What Your Cleaning Style Says About You: The Psychology of Mess, Dirt, and Personality

Some people bleach their skirting boards for fun. Others only pick up a duster when a friend texts, “On my way!” And some of us live in that curious middle ground where we swear we’re about to clean… right after one more episode on Netflix.

It turns out our cleaning habits aren’t just quirks, they can tell us something about our personality, our coping styles, and even our mental wellbeing. So, let’s take a look at the psychology of cleaning, and what your approach might reveal about you.

The Four Cleaning Personalities

1. The Emergency Cleaner

• Style: Gets more done in the half-hour before guests arrive than in the previous three weeks combined.

• Driver: Social accountability and mild panic.

• Personality link: Often lower on conscientiousness, higher on extraversion (they care what others think but don’t act until prompted).

2. The Maintenance Cleaner

• Style: Wipes down an already spotless surface, “just in case.” Loves the smell of bleach.

• Driver: Order, control, comfort.

• Personality link: High conscientiousness, sometimes coupled with perfectionism or anxiety.

3. The Creative Chaos Cleaner

• Style: Thrives in “organised mess.” Knows exactly which pile their important paperwork is in.

• Driver: Flow, freedom, flexibility.

• Personality link: High openness, lower conscientiousness — creativity first, de-clutter later.

4. The Delegator

• Style: Cleans only if no one else does it first. May secretly hope a flatmate or partner “breaks” before they do.

• Driver: Pragmatism, energy conservation.

• Personality link: Can lean on agreeableness (avoiding conflict) or avoidance (“someone else will do it”).

Untidy vs Dirty 

Here’s the important distinction: being untidy is not the same as being dirty.

• Untidiness (clutter, piles, mess) often links to executive functioning differences (e.g. procrastination, ADHD traits) or creativity. Research shows clutter is more strongly associated with stress and feelings of overwhelm (Roster et al., 2016, Current Psychology).

• Dirt (hygiene, germs, smells) triggers a different emotional response... Disgust. People who focus on cleanliness often do so for health, comfort, or anxiety management.

Each cleaning personality tends to lean more towards tackling mess or dirt. For example:

• Emergency cleaners usually blitz clutter before guests arrive (mess-focused).

• Maintenance cleaners often scrub even clean spaces (dirt-focused).

Recognising the difference helps you understand why you and your partner/housemates may have very different standards.

The Big Five: A Science-Backed Personality Profile

Psychologists often use the Big Five Personality Traits to explain everyday behaviours. Here’s how each trait might play out when it comes to cleaning:

Openness: High scorers may tolerate creative clutter; low scorers prefer tidy predictability.

Conscientiousness: High scorers are regular cleaners; low scorers lean towards emergency or delegated cleaning.

Extraversion: High scorers may panic-clean for social approval; low scorers clean for their own comfort.

Agreeableness: High scorers clean to keep harmony in relationships; low scorers prioritise their own preferences.

Neuroticism: High scorers may clean compulsively to reduce anxiety; low scorers are more relaxed about dirt and mess.

👉 Curious where you fall? You can try a free Big Five personality test here and see how your results line up with your cleaning style.

Where Mental Health Fits In

For some people, cleaning habits connect more deeply with trauma or mental health:

• CPTSD: avoidance until overwhelm leads to sudden “emergency cleaning.”

• OCD: over-cleaning linked to compulsions and contamination fears.

• ADHD: task paralysis until urgency makes cleaning unavoidable.

Even if you don’t live with these conditions, understanding them adds compassion to why people might struggle or over-focus on cleaning.

Final Thoughts – Be Kind to Your Cleaning Style

Whether you’re scrubbing grout lines with a toothbrush or shoving laundry under the bed before visitors arrive, your cleaning style reflects a mix of personality, habits, and coping mechanisms.

The real trick isn’t to judge yourself (or your partner) for cleaning differently. It’s to recognise the why, and to negotiate a balance that works for you both.

So take a moment to notice:

• Are you tidying clutter or fighting dirt?

• Are you cleaning for yourself, or for others?

• And does your personality profile match the way you keep your space?

Either way your home is a mirror, but it’s not a verdict. The mirror is for yourself to look with curiosity, not for judgement.