Cleanliness: Some Say It's Girlish, But I still Can't Ignore A Messy Environment.

Cleanliness, for me, is a big deal, its one thing I don't joke with. Some people can choose to ignore some stuffs and pretend they don't see it, but me, I just can't. The moment I step into a place, my eyes naturally scan for anything out of place, and before I even think, I start fixing things. I can sweep, mop, wash, arrange, do anything just to make sure my environment looks neat. Its not about the appearance for me, but when I am in an untidy space, I lose my peace, I don't just know why. Theres this peace and satisfaction I get when everything is neat and in order.

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And, am not the type who waits for dirt, cloth and all to pile up before acting. The secret to cleanliness for me is "consistency" cleaning, washing, mopping, and all is what I do on daily basis. I sweep to the extent that my immediate family do complain. Seeing a messy space doesn't sit well with me. And some people feel like once they've swept, mopping is not needed, that's not me, I sweep and mop, just that mopping might not be on a daily basis but at least, thrice in a week. There's this special feeling in walking barefoot on a smooth, neat floor. And washing, I don’t let dirty clothes pile up. My laundry basket is more of a house decorator, reason being that I hardly out cloth in it, I wash each cloth I pull of as I bath, And you can't see me go out without taking my bath, that's one thing I can't do, I do feel uneasy and somehow outside, so I do bath and once I bath be sure I will wash my cloth too. Even when it comes to washing plates, I don’t wait till they are much, once I’m done eating, I head straight to wash it.

While in school, it was same. I rented a place close to campus, and whenever a friend decides to follow me home or someone just shows up unannounced, I am never caught unsettled. My space is always neat. I don’t wait for people to come before I start cleaning, that's not just who I am. My room may not have much in it, but the way I arrange things make people talk, I just love arranging things. Even the toilet then was shared by three different rooms, it was about 18 rooms, and 3 rooms were to use one toilet, making it a total of 6 toilet, am the only guy with two ladies who shared ours, my name is not on the washing list but I do wash it, countless times even more than the so called ladies. Some of my friends do tease me atimes, saying "Milliracle, we understand you do act girlish, but this your clean clean and arranging of things is just too ladyish" I do just laugh at it. They don’t understand why a guy would bother so much with arranging his space, but that’s just who I am. I love walking into my space and feeling everything in place, whether anyone is coming over or not, I love looking for something and knowing it is in a certain/exact point, even when its dark, I know where I place my touch, the matches, the candle, I know where the clothes are, I know how to walk without hitting my legs, and that is a good feeling.

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Theres this experience that stood out. I traveled down from Lagos to Ilorin sometimes last year to visit my parent, I got home in the evening, it was almost dark, I was exhausted and tired, but the moment I stepped in to the house and saw the state of things, accepted that my parents are aged, but what's these. Everywhere was untidy. The living room, the kitchen, everywhere needed tidying up. My parents were about to leave for church at that time, and they told me to rest since I had just returned from a long journey. But they knew me too well, not in this environment. The moment they stepped out, I got to work. I swept every corner of the house, arranged the living room, cleaned the kitchen, mopped the floors, and made sure everything was spotless before they got back. By the time they returned, they were surprised, well they made mentioned of something, they said that was one of the reasons they do miss me, if Milliracle is home, the house won't be this messy. That’s just who I am.

Its just a way of life for me, not a daily routine, its something I find joy in and I take pride in it, it also affects my mood, a clean environment helps me think clearly, feel at peace and sleep soundly. There’s something about an organized space for me that I can't really seem to explain, and I honestly don’t understand how some people can function in a messy environment. Maybe they are used to it, but for me, it’s impossible.

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If I had my way, I would have taken personal pictures of my cleaning routine just to show y'all how serious I am about it. But my phone limits me, the camera is bad, blurry and doesn’t capture things the way I would love it to, but until I get a better phone, I can only talk about it. One thing is sure, though, I have and will always value cleanliness. I don't do it because I have to, I do it because I enjoy it, I love the feeling cleanliness brings. Keeping my environment clean is not something that will ever change.

There are various entries organized by @leogrowth.
This post is in collaboration with the @cleanplanet community and an entry to day 8 of #marchinleo in #inleo, kindly come check it out, so as to partake in various interesting writing prompts.

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