Welcome to college. I hope Mom taught you how to clean. Something that is easily forgotten throughout the college experience (in more ways than one) is learning how to keep it clean. Dorm rooms get filled with dust, dirt, sand and crumbs, and after the first week of school, it becomes easily noticeable as you walk around barefoot.
Buy a broom. Having a broom really does wonders. Even if you only use it once a week, just get the grime out. Sweep the filth into the hallway and the cleaning ladies will vacuum it up during their morning routines. Yes, every time you walk into your room you track the dirt and sand that you had just swept out back in, but sweep it out once a week and consider it a workout. You burn 112 calories with 30 minutes of sweeping. (If you sweep that long, please come clean the Mirror Office).
Having a Swiffer also helps keep your floor clean and smelling fresh. Nothing smells better than a sterile LYSOL wiped surface (desktops and refrigerators included), after the weekends of wine spills and shotgun explosions. LYSOL is your friend and Costco has a great deal for a pack of three.
Last but certainly not least, do laundry. Don’t only wash your everyday gym clothes and t-shirts. Wash your towels. Wash your sweatshirts. And wash your sheets! Not only will you get along better with your roommate, but also you will help prevent the dispersion of a germ infestation and development of microscopic creatures.
According to NYU School of Medicine’s associate professor of microbiology, Philip Tierno says that every night, we shed one and a half million clusters of skin cells per hour. With a healthy eight hours of sleep, you wake up with 12 million particles all over your body. Oh but that’s not all.
Tierno says our sheets are also filled with bodily fluids after an easy night’s rest. Sweat, tears, saliva, snot and other bodily discharge are left behind each night and will accumulate over time. And if you’re not sweeping your floor, dust and debris will make up 10 percent of you pillow and will double the weight of your mattress after ten years. Save yourself and use your StagBucks. Walk down to the laundry room once a week, and in the meantime sweep and swiffer your room.
So why are we giving you a mother’s lecture on how to keep it clean? The disgusted reaction you had after reading the bed bugs story just wasn’t enough. So keep it clean, on all levels, please.
Leave a Reply