I was a freshman once, away from home for the first time. Neither my roommate nor I had any idea how to create a livable, personable space. We were in Rienow Hall at the University of Iowa, where the rooms carry the approximate charm of an anchorite’s cell — or really, any kind of cell.
Our room was depressing and grey; it had no decoration, no personality, and absolutely nothing to disguise the concrete walls. We had a TV, an Xbox, and sheets on our mattresses. That is what we called home for about a year.
But at least it was clean. As much as I disliked the damn place, I would much rather spend the rest of my days there than have to spend one more hangout in a crumb-filled, dusty, musky, and stinky apartment.
Living on your own in college means taking on basic responsibility, and the bare minimum is keeping your space clean. It shapes your productivity, your relationships, and how you respect yourself.
There is no excuse for living, let alone inviting people over, in a dirty house, or an ugly house, for that matter. Cleanliness is not hard.
Still, I’ve heard horror stories about college roommates, especially living in the dorms, from not doing their laundry and leaving dirty clothes sprawled around the room, to neglecting the trash until it becomes a stench.
Once you break the habit of leaving things out rather than putting them away, and start doing small things like taking your shoes off at the door, you can maintain a clean space in about an hour a week.
The bar is very low when it comes to decorating college houses. Honestly, all you need are a few frames hanging, a handful of succulents or a pothos, an accent light, and a rug. Iowa City’s Artifacts often has nice stuff for free on the curb, and Midnight Coffee has free plants every so often. Nothing even has to match; you can literally just throw a room together and call it eclectic. There are no excuses.
The advantages of the little work I am begging you to do are many. It will definitely raise your grades for one. Not only does keeping a house nice create a sense of routine, but it also saves you precious time when you are busy.
Sometimes the will to do homework strikes, and sometimes, by the time the mess is out of the table, the inspiration is gone. Even if it’s not, the cleaning of the space will take some willpower that could have been used for something more urgent. A Brigham Young University study showed the majority of college students require a certain degree of cleaning to properly focus on class and study, being the fourth most important element in a studying environment. A clean space is almost as vital as comfortable temperature or proper lighting.
Leo Myers, a third-year University of Iowa student who shares a beautiful apartment with his roommates, shared an even more important point: the social side.
“As a college student, I share my kitchen and living room with roommates, and being able to hang out in a nice common space really makes living with others more fun. We can all be in the living room and be closer; we can easily have guests over,” he said.
It’s much easier to host if there is no impromptu spring cleaning every time people threaten to stop over. And decorations are the most practical conversation pieces.
By maintaining a nice-looking, communal space, you show you care about your own space and you also care about the people who share that space.
A roommate who does not keep a dorm clean is, in essence, saying he does not care about the place or the people there. If you have ever met someone who was in prison, you will know they keep their cells as clean as possible,with plenty of rules about hygiene, and what should not be done in the shared cell.
Showing respect and care by agreeing to maintain a space clean is a very easy way to avoid those passive aggressive texts in the group chat. We all have heard stories of roommates falling out because someone could not keep the place in order.
Not only do you respect others, but you respect yourself by living in a beautiful place. Walking around town, I see many closed windows. How many of those are closed to hide the “mess?” What does it say about someone ashamed of their innermost sanctum?
According to Oxford CBT, the act of cleaning will reduce stress, increase feelings of control, and reduce clutter, making it easier to focus on what matters. 61 percent of college students say that keeping a clean room helps with their physical and mental wellbeing. A study published in the Springer journal has found that college students can use dishwashing to promote mindfulness, by using the act of cleaning as a form of meditation, which can decrease nervousness and increase calm and creativity. As college students, we could not ask for more.
When asked if a massage or arriving home to a clean house is more relaxing, 72 percent of responders answered the latter. But if this is the case, how come only 52.7 percent of students clean their rooms weekly? The two biggest reasons given were lack of motivation and lack of time. I do hope this column will help with the former. As for lack of time, I’ll find Bigfoot before I find a college student who does not have an hour a week of free time.
The cost-benefit ratio of investing your time and energy in creating a nice space to live is one of the best. An ugly space is harmful to the self, and most importantly, it’s harmful to me if I have to stop by.