Cleanliness

Cleanliness

We should know the importance of cleanliness. Cleanliness refers to the state of keeping clean ourselves. It also refers to keeping our surroundings such as our home, our neighbourhood and our school clean. Some ways to keep ourselves clean are:

• Have a bath every day. Having a bath helps us get rid of germs, sweat and other harmful substances that might have entered your body during the day.
• We must wear new clothes every day. We play and move around which causes our body to sweat. Wearing clean and comfortable clothing should be a part of our daily routine.
• We must brush our teeth twice daily. It is important to keep your mouth, your gums, your tongue and your teeth clean. Brushing helps get rid of the food particles stuck between your touch and other harmful bacteria in the mouth. We should also floss regularly so that our tongue keeps clean.
• Keep your hair clean. Wash your hair with a good shampoo every alternate day so that the dust particles or oil stuck in your hair gets removed.
• We must ask our mother or father to help us cut our nails regularly and keep them clean. Untidy nails can cause germs to breed which can cause diseases as we eat our food using our hands.
• We should cover our mouth with a handkerchief when we cough or sneeze. Coughing or sneezing release viruses from our body and we should not release it into the environment.
• We must remember to wash our hands with soap and water. We should not skip the soap because soap helps get rid of the germs on our hands. We should wash our hands especially:
  - when hands look dirty.
  - before eating or preparing food.
  - after touching raw meats, including chicken and beef.
  - after touching any body fluids like blood, urine or vomit.
  - after touching animals.
  - after blowing their nose, sneezing or coughing.
  - after going to the toilet.

Some ways to keep our surroundings clean are:

• We must always throw wastepaper, kitchen waste, pencil shavings, and other waste in the dustbin and we should also keep the dustbins covered.
• We should also pick up the litter from the road and put in the correct dustbin to keep the streets clean. Otherwise we would be living in a filthy city.
• We should help others keep the school environment clean and keep it clean ourselves too.
• We must help our parents dust the house regularly. This is because furniture and other items catch dust and it is important to keep our house clean at all times.
• At home, we must make sure that a disinfectant is used with water to mop the floor to keep it germ free.
• We should also help to keep the bathrooms and toilets clean regularly.
• We must also remember to keep things in the right places to make the house look neat and tidy.
• We should not allow dirty water or garbage to collect inside or outside the house. It contains germs which can make us fall sick.
• We should make sure that the drains covered to keep away pests, rats, lizards, and cockroaches.
• With the help of our parents or local gardener, we should help plant trees in your society or garden. Plants help keep the air clean and you can breathe in fresh and healthy air around you.
• Ensure that your drinking water tanks are cleaned regularly. This is because germs and insects may breed in water. Using this harmful water can cause us and our loved ones to fall sick.
• We should reuse plastic bottles and containers to put plants and other materials. This is because plastics take a lot of time to decompose and cause environmental, land and water pollution. People throw plastic bottles everywhere and this is a wrong practice. We must throw garbage in the proper bins.
• We need to make sure that your desk, both at school and at home, is clean. At home, put your plates and bowls in the kitchen sink right after your meals. In school, we should make sure to clean our desk after we have eaten our tiffin.
• We must not pluck flowers from the school or neighbourhood garden and throw them everywhere.
• In the classroom, we must keep our bags near our desk and not let them lie here and there on the floor. Out notebooks, pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, sharpeners, and other stationery items should be in our pencil boxes or kept neatly on our tables.