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Don t Let Sink Shopping be a Draining Experience
(ARA) - It’s one of the most used items in your home, but how much do you really know about kitchen sinks? Which materials are the most scratch or...read more on house cleaning
Refurbished Ways To Refurbish Your Kitchen
To dispel the monotony of your daily work in the kitchen, it is best to refurbish it. To start refurbishing your kitchen, you must first judge if...read more on house cleaning
The History of Vacuum Cleaner Bags
The debris picked up by all of the different types of vacuum cleaners and units on the market has to be deposited somewhere -- usually in a vacuum...read more on house cleaning
A Guide To Home Inspections
Any Sally and Sam Homebuyer can look at a home and decide whether it is attractive. They might notice it is freshly painted in pleasing colors, has...read more on house cleaning
Repairing Household Cleaning Equipment
One thing we probably don't stop to think about
everyday in terms or our home is cleaning equipment repair. Of
course as soon as something...read more on house cleaning
Caring For Your Area Rugs
Area rugs can make a room perfect, providing the exact warm
touch that makes your home come alive, but unless you know how
to preserve the quality...read more on house cleaning
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The bathroom is a place not too many people bother about. The
assumption is that the commission of a necessity need not be
attended with ceremony. Psychologists would have us believe that
our consciousness with sin and dirt results in a certain tension
that prevent us from bothering too much with bathroom issues.
The theory further elaborates that such tension results in loss
of speech, or indulgence in activities that give relief to
tension - hence the tendency of many people to become bathroom
singers or readers. Dylan Thomas famously said that novels
should be serialized on toilet paper so that the toilet reader
may acquire some literary credentials. The bathroom as a place
where the eternal battle between dirt and cleanliness is fought,
has always assumed a somewhat ambiguous position in our
evolution. While the necessity of cleanliness and hygiene was
acknowledged, there was certain awkwardness in the development
of sensible techniques. Behind this awkwardness, at least in the
Christian world, there might be the religious ambivalence with
dirt. Christianity has at times upheld dirt in appearance if it
covered a pure soul. Most of the prophets were begrimed and
dirty as the objects of persecution. The upholding of poverty
further championed laxity with cleanliness that was the
necessary accompaniment of poverty. At the same time
Christianity also said cleanliness is next to godliness, and
inspired cleansing of society, from outside as well as inside.
Lack of piped water, a cold temperature, a masochistic culture,
distain of hygiene and other factors resulted in atrocious
personal hygiene in earlier times. In Elizabethan England,
nobles used to take a bath in dirty water once in a blue moon.
To mask the stink many perfumes were used. Defecation and
urination were done in pots which shared space with men
throughout the night. Morning time ritual consisted of dumping
of such pots out of the window, which resulted in the chivalrous
custom of keeping women on the farther side from windows while
taking a walk.
The bidet was used for after-toilet ablution for a long time in
Europe. The use of the toilet paper, especially in USA, resulted
in a relapse of unhygienic ways, a custom that prevails to this
day. In The Bathroom, Cornell Professor Alexander Kira
sarcastically comments how men are "prepared to complain about a
tomato sauce stain on a restaurant tablecloth whilst they
luxuriate on a plush seat in their faecally-stained pants". The
use of water as a cleansing medium has no parallel, and since
times ancient, water has been respected and revered as the
agency of washing away dirt and sins - as much in Christianity,
where baptism occurs with a dip, as in Hinduism where till today
millions take holy dips in their numerous rivers. Since bathroom
is the place where one takes a bath, or bathes, it behooves that
the primacy of cleansing should be reserved for water only.
Today, we are blessed with the knowledge the lack of which meant
death and disability to our ancestors. The discovery of
pathogens and the microbial world has brought about a paradigm
change in our conception of the causes and effects of unhygienic
lifestyles. The toilet is the epicenter of a hygienic life where
we dispense with everything that is not required by us. It
behooves us as civilized men that we discard what is meant for
discarding in a way that is conducive to a better life. This
requires proper use of proper bathroom materials, something that
is easily done. The next time we think of cleaning ourselves, we
should remember that there is water. We should not hesitate from
getting our hands wet. And get it dry once we are done.
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