I Used the Japanese Concept of “Kiyomeru” While Cleaning My Home, and It Made Chores Less Daunting

Cleaning is something that many people don’t enjoy, but it has to be done — otherwise your home will become unhygienic, cluttered, and stressful. It’s completely normal to feel tension toward the task, especially after a tiring day or a sleep-deprived night. But coming up with ways to ease these tensions will help your motivation to crack on with cleaning in the present, as well as improve your relationship with the chore in the future.

While reflecting on how to improve on this myself, I talked to Laura Coufal of The Simple Daisy and learned about the Japanese concept of kiyomeru, which encourages a person to clean in a mindset of gratitude. I was eager to find out more and try it in my home. 

Kiyomeru, which directly translates to mean “to purify,” is a Japanese concept that sees cleaning as far more than a chore: It’s an active practice of showing care and gratitude for the things you own, as well as a way to cleanse your spirit.

“Kiyomeru refers to cleansing your surroundings not only on a physical level, but also on a more spiritual, energetic level,” says Coufal. “Because the grime and clutter in our homes and our minds are often bound together tightly, by clearing and cleaning our surroundings we automatically clear our minds. In other words, by creating space and order in our outer world, we create space not just around us but inside of us.”

I woke up the next day keen to see the impact that following kiyomeru could have in my home, but quickly learned that the most important part of the process was taking time to get into the right headspace. It isn’t as simple as telling yourself, “Yes, I’m grateful, let’s get this over with.” You have to give yourself space to shift your former negative associations with cleaning and instead go into the clean with an open mind.

For instance, when I’m really tired, I might leave my dishes for a couple of days. Even though cleaning that small amount of dishes won’t take long in the moment, because I’m tired the chore becomes a way bigger thing in my brain, and a bother to complete.

I have a dishwasher in my new place which I’m grateful for, but I instead opted to wash my dishes by hand and focus solely on completing the task the “kiyomeru” way. I didn’t play any music or television in the background, no one else was home, and I had no time crunch. It was just me quietly washing dishes alone with what felt like all the time in the world.

Admittedly at first when I was cleaning I thought to myself that doing this seems a bit pointless and time-consuming when I could just put everything into the dishwasher, but I kept going and tried to think about the act of cleaning at the same time as cleaning my dishes.

I found myself admiring the patterns on the plates that someone had designed and thinking about how lucky I am to have food to eat and, in turn, dishes to clean. As much as the dishwasher would have been quicker, this definitely felt like an act of self-love toward the things I had in my home. 

Am I going to stop using my dishwasher? No. But after taking time to clean more mindfully, I felt notably more fulfilled. And filling my cupboards and drawers back up with clean dishes to use made me happy.

I’d recommend trying this out — even if it’s just for 10 minutes among a busy schedule or family life. You don’t have to retire your dishwasher or make any drastic changes, but it might bring that same wave of gratitude into your life as it did in mine, which can make the exhausting days with stuff to clean that little bit less daunting.