psychology
What your cleaning style reveals about you
© Pixel Shot / Adobe Stock
Just wipe the bare essentials clean, or does everything have to be perfectly hygienic and sterile? How we approach the topic of cleaning reveals a lot about our character.
Most people don’t particularly enjoy cleaning, but they do love the feeling of a clean apartment, a freshly made bed or laundry that has just been put away. There are people who feel uncomfortable when they just catch a speck of dust in the sun’s rays in the corner, while others don’t even see entire dust bunnies and thick layers of dust on dressers, tables and window sills – and therefore don’t remove them.
The philosopher and biologist Nicole C. Karafyllis has examined cleaning from a cultural perspective and even written a book about it: “Cleaning as a passion: A philosophical universal cleaner for clear conditions“. In it she praises cleaning and its “internally cleansing” function. The author also names four different types of cleaning and explains what our type reveals about us. Because how we approach tidying up our four walls, cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming reveals more about us than we might believe.
This is what it says about you, how you clean your apartment
1. The aesthetic type
The esthete is not particularly interested in hygiene, it is much more important to this type that everything looks good. The motto could be more appearance than reality. You never really clean thoroughly, but at first glance everything seems tidy? You feel uncomfortable in the obvious chaos, but you don’t really care whether the inside of the cupboards are clean or whether it’s shiny under the sofa? Then you probably belong to the aesthetic type. This superficial approach may also be evident in other situations in life – how something looks and appears may be more important to you than the substance.
2. The: the hobby hygienist
According to Nicole C. Karafyllis, the neurotic cleaning type is in complete contrast. The hobby hygienist is fearful and sees dust, dirt, etc. as his own final opponent – the ultimate danger. Superficial cleanliness is not enough for this type; the goal is the sterility of a hospital. The neurotic type has no scientific knowledge of hygiene and illnesses, but is afraid of germs, bacteria and other pathogens enough to panic. Do you recognize yourself in that? You may also exhibit this distrust and fearful behavior in other areas of your life.
3. The analytical type
A more sensitive type of cleaning person is the analyst. If you’re this type, dirt might have something melancholy about it. When cleaning, you think carefully about where the dust or other dirt comes from, what’s behind it and how it got to this point. Some of the dust may even be valuable to you and can remain as a memory. Overall, you are probably a rather melancholic person who wanders a lot into the past and at the same time has the urge to want to understand things very clearly.
4. The functional type
The fourth type of cleaning is very pragmatic. His main concern is keeping everything functional. Vacuuming, washing clothes and washing dishes are the most important things for these people – after all, a reasonably tidy floor as well as clean laundry and dishes are necessary for everyday life to run smoothly. The windows on the other hand? As long as you can still see through it, that’s enough. That would never happen to the aesthetic type! But the functional type cares about everything running smoothly – not about it looking pristine. If you approach cleaning like this, this pragmatic view may also be your motto in life: the main thing is that it works.