The Importance of a Clean Bedroom

Before you run and get your children to read this post, let me just tell you that I am talking to YOU!  I am talking about the important reasons of why you should keep YOUR room clean - the first of which is, if you don't keep your room clean, why should your child(ren)?

"Really?", you ask.  "There are important reasons why I should keep my room clean?  What exactly do you mean by 'clean'?"

Let's tackle the whys first.  I will never forget a friend of mine who has 7 daughters tell me that one of her top priorities was to keep her bedroom clean and neat so that her husband had a "haven" (a.k.a. a place of rest and peace) to go to when he needed to escape all of the hormones.

I realized what wisdom there was in that.  I started thinking about it, not just in regards to my husband, but myself, too.  Quite honestly, my husband walks into the bedroom, changes, lies down, falls instantly asleep, gets up and leaves the room.  That is the extent of his time in the bedroom.  If he needs to escape, he finds a tree stand.

If you have a husband, however, who enjoys retreating to a room in the house, or can't stand to walk over piles to get to his bed, then maybe you should consider tidying up that bedroom.  You don't even need to spend money on it to decorate or change things if you don't want to.  Simply having a neat and tidy resting place is all that is necessary.

I believe the rules concerning bedroom neatness should be:

1.  No piles of papers, boxes, bins etc. unless they serve a useful purpose (i.e. you have no dresser and your clothing is stored in a bin).

2.  No clothing lying around on the floors; dirty or clean.  Hang it up, put it away or throw it in the dirty clothes (which, by the way, should be contained somewhere where it doesn't have to be looked at all the time).

3.  Bed made every day.  It really only takes about 5 minutes and it really makes the room look so much more pleasant.  Do it within the first 15 minutes of getting up and you don't have to think about it again!

4.  Try to keep the room as clean as possible.  There is a difference between neat and clean.  Neat is good on a daily basis; clean should be taken care of on a relatively regular schedule.

I have this thing about waking up to a mess.  If my room was messy and I had to wake up to that every day, it would surely set the day off on the wrong foot.  I suppose there are people who don't notice messes, but I am not one of them.  If the last thing I saw before I fell asleep and the first thing I saw when I woke up was a messy room, I would not feel very peaceful and certainly not joyful.  

A prayer corner somewhere in your bedroom is a nice idea, too.  It can be a simple collection of books on your headboard or nightstand (only if it is a neat collection, though) or it can be a chair and table or kneeler in a corner.  I have a friend who has a lot of children who turned a small walk-in closet in her room into a prayer haven.  No matter what it looks like, a place where you and/or your husband can retreat to to be with the Lord for some peace and quiet is a good thing.

If you are prone to a messy room, take some time to ponder the positive effect a nice, clean, orderly room  might have on the dispositions of you and/or your husband.  It is a simple and inexpensive thing to do to bring some added peace to your lives.