8 Secrets Why Women Love to Clean

It's a Form of Meditation

In fact, in our fast-paced, work-centered lives, the mindlessness of cleaning may be one of its biggest allures. A surprising number of our readers said that cleaning is actually a relaxing activity for them—whether they crank up their iPod while they do it or just allow their brains to take a break from everyday thoughts. That makes sense to Karen Maezen Miller, a Zen Buddhist priest in Southern California, and author of Hand Wash Cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life, who says the “physical components of housework are meditative, because they are simple tasks you perform with your own body, and they are repetitive.” Plus, “you don’t have to analyze how to do them, you don’t have to go to school and perfect them, you just have to get in there and do it.”

Ping, whose daily cleaning to-do list includes making beds, doing laundry, unloading the dishwasher, wiping down kitchen counters, and picking up endless amounts of dog hair, finds comfort in that repetitive, unchanging aspect of cleaning. “I like the sameness of it,” says Ping. “I like change everywhere else in my life, but not cleaning.”