“Cleanliness is a mindset- a positive habit that keeps the body, mind, and environment happy, healthy, simple, neat, and delightful.”- Amit Ray.
Growing up, I attended a standard Catholic high school. One thing about catholic schools is that they are known for their rigid and slightly unnecessary rules. I never wanted to attend that school, but I had no choice since my parents wanted me to. After spending a few weeks in the boarding school, I finally accepted my fate and embraced it. Out of the many rules, one that always kept ringing bells in the ears of students was, “Keep your environment clean at all times.” It was as if our principal was obsessed with maintaining a clean environment.
My first year was the worst. I was a little boy who had just left his parents, home to a new environment, battling a new system. Back at home, there was nothing like making my own bed. My cousins and I always slept in the same room, so in the morning, they’d be the ones to make the bed and arrange the room. But when I got to the boarding school, I learnt that you need to do things yourself. Every morning, our principal would come to our hostel unannounced and inspect the rooms. I, like many other students, fell victim to his punishment on the very first day. I remember that day like it happened yesterday. It was a Saturday, my second week in the boarding house. The principal came very early in the morning while we were playing football on the field. He went inside the rooms and saw that the beds were not made and everything was scattered. After beating us with strong canes, he punished us by making us kneel in the sun for hours. That day, we learnt the hard way to always make our beds when we wake up and also keep the rooms clean.
In every assembly, my principal would often tell us to, “keep our environment clean.” It became our mantra. Whenever the school was dirty, he’d punish all the students, particularly the health and sanitation prefects (they received extra punishment.) To worsen the whole situation, there were so many big trees with many leaves in my school, and every morning, they’d shed leaves, giving students extra work to pick and dispose of them. The principal didn’t care about all this. He never wanted to listen to our excuses. The school always had to be clean. This was the rule; the school must always be neat every morning, and if you pass by any trash, you must pick it up and dispose of it. Failure to do this would result in punishment.
This was how I was trained. I was under this principal for 6 good years, following his rules and receiving punishment whenever we failed to adhere to them. Many of us felt he was wicked. We felt he was doing the right thing in the most cruel way. The truth is that although he went overboard sometimes, he trained us well in the aspect of being clean. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. There are many steps I take to ensure the cleanliness of my home and environment.
The first step is to make sure the bed is well made every morning. Whenever I wake up and see that my bed is not well made, it gives me PTSD and takes me back to the time our principal punished us for not making our beds and arranging the room. So, every morning, I have made it a habit to make my bed and put things in order before I go to school. However, there are times when I fail to do this because I rush to classes. For example, on days when we have 8 am classes and I wake up at 7:30. I’d have to turn on my flash skills, rush to the bathroom, do the necessary things, and rush to school. Whenever I get back and see that my bed was not arranged, it gives me aches all over my body, and then I’d do the needful.
Another way to keep your home and environment clean is to choose a day for thorough cleaning. Thanks to my principal who made us do general/thorough cleaning every Saturday. I have made it a habit to do a thorough cleaning, not every Saturday, but whenever I feel like it, which may happen once a week. We also do this in my church. Every Saturday morning, the youths come together to clean the church premises. We’d start by cleaning the chairs, mopping the floors, then trimming the flowers and cutting the overgrown bushes.
There are times when my body feels tired. Especially during exams, when I pull all-nighters. My body is always too tired to clean the house during this time. I call this 'my phase.' This is the period when my room is always a mess. But after exams, once I've regained my energy, I always make sure to do a thorough cleaning.
Thanks for reading.