Delaia Federico rummaged through piles of papers, threw Clorox wipes at her stunned roommates and turned on the small, red,
roaring vacuum cleaner and yelled, “Time to clean.”
“Delaia Federico vaccums her aparment as she prepares for a long semester ahead. A clean apartment can leave students feeling refreshed and ready to take on the academic challenges in the upcoming year.”
Without mom and dad around to enforce the cleaning and tidying up living spaces, it can be a task to remind ourselves to do so. Some students on California Baptist University’s campus used what little free time they had before classes began to start the spring semester with a clean home. Two such student are Delaia J. Federico and Lisette Nichols.
“I was rushing to class and I tripped over a stack of books and I realized, our apartment wasn’t as clean as it should’ve been. … I got a sudden urge to clean the entire apartment,” said Federico, sophomore graphic design major.
When she shut the front door, she recognized the small pumpkin on the ground in a corner she and her roommates had decorated in October that had yet to be thrown away.
“It was pretty gross. It looked fine on the outside but it fell apart when I kicked it off the stairs, I guess (my roommates and I) just forgot about it,” Federico said.
While Federico never found anything to cringe about when cleaning inside her apartment, she says she did go into an organizing frenzy upon returning from class.
“At home, my family always spring cleans around the New Year. Now it’s just a good habit so cleaning here at school isn’t that big a deal,” Federico said.
Among those who decided to use the free time they had to clean, was Lisette J. Nichols, senior liberal studies major.
Nichols came back from Christmas break and was able to help her boyfriend tidy up his apartment.
“He’s a music major so he had some music laying around the apartment. … It was a good thing he’s pretty organized to begin with because I didn’t find anything gross like some people find in their apartments,” Nichols said.
Nichols said she kept her own living space clean before and after break so as to eliminate the need to spend too much time cleaning when she returned for the Spring 2013 semester.
“I did hear about one guy’s apartment that left some food in their fridge over the break, thinking it would’ve been OK when they got back. They were wrong,” Nichols said.
Cleaning one’s living space may be a tedious task, but the benefits of clean living can be a mighty relief during a tough year.
