Do you have a bespoke ‘dirty zone’? | Emma Beddington

Apparently a dedicated mud room will make you less stressed.

But I have a very different approach I was excited to learn that the latest interiors essential, according to the Washington Post , is a “dirty zone”.

I’m ahead of the curve – I’ve already got a dirty zone by each main door (and also one directly outside the back door, where, rudely, a mystery animal has defecated).

The fridge drawers are dirty zones thanks to the windfall apples I thought I would cook, but predictably left to liquefy.

There’s a dirty zone next to the washing machine and a mildewy one inside it.

There’s the festering compost bin I’m too chicken to tackle post-heatwave, plus the cupboard under the stairs, which we don’t talk about.

Good luck finding a clean zone, basically.

Does this make me kinda chic ? Unfortunately not: the Post is actually preaching the benefits of confining the sordid ephemera of life to carefully delineated and hidden areas: storage benches, monogrammed totes or even a “mud room” (for coats, shoes, skis, lacrosse sticks and dog-washing sinks – I think posh Britons call it a boot room).

A 2021 study in the Netherlands found that participants who did chores in chaotic environments had higher levels of the stress marker salivary alpha-amylase.

I always wonder what’s brewing in my mouth as I fall over piles of filthy shoes yet again while running to answer the door.

Continue reading...