This spring, would you rather bring sexy back or spring clean your home? A new survey from Decluttr found that, if they had to choose, 44% of people prefer a clean living space over sex. But that doesn't mean you can't have both. In the survey of more than 1,000 people, 50% of respondents said they're highly likely to have sex after their partner has done household chores, and 60% said a clean, organized bedroom really gets them in the mood. Seriously, watching a partner do the dishes or run the vacuum gives me all the feels. If you really want to heat things up, set aside a day for you and your BAE to spring clean.
On the other hand, nothing is more unattractive or less sexy than a slovenly, messy, dirty, or cluttered home. For me, it's a dealbreaker in a relationship. And I'm far from alone in this sentiment.
"When it comes to dating, Americans are hesitant to continue a relationship with someone whose household isn’t organized with 40% of respondents reporting that they’re likely to end a relationship with someone who has a cluttered and/or dirty home," a press release about the survey noted. If you think about it, clearing the clutter as a path to getting closer to your partner actually makes a whole lot of sense. After all, how you do one thing is how you do everything.
"Clutter is a physical barrier to intimacy. If you can’t even see the bed because things are piled up all over it, there’s no room for someone else to share it," Gayle Gruenberg, professional organizer and founder and CEO of Let's Get Organized, said on her website. "Clutter is [also] a figurative barrier to intimacy. Why is stuff piled up all over the bed? The answer would be different for each individual or couple. In my experience, the underlying issues in the relationship can be what caused the clutter, and the clutter contributes to the underlying issues."
This stands to reason that if your actual home and your figurative home are both a mess, your spring cleaning can include a relationship tune up as well. "Clutter can be the physical manifestation of a lack of communication, and more clutter is actively brought in to further prevent that communication. Papers, books, and projects all over the kitchen or dining room table prevents sitting down and having a meal together, facing each other, discussing deep topics, planning the future, bonding, growing," Gruenberg explained. On the other hand, the couple that cleans together also sleeps together, eats together, and talks to each other.
Aside from being sexy AF, cleaning and doing household chores can improve cognitive function, according to a new study published in the journal Neurology. Perhaps the potential for sex and the promise of brain health are the reasons why more people will spring clean their homes this year than ever before. According to the American Cleaning Institute’s National Cleaning Survey, 77% of people are expected to engage in some sort of spring cleaning in 2019.
If you're new to this whole spring-cleaning thing, Oprah.com offers a room-by-room, hour-by-hour spring cleaning checklist. Just follow the guide, check stuff off the list, and your house will Monica Geller-level clean by the end of the day. Make sure you also go full-on Marie Kondo and get rid of everything that doesn't bring you joy. If you want to make some extra cash, you can sell your stuff on Decluttr and other online resale platforms. Use the money to prepare a feast for your BAE in your sparkling clean kitchen, and do the dishes after dinner. What could be sexier than that?
