The Real Cost Of Cleanliness: Challenging The Stereotypes

I would really love to appreciate whoever suggested this prompt idea to the community, I don't know how I didn't think of suggesting it long before now because honestly, it's been a bother for me since I had a discussion with someone sometime ago. I know we know cleanliness is a great thing next to Godliness but at what cost?

Cleanliness is a wide topic on it's own if we want to go deep into it, there is the cleanliness from within, the one about our physical and living appearances, how clean are the words we say, how clean are our thoughts? Yeah! Now you know cleanliness cut across every aspects of our lives but I'll focus on the physical and living part.

I was in a discussion with a friend and we both wondered how come some rich homes look dirty and some poor homes look so neat, I laughed at the whole thing and said "Life is not balanced" but for real, it triggered my thought to say there is more to what cleanliness cost than just money.

I've lived with my mum long enough to understand that it's really not about the amount of money you have that will determine how clean you are or can be. Even though the society will not tell us the truth, we should know that one's background in cleanliness matters a lot before money is added. You can be dirty with millions.

I do come across a compound in a village and I never stop staring at how neat the whole place is whenever I walk past, I heard the people living in it are a family of farmers who spend most of their time taking care of their farm. I found myself imagining that they would have neat and well organized farm lands too, they were so neat.

One time, I visited a mansion and it was my first time in such a big house. What I saw inside had me wondering why I had wasted my imaginations of what the house would look like on the inside. They had the money, they wore beautiful clothes when they are outside but seeing those worn beautiful clothes lying around was so off putting.

Let's be truthful to ourselves, cleanliness cost little to no dime for who really wants to be clean but it will cost a lot for who is lazy to keep anything or anywhere clean. Good thing, technology has provided easy to use and better equipments to promote cleanliness but sadly, the poor pockets can't afford a lot of them, will they be dirty because of it if they are the clean type?

The real cost of cleanliness is one's mindset about cleanliness. A clean person wether poor or rich will always find ways to keep their big or small space clean, he or she do not have to wait till there is a lot of money before they could have people visit them and not feel ashamed of how their big or small home looks or smells to others.

One thing my mum does that continues to remind me that cleanliness can be independent of wealth is the "Do it yourself" habit she keeps building. She makes affordable soap herself to clean and wash what needs to be neat, she creates spaces in her home by getting rid of what's no longer needed and maintain that habit.

So we can safely say, cleanliness is independent of wealth but very dependent on hygiene mindset and habits. You don't need to own millions to be clean, I think that would even make you be less clean as you tend to pursue more millions and don't mind being clean until whenever you think is right. Although wealth makes things easier later.

Imagine a poor woman who has a neat home and surrounding, keeps a good fragrance when she is out and visitors feel very comfortable in her small space, imagine if such a woman is blessed with wealth... Would cleanliness level increase or reduce? I'm sure the answer is, "It will increase". No one is clean because they are rich, and no one is dirty because they are poor, it's all mindset!