A Clean Act

“Aaaaahhhh…..!! there’s been a burglary here…help!!Police!!”

That was my mom, when she set foot in my room. The room was in shambles; she thought someone had burgled the place. I had this allergy towards clean rooms. I just could not stand them & my room used to be a living example! T-shirts, books….from all my grades….trousers, all scattered around. In fact my room itself looked like a wardrobe! I had one plus point though; I kept everything exactly at the same place I found them. Suppose I would discover my socks hanging over the piano, after using it I would make sure I throw them back….exactly on the piano.

The moment I would reach home, I would fling my socks to one side, toss my shoes to the other & my mom would be busy trying to catch them. In fact, that had become her exercise routine! Finally my school bag would land on my bed, on top of the previous day’s clothes. But she always told me, “Anu, you better start learning to clean your room atleast, what will you do in college otherwise, you’ll be in big trouble one of these days”

So finally, after years of living unkempt, I devised a simple but effective way to have a clean room. I call them “Anu’s tips to a happy mom”.

A simple way to organise a room is by cleaning it up yourself. You shouldn’t put off or ask someone else like maid or your mother to do it for you. Then each time you take your clothes from the cupboard, you will want to stack them neatly again….because you don’t want your hard work, time & effort to go waste.

Every month, be your own master & appraise your progress, buy yourself an ice-cream or something you like (this can also be your excuse to buy one!). And when it is clean three months in a row, cleaning up becomes a habit.

Every 4 months, get rid of stuff that you have not used over the past four months. We are in a habit of accumulating junk thinking we will be able to use it in the next seven years. Dump them! It has a therapeutic effect. It clears your mind of junk as well. Besides you get to buy more stuff…..!!

This concept can be extended to our intellect also. Recently read an article about Rapid Comprehensive Review Technique, where the students can learn an entire year’s syllabus in a matter of forty days. Can you imagine how powerful our generation is? This technique has mainly to do with cleaning up of the mind & compartmentalising your information & retrieving it as & when required, organised, systematic & efficient. If you were like me, clean up your act today, clean up the world you live in, that will clean up the garbage in your minds……after all what you are depends on how you are!

Anusha 2009