How to Know if you're a Bit of a Clean Freak

It's good to clean and tidy on a daily basis, but it's all too easy to spend too much time on household chores. Are you turning into a bit of a clean freak?

We all have our little quirks and hang-ups, especially when it comes to our own homes. Some people have to have everything exactly how they like it, while others don’t mind where they put things. Read this article to find out if you’re a bit of a clean freak.

The first thing you need to think about is your lifestyle. Often, our cleaning habits are dictated by our daily lives. For example, if you spend a lot of time outside the house and you don’t have much time to spare, you might find you tend to let things slide when it comes to your household chores.

A bit of mess isn’t necessarily a bad thing (as long as your home isn’t an absolute pigsty). As this – probably – isn’t the case, then you probably make a real effort to keep your home clean and tidy. The question is, are you a compulsive cleaner, or are you more practical when it comes to your cleaning?

Order is closely related to your own peace of mind.

How to know if you’re a clean freak: think about your daily life

If you want to work out whether you’re becoming a bit of a clean freak, you first need to analyze your day-to-day life: the things you do on a daily basis, your work hours, and what you do when you enter or leave the house.

In a typical 24 hour day, you probably spend around 8 hours sleeping and roughly 10 outside the house, whether for work, leisure or other reasons. Let’s say that you spend the remaining six hours inside the house: what do you do with this time?

If you spend several hours cleaning and tidying, then it might be that you’re not prioritizing the right things. As a result, you might not have the chance to really enjoy your house as much as you should.

What do you usually do in and around the house? 

As we’ve already said, spending several hours a day cleaning might be a bit excessive. Homes don’t generally get dirty or messy that easily. Think about it, and ask yourself, “What do I usually do at home?”

• Some people tend to do their chores before leaving for work in the morning. This is fairly normal – you could even set your alarm a little earlier to give you enough time to get everything done.
• The problem comes when you clean in the morning, and then continue cleaning as soon as you get home from work. Whether you’re at home or at work, mornings are usually more productive. Evenings should be reserved for resting and enjoying yourself.
• If you find yourself constantly wanting to clean and tidy up around the house, then you might actually be developing some compulsive traits. You need to try to relax, and take things a little easier.

The problematic search for perfection

Sometimes, we want to do things perfectly and be the best at everything. In reality, this might not necessarily be a positive thing. In fact, you might find you’re overdoing it and exhausting yourself. This can often happen when it comes to our homes.

• If you think about it, dedicating too much time to chores just to get the perfect home doesn’t actually make much sense. If you only have a few hours of free time and you spend all of it cleaning, then you’re probably starting to become a bit of a clean freak.
• Trying to keep your home perfect will become a daily battle, especially if you have children who tend to make more mess.
• You might even find that you stop using certain rooms in your house so you don’t make them messy or dirty. This is a common mistake. You’re meant to enjoy your home as much as possible.

Break bad habits

Try to find other things to do around the house: watch a movie, surf the web, spend time with family… It might be difficult at first to break your daily cleaning ritual, but you’ll soon see that it won’t have a huge impact on how clean your home is.

All your daily cleaning and tidying can be done in the space of an hour. The best option is to try to get it done first thing in the morning. Plus, you can also get other members of the family involved.

Finally, you need to understand that constantly tidying and rearranging your home won’t make it look any better. It’s important to enjoy what you have instead of obsessing over chores.