by Dusty Summer

Created on: June 26, 2008

Americans are far too clean where it matters least, and far too disengaged where it matters most. Most of our homes are these places we scrub and disinfect every few days or week. Dusting, sweeping, mopping, and spending so much money on the "correct" products to "disinfect" and shine. We do this same routine with our bodies, a daily disinfection, scrubbing, polishing, and shining. Okay, so a clean house is nice. So is shiny hair, nails, and teeth. Clean clothing looks better than stained clothing, and for those of us who have seen really messy homes, it is good to set and maintain a standard.

The problem isn't necessarily the cleanness, neatness, orderliness, or disinfection. It is the obsession with this perfection. How much time, money, resources, and talent are we willing to use to keep a standard set for us by a magazine publisher in a home that has never been lived in? For some it may be a greater amount of time than for others. Just as some may have more time to spend on the bathing and disinfecting of the body. Consider which gender spends the most time in these ritualized cleaning escapades? Women spend, on average, much more time and cash then men on both the house cleaning and the "acceptable" body cleaning and primping. What might women accomplish if these extra hours a day were available for mind, spirit, or educational enrichment?

I would much rather have a daughter with a few carpet dust bunnies and an enriched mind then a compulsive cleaner with a short-fuse for any "mess." She will live a better life and even, perhaps, a longer life.

Now, for our hospitals, schools, childcare facilities, and other institutions with thousands of people passing through them daily. Why do we not demand a higher standard from these infection factories? As we are busy cleaning up after a few people, these places are breeding germs that are killing us. The chances of dying in a hospital due to an infection acquired in that hospital skyrocket every single year. Parents of school-age children will tell you that the school year is one long roller coaster of illness while the off school times allow a child to recover. We need to become much more strict about our cleaning routines in these institutions and relax a bit about the little messes in our homes.

In short, clean where it matters most, and relax where it matters most. We can live longer and healthier lives if we take the right steps in the right places.

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