Good whiff of cleaning zealots cures mess-and-dirt blues

By SHELLEY HOWELLS

It's always been clear that housework is a drag, so it is a real boost to find that academics have proved the point.

According to the BBC online, a University of Glasgow study has shown that housework can lower your mood.

Researchers apparently used a "depression monitor" to measure how different everyday activities affected mood - exercise made people perky, while housework gave most the blues.

We all have our own low-tech version of the depression monitor.

For those who misery-eat, it's the cookie jar. Studies show that the more housework done, the fewer cookies in the jar, proving that housework can cause depression. And cellulite.

Others' monitors include dress size, empty wine-bottles and the patented Yelling-at-the-Kids-o-Meter.

Housework is a dirty job, someone's got to do it, and the net is home to many happy to offer advice.

Fly Lady has an orderly system for dealing to family mess and dirt: dividing the home into zones, tackled using her quick'n'easy cleaning method, feather duster and a timer.

For a madly delusional fortnight this all made sense, so I signed on for the newsletters. Within hours my inbox was swamped with reminders (Have you shined your sink?), and rousing testimonials from cured former slatterns.

What did my head in was the time-zones, resulting in reminders to put the garbage out - at 3am. The message suggesting I take to the toilet with a toothbrush signalled the end of that relationship.

American - and world - doyen of the domestic Martha Stewart is constantly knocked and mocked for building an empire armed only with a hot glue gun, a knack for flower arranging and a thing for pastels.

They say that Martha sets ridiculously unattainable standards, that she is obsessed with meaningless trivia, warping the thinking of weak and susceptible home-bound minds.

Clearly, the critics have home help. Anyone who actually cleans house on a regular basis would know that they miss the point.

Martha fans don't follow her step-by-step guide to the correct way to hang bath towels, any more than Vogue readers stalk about in haute couture.

She hit the jackpot because she made the grotty, thankless task of keeping house seem glamorous.

She makes crocheting granny squares stylish, gives soap build-up the attention it deserves and attempts the impossible: teaching Americans some table manners.

Martha even has time for geeks.

Reminder: When did you last clean your keyboard? Look for instructions at Martha Stewart.

Study shows housework 'is depressing'

Fly Lady

Martha Stewart

Martha's Computer cleaning tips