Illinois People Keep A Cleaner House Than Most Of America

Sure, Illinois has its difficulties in some categories like property taxes, government corruption, and a steadily declining population, but we apparently make up for it with our spotless households.

Maybe your thought upon reading that was "Have you seen my house?" or conversely, "Thanks for noticing. I take pride in how clean I keep my castle, not like those awful Iowans."

Not really having a problem with the folks from Iowa, or how filthy they keep their homes, I'm more surprised at Illinois being named 4th on the list of states with the cleanest houses.

As the primary housecleaner at our place, I've come to the conclusion that a too-clean house is usually the sign of a bad internet connection. I've always agreed with the anonymous person who once said that cleaning with kids in the house is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos.

My late mother-in-law kept the cleanest house I've ever been in (although I was constantly afraid of making even the slightest mess), as she usually vacuumed and dusted twice a day. When I dust around the house, my Swiffer Duster usually winds up looking like a extra-large black licorice-colored cotton-candy on a stick, so maybe frequency is my problem.

TheWaycroft.com recently published the results of a survey where they asked people all over the country to rate their own cleaning habits on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the dirtiest and 5 being the cleanest. They talked to at least 30 people in every state to make their determinations on who's cleaning up versus those who aren't.

Here's the top 5 cleanest:

1. District of Columbia
2. Tennessee
3. Mississippi
4. Illinois
5. Connecticut

And the dirtiest:

1. Oregon
2. Alaska
3. New York
4. Hawaii
5. South Carolina

Listen, we're not going to get to number one with you just sitting around reading stuff on the internet. Grab your cleaning supplies and get after it!

I'm totally kidding. It's Friday. You can do it sometime over the weekend. Or, better yet next week. Or...