\n<\/p>\n
I<\/span> was excited to learn that the latest interiors essential, according to the Washington Post, is a \u201cdirty zone\u201d. I\u2019m ahead of the curve \u2013 I\u2019ve 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\u2019s a dirty zone next to the washing machine and a mildewy one inside it. There\u2019s the festering compost bin I\u2019m too chicken to tackle post-heatwave, plus the cupboard under the stairs, which we don\u2019t talk about. Good luck finding a clean zone, basically.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cmud room\u201d (for coats, shoes, skis, lacrosse sticks and dog-washing sinks \u2013 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\u2019s brewing in my mouth as I fall over piles of filthy shoes yet again while running to answer the door.<\/p>\n This dirty zone system sounds nice, but deeply, decadently unrealistic. A mud room, rather than various rooms containing some mud, surely isn\u2019t something most people have. If you do, apparently you\u2019ll also want a $115 (\u00a385) petitgrain and neroli reed diffuser, to help mask the smell. One expert consulted by the Post suggested green as a mud room colour scheme, to coordinate harmoniously with your brown delivery boxes \u201cif you\u2019re a heavy Amazon shopper\u201d, which has a real last-days-of-Rome ring to it.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have a muted green, neroli-scented mud room, don\u2019t despair \u2013 mud is good for you. A 2022 study in Finland found that exposure to muddy environments improved immune system regulation and decreased levels of harmful bacteria in the microbiomes of nursery-age children. My home may be one big, sprawling dirty zone, but I probably have an awe-inspiringly powerful immune system \u2013 and that\u2019s a real chic must-have.<\/p>\n Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist<\/p>\n Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was excited to learn that the latest interiors essential, according to the Washington Post, is a \u201cdirty zone\u201d. I\u2019m ahead of the curve \u2013 I\u2019ve 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[12118,25253,11803,6034,1088],"class_list":{"0":"post-52033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-beddington","9":"tag-bespoke","10":"tag-dirty","11":"tag-emma","12":"tag-zone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}