No, this headline is not misleading! If you need any incentive to go ahead and hire professional house cleaners in the Kansas City area, this might be the information that pushes you to make the call!
There is a relationship between the educational and financial success of children and the cleanliness and organization of the home in which they grew up. Now, of course, we are not promising that your preschooler will learn how to read after a visit from our maid service, but it might not hurt to try!
The study, “As Ye Sweep, So Shall Ye Reap,” was written by Jeanne Brooks-Gunn (Columbia University), Greg Duncan (Northwestern University) and Rachel Dunifon (University of Michigan). It was published in the May, 2001 issue of the American Economic Review. The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Science Foundation, and the Institute for Child Health and Human Development, was an analysis of research conducted over the past 30 years.
A summary of the study, from the TC Media Center at Columbia University states:
“For five years beginning in 1968, researchers made yearly visits to 3,000 homes and rated their cleanliness on a five point scale. A score of five was considered “very clean” and a score of one considered “dirty.” Twenty-five years later, the researchers, Rachel Duniforn of Michigan, Greg J. Duncan of Northwestern and Brooks-Gunn assessed the educational attainment and earnings of the young adults who grew up in those homes.
After controlling for parental education, income, and many other factors, they found that young adults who grew up in homes rated clean to very clean had completed 13.6 years of school compared with 12 years for those whose childhood homes were rated as not very clean to dirty. Their wages reflected the same pattern, with those growing up in the cleanest homes averaging $14.17 an hour compared with $12.60 an hour for those raised in the least clean homes. For a 40-hour-week, that adds up to about $3,100 more a year.”
There were many conclusions drawn from the study, in particular that a clean and organized home is an indicator of how organized and structured the parents are. Those qualities positively influence children and contribute to their adult success.
So, as we say goodbye to this hot Kansas City summer and embrace “Back to School,” we here at Green Clean Maid Services hope that you’ll let us help you get clean and organized for the new school year! After all, isn’t easier to both concentrate and relax when your surroundings are organized and serene?