Sure. I like things clean. In fact, things have to be clean in my world. It’s a little quirk I have. Okay. It might be bigger than “little.” I need to have “order” around me in this chaotic world. So, I make my home space orderly, neat, and squeaky clean.
It simply feels better to me that way.
But, also, it has been proven, in study after study, that living in a clean environment is better for your health. I’d list all those studies, but it would put you on a death scroll to get to the bottom of this blog. But ask any search engine or AI answer beast. You’ll find hundreds of studies that support this.
Like this one.
///
Study on Psychological Benefits of Cleaning:
Title: “Psychological benefits of clothes clearing: Experiential avoidance as a mediator of the relationship between attachment to clothing and wellbeing”
Journal: The Journal of Positive Psychology
Authors: Jessica R. Myrick and Patricia L. Haynes
Published in: 2014
Summary: This study investigated the psychological benefits of decluttering and organizing one’s living space. It found that decluttering was associated with improved well-being and reduced attachment to material possessions.
///
But the other day, I was reading, and I found something I already knew deep down inside me.
The reason the dinosaurs disappeared from the face of the Earth.
You guessed it. Dust.
Yes. Dust killed the dinosaurs. (This sounds like a song by Radiohead or Modest Mouse.)
Anyway, it was a lot of dust.
For decades, scientists have known that a giant asteroid smashed into what is now the Yucatán Peninsula roughly 66 million years ago. The Yucatan Peninsula is that appendage right below Mexico. It kind of juts out into the Gulf. That’s where the asteroid hit.
Most experts agree the event triggered a mass extinction that wiped out three-quarters of all species, including almost all the dinosaurs.
Isn’t it something that an asteroid could hit that little strip of land mass and have worldwide implications? Well, it did.
But here is the thing. Precisely how the impact led to an apocalypse has remained unsettled, with much attention focused on the “impact winter” that occurred afterward — a period of cold, global darkness. And scientists have mostly agreed that the asteroid kicked up a big cloud of pulverized rock dust that starved plants of sunlight.
But more recent investigations focused on sun-blocking soot from the initial impact. The dust, dust, dust.
Now granted, the dust that killed the dinosaurs was much different than the layer that sits on top of your TV and on the back of your toilet. Even still, they are cousins. And that spells certain trouble.
So, here is my public service announcement for the day. Grab your feather dusters, all you naysayers of housework. Put away all your Facebook memes about how dust never killed anyone.
Because it did. And who knows, it might decide to do it again.
😉
“”””” “‘
“Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions.” – Barbara Hemphill
“”””” “‘
“The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment.” – Marie Kondo
“”””” “‘
“Cleaning and organizing is a practice, not a project.” – Meagan Francis
“”””” “‘
