{"id":1744,"date":"2018-02-04T14:30:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-04T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=1744"},"modified":"2018-02-04T14:30:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-04T22:30:08","slug":"the-nesting-instinct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=1744","title":{"rendered":"The nesting instinct"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"clean<\/a>I\u2019m wondering whether there\u2019s some evolutionary or hormonal factor that drives women (I don\u2019t know about men) to clean every inch of their new home when they move house. The thought came into my head when I reread a letter to my parents written when we were moving from our first apartment in Cupertino, CA to a tract house in the same neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Feb. 2, 1970
\n<\/em>\u2026 I cleaned the apartment, then of course rushed back here to try to get a bit more cleaning up and unpacking done. The previous owner was a pretty sloppy housekeeper \u2013 still, I guess everyone complains about the other woman\u2019s methods. Anyway, most of the house is now more or less presentable \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Looking for information on the topic, I found lots of material on what is called the \u201cnesting instinct,\u201d the urge most pregnant women have in their third trimester to scrub floors, sort sock drawers, or perform other cleaning and organizing tasks. It appears to be triggered by an increase in the body\u2019s estradiol, the major female sex hormone, and is \u201can adaptive behaviour stemming from humans\u2019 evolutionary past<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, as webmd.com<\/a> puts it: \u201cJust as birds are hardwired to build nests for protecting their young, we humans are primed to create a safe environment for our new offspring.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t pregnant in 1970, so I looked up sites with information on spring cleaning. I found checklists, some tentative discussion of the custom\u2019s origin in ancient traditions and religious practices, as well as practical reasons for the task, especially in places of cold winters and times of sooty wood- and coal-burning heating facilities. And on sites about moving into a house, there were checklist after checklist, all of them assuming that the previous owner\/tenant is by definition a germ-carrying slob, and that the new occupant is motivated to clean every inch of the place. \u00a0A few examples:<\/p>\n

From Angie\u2019s List<\/a>:<\/p>\n