5 Awesome Benefits of Having a Clean Home This Holiday Season

The festive season is here. Take a walk and you’ll see most of your neighbours have already put up their lights and decorations. If all the luminescence doesn’t blind you, it’s quite impressive.

To most of us, this time of the year means spending time with family (whether that’s a good or a bad thing, I leave such judgments to you). But it also means cleaning. A lot of it. 

And while the saying, “If it looks clean, it is clean”, is a mantra many people swear by, I’m here to argue in favour of thoroughly cleaning your home. Don’t just make it nice and cozy – put in the work. Here are five benefits of a truly clean home you can enjoy this holiday season.

In this article:

• You'll be more active
• You'll be more motivated
• You'll be more productive
• You'll eat healthier
• You'll get sick less frequently
• Conclusion

You’ll be more active

I don’t know about you, but around the holidays, I consume double my recommended daily calorie intake in a single sitting. And my fitness routine takes a seat on the sofa, along with the rest of my body after lunch.

I can’t be bothered to be active come the festive season and, from what I can tell, I’m not alone. But there’s one activity you can’t avoid that forces you to move, and that’s cleaning.

Is cleaning in and of itself enough to keep you fit? Probably not. But a study from across the pond has found a correlation (not necessarily causation) between cleaner homes and fitter bodies.

It’s unclear whether fit people have more energy to spend so they clean their homes more thoroughly or they’re fitter because of the energy they spend cleaning. It may also have to do with the fact that they’re more motivated.

Whatever the case, spending an hour or two running around your home, scrubbing, sweeping, dusting, and washing is definitely going to feel like a workout. It won’t burn as many calories as, say, jogging for an hour, but it’s better than nothing.

You’ll be more motivated

Keeping your home clean sounds all well and good, but it’s sometimes hard to find the motivation. Especially around the holidays.

To make matters worse, if you haven’t cleaned for a while, starting now feels like climbing Mount Everest. It’s a lot easier to stay motivated if you keep the wheel turning, but what do you do if you drop the ball?

One solution is to suck it up and start cleaning. You can’t experience the benefits of a clean home without having a clean home. And cleaning regularly is a lot easier once you’re done with the deep cleaning.

Another solution is to hire some help. You can book a one-off deep cleaning service. Our professional cleaners will do the dirty work for you. From there on out, once the deep cleaning is out of the way, it will be a lot easier for you to maintain. You’ll be a lot more motivated to keep your home clean and you’ll be more active in the process. 

You’ll be more productive

Cleaning is a chore and chores are horrible. But the benefits cannot be understated. Once you’re done cleaning, you feel a lot more productive.

Scratching a task off your “to-do” list makes it easier to move on to the next. It gives you a nice little boost of dopamine and keeps you going.

Being productive in a clean, clutter-free environment is also a lot easier. There are fewer things to distract you and the thought you have something else to do (like cleaning the room) won’t nibble at the back of your mind like a starved piranha.

I know, I know – you don’t care too much about productivity during the holidays. Of course. But you still need if you’re going to be preparing those traditional meals everyone enjoys.

You’ll eat healthier

Living in a clean and healthy home will help you make better food choices. I know – it sounds like a stretch. That’s what I thought until I read the actual study.

Turns out, people in a clean and orderly room tend to choose healthier food options than people in a messy environment. This makes perfect sense.

When you’re in a messy room, you get stressed. When the body is stressed, it tries to find a way and alleviate that stress. And since dopamine (a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure) balances cortisol (the stress hormone), your body looks for a quick and easy way to produce more dopamine.

Which in this case means eating junk food. In fact, dopamine is the main reason we derive so much pleasure from eating unhealthy food and why it’s almost impossible to stop.

But if you remove the stressors from the environment, suddenly the picture shifts. You no longer need junk food, making it a lot easier to choose something healthy. 

You’ll get sick less frequently

The biggest problem with your home “looking clean” instead of “being clean” is you may be able to fool your guests, but germs aren’t so easy to fool.

You may think it’s smart to skip unpleasant areas such as under the carpet, under furniture, above and inside cupboards, etc., because you’re saving time. But really, you’re not doing yourself any favours.

Germs don’t give an owl’s hoot about the time you save – they will make you sick all the same. Dust mites in your mattress, allergens in your carpet, and all sorts of other pathogens are hiding in your home and the only way to get rid of them is to clean thoroughly.

The good news is, if you do, you’ll live in a clean and healthy home so you’ll get sick a lot less frequently. “Wait, fewer pathogens – doesn’t that mean my immune system will get weaker,” you might be thinking. After all, it makes sense that a cleaner environment will lead to less “target practice” for your immune system. However, there are no conclusive studies that suggest this is the case. For now, at least, cleanliness is the safer bet. 

Conclusion

Having a clean home offers plenty of benefits. While it’s not always easy to achieve, the results are worth it in the end. You’ll be healthier, more active, more productive, not to mention you’ll have more energy. And if you need help along the way, you know how to reach us.

Disclaimer: Samyx Cleaning is a cleaning company and this is a cleaning blog. None of the advice above should be interpreted as medical advice. If you have any medical problems, make an appointment with your general physician or another health specialist.

Author: Atanas Dzhingarov

Hi, I’m Atanas - brand consultant and writer. I’m helping Samyx Cleaning create the best cleaning company blog on the Internet. Join us on our journey and learn how to live a cleaner, healthier, happier life in the process.