This week my task has been to vacuum my bedroom, stairs and bathroom area. First off I had to plan the task into my day as I am studying and I wanted to use the task as a study break so I can get away from my desk space for a while. I finished the study I was doing and then went and got the vacuuming out. I was hoping I wouldn’t need to replace the bag, and to be honest I didn’t even checked I just hoped it would be okay. I took it up the stairs, plugged it in and started vacuuming my room. Within seconds I realised I hadn’t tidied my room first and so I shut the vacuum off and put my things back where they belong so I could vacuum as much floor space as possible. Once everything was tidied I started the vacuum again and finished vacuuming the floor. I then moved on to vacuuming the stairs which is something I do so that less stuff off the ground would then be dragged into my room on people’s feet. The bathroom was the last area I vacuumed as it is a bit fiddly, moving around bins and toilet paper and the wooden shelves. I moved these as I cleaned so I could put everything back into place quickly. My flatmate then asked me to leave the vacuum upstairs so she could vacuum her room when she finished cleaning so my job was now done.
The first practical consideration I had to make was obvious, when I was going to complete the task. It was good that the cleaning could give me a break from sitting and starring at papers and it was a simple task that I could achieve easily. The second consideration that I thought of was whether it was appropriate to vacuum while my flatmates were studying. For this consideration I figured that the pros out-weigh the cons as the flatmates get to benefit from a clean bathroom and stairs for having to listening to the noise of the vacuum. Also my flatmates were wearing headphones and listening to music so I don’t think that they really noticed the noise. Another practical consideration is about whether the bag in the vacuum was full which is something I chose to purposefully ignore so I wouldn’t have to deal with the possible outcome if it was full. The final consideration that came to mind was cleaning before I vacuum. This was a consideration that I didn’t think of at first but became extremely obvious once I began cleaning.
In terms of ambience, I noticed a definite change in the space I was in before and after vacuuming. The task allowed me to take a few minutes to tidy my room and put things in the right place so I had fewer distractions when I studied. I enjoy when the floor is tidy so having a clean bathroom means I was able to have a more enjoyable shower that night knowing that I was in a clean environment. One of my flatmates thanked me for cleaning the bathroom and said it looked really nice so that made the character of the social environment improve as well.
