

Curated by Meg Birmingham

The new year has me on a cleaning kick, but here’s a cautionary tale. One of the trends on social media now is to systematically disinfect spaces, Vox is calling it performative cleanliness, and it can be harmful in a lot of ways. It potentially adds to allergies, asthma, or other auto-immune disorders, the expectation of homes being perfectly clean can be linked to discriminatory ideologies, and engaging with these trends can make people feel higher levels of shame and stress.

Not all cleaning is performative, for example: Every time I have my friends over to dinner, I feel a need to deep clean every single corner of the loft, but it still feels lived in. The question becomes why we’re scrubbing the baseboards. For me, the point isn’t to be perfect, but to cultivate a space where I’m happy and my friends are comfortable.

Continue reading the article here.