Room Cleaning

So my mom tells me that today is "serious room-cleaning day." Nope, not regular room-cleaning day. Serious.

So after breakfast I go into my room. Board games are littered all over the floor from my latest project, books are sitting in every nook and cranny - except, curiously, the bookshelf - and I can barely walk from one side of the room to the other. This will be fun.

Room cleaning is always an interesting experience for me, because I'm lazy and like to use ethical arguments to get out of cleaning. "Why do we care what other people think of my room? It's my room." My parents usually don't buy it.

But something struck me today. My dad had left, so only my brother and I remained in the house. Dad didn't let me have my door shut when he was gone, which bothered me. I like to be isolated when I clean. Of course, it's really a bad idea, because I get distracted easily, and if the door's shut, my parents can't come in and snap at me to get cleaning again. Usually it takes an afternoon to clean my room, and that's when it doesn't look like Katrina's winter home.

So the door's open, and my brother starts singing from his room across the hall. I have two choices to block the sound out: yell at him to stop singing, or shut the door. Obviously I can't do the latter, so I get ready to shout - but then I stop. Why can't he sing? It's a Saturday morning, I'm tired, but why do I have to be a jerk about it?

This question struck me. I'm not a jerk, but then why is my subconscious telling me I am? The answer suddenly hit me: because occasionally I am a jerk. Not to most people, but sometimes I am to my little brother. Sometimes I'm a jerk to my parents. Sometimes to my sister. I'm a jerk when I get obsessed over a particular fault of theirs that annoys me. I can't be annoyed. When people annoy me, I become a jerk, because I don't like to be annoyed (there's an irony there).

Hmm. So I've got this fault of jerkiness. Can I improve on this? Fine, I won't tell Jack to stop singing, even though it annoys me. What else can I improve on? Perhaps I should stop having ethical debates with myself and clean my room. In fact, why is cleaning my room a problem?

This question also hit me, due to a simple phrase I employ a lot. "Sam, why do you like math?" "Why not?" I'm a weird person, and I do weird things sometimes, because I enjoy doing them. When people ask why I did something in a way that's just simply curious (not mad), I say, "Why not?" That seems to make them think. Which is good, because people should think.

So, Sam, why clean your room?

Why not?

It's a stupid reason, to be honest, but it really made me think. There are plenty of good reasons why one should clean their room. The only reason why not is laziness. I don't want to be a lazy person. So for me, there's neither rhyme nor reason to not cleaning my room.

So, for the first time, I cleaned my room with barely any distractions. I not only put the books on the shelves, but I organized them (those who know me know just how strange that is). I threw away the trash. I I made the room more than manageable - it was beautiful (in my eyes, at least).

When I finished, the only thing I could think was, "Wow, that was weird": which fits me well.

No, mom, this doesn't mean I'll clean my room on a regular basis. Yet.