Hygiene is one of the most important aspects of life. One of which is handwashing. (Image via: Eemax)

There's No "Too Clean" for A House: Experts

Cleaning your house might be a tiring duty, but it is a rightful thing to do. We did not know where this belief came from, but some people believe that a house that is too clean is bad for health. This was proven by a poll tabulated by the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH), the world’s oldest health body and independent health education charity, proved that almost 23% of people all around the world adopt this kind of mindset.

In other words, according to the poll, one from four people believes that cleanliness is not really that necessary. These people even think that in order to make their children more immune to disease, then they should be exposed to harmful germs at an early age. This concept, however, is an old health myth that turns out really wrong. But, are these people to blame?

Media also shares part of the blame. The concept was encouraged by most media, according to the journal by RSPH. In the 1990s, most media stated the idea that cleaning our house too often may affect our children’s health because it reduces contact with other diverse, beneficial microbes; hence, it badly affects their microbes. This concept is called “Hygiene Hypothesis”. As matter of fact, these media blamed over-cleanliness for the rising allergies cases in children because parents tended to clean their house over and over again; thus, making their children vulnerable to bacteria they were not exposed to before.

While cleaning your house at too many times is also unnecessary, this “Hygiene Hypothesis” lacks in most fields, especially evidence that supports the existence of such a thing. On the contrary, people should really pay attention to the hygiene of their house. Luckily, most people already possess the correct mindset about hygiene in their house, as the majority of these people (76%) perceive the importance of hand-washing well.

However, when it comes to time and necessity, turned out, these people still need to be educated. People need to realize that being negligent to our house’s hygiene puts our children at more stake than letting them play outside.

While children get to know beneficial or anodyne bacteria outside, hygiene should be preserved at home. How? By “Targeted Hygiene”. The method, as its name tells you, cleans or disinfects areas most likely to be inhabited by harmful germs and bacteria. Therefore, without being overly clean, we can tackle these germs from harming our children with allergies or life-threatening diseases.

In brief, there is no such thing as “too clean”. We are not “clean freak” either, but hygiene in our house is important as it is a measure to get our children out of harm’s way.

Source: https://www.redonline.co.uk/interiors/homeware/a28227783/home-clean-myth-debunked/