Cleanliness

Cleanliness habits can be surprisingly personal and cultural. These questions explore everything from daily routines to bigger debates about organization and hygiene standards.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. What is the dirtiest job? Would you ever do it?
2. How often do you wash your hands with soap?
3. How often do you clean your house or room? What do you spend the most time cleaning?
4. Do you do the dishes right after eating? How long do you let the dirty dishes sit without washing them?
5. Who is the cleanest person you know? What do they do?
6. Do you clean your bathroom or your kitchen more often? How often?
7. What cleaning product do you use the most? Where do you get it?
8. Do you take off your shoes when you go inside your home? What about when you visit someone else’s home?
9. How do you keep your phone and computer clean? How often do you clean them?
10. What do you clean every day? What do you clean once a week?
11. Do you make your bed every morning? How long does it take you?
12. What do you do when your clothes get a stain on them? Do you try to clean it right away?
13. What is the strangest thing you have found while cleaning? Where was it?
14. Did you have any chores when you were growing up? What did you have to do?

Elementary (A2)

1. If you drop food on the floor, will you pick it up dust it off and eat it? Why or why not?
2. What is the grossest thing you have seen someone do?
3. Did your parents let you get dirty when you were a child? What kinds of things did you do?
4. What is the dirtiest you have ever been?
5. Do you know anyone who is REALLY concerned about germs and cleanliness? What do they do that stands out?
6. Do you prefer a clean house or a comfortable house? What’s good about each?
7. What is the messiest room in your home? What makes it so hard to keep clean?
8. Have you ever hired someone to clean your home? How did it go?
9. What cleaning task do you always put off? Why?
10. Have you ever cleaned something and then someone made it dirty right away? How did you feel?
11. What smell do you associate with cleanliness? Why do you like it?
12. Have you ever tried a cleaning trick you saw online? How did it go?
13. What food makes the biggest mess when you eat it? Why is it so messy?
14. What’s the worst mess you’ve ever had to clean up? Tell me about it.

Intermediate (B1)

1. How clean is too clean?
2. How dirty is too dirty?
3. How can bacteria help humans?
4. Should people wear shoes inside their homes? Why or why not?
5. Should parents make children do chores around the house? Why or why not?
6. Some people say a messy desk means a creative mind. Do you agree with that? Why or why not?
7. What do you think makes someone a ‘clean person’ versus a ‘messy person’? Give me some examples.
8. Do you think people today are more worried about germs than people were in the past? What has changed?
9. Should restaurants be required to post their cleanliness inspection scores publicly? Why or why not?
10. Is cleaning a waste of time since things just get dirty again? How do you decide what’s worth cleaning?
11. How much does cleanliness matter when you visit someone’s home for the first time? What do you notice first?
12. If your roommate or family member was very messy, how would you handle it? What would you say to them?
13. If you could never clean one thing in your home again, what would you choose and why?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. How have cleaning product advertisements changed over the years, and what does that tell us about how society thinks about cleanliness?
2. How do cleanliness standards differ between cultures? What happens when people with different standards live or work together?
3. Compare how people cleaned their homes fifty years ago with how they do it today. What has improved, and what have we lost?
4. How has the rise of social media influenced people’s expectations about how clean and organized their homes should be?
5. What are the environmental costs of keeping things very clean? How should people balance cleanliness with sustainability?
6. What is the relationship between mental health and cleanliness habits? Consider both being too messy and being too obsessed with cleaning.
7. How has technology changed the way people clean their homes? What do you think about those changes?
8. Some jobs require extreme cleanliness (hospitals, restaurants, labs). What challenges do workers in these jobs face that most people don’t think about?
9. How did the COVID-19 pandemic change people’s attitudes toward cleanliness and hygiene? Which of those changes do you think will last?
10. What role does cleanliness play in how we judge other people? Is that fair?

Advanced (C1)

1. In many cultures, cleanliness is closely tied to morality — we talk about ‘dirty money,’ ‘clean living,’ and ‘washing away sins.’ Why do you think physical cleanliness and moral goodness became so connected, and how does that connection still shape behavior today?
2. The cleaning industry is worth billions of dollars and depends on people feeling that their homes are never quite clean enough. How do companies create and maintain that anxiety, and what effect does it have on how people spend their time and money?
3. Throughout history, ideas about cleanliness have been used to separate social classes and even justify discrimination against certain groups. How do cleanliness standards still reflect power and privilege today?
4. Some scientists argue that modern obsession with cleanliness has weakened our immune systems, while public health experts say hygiene prevents deadly diseases. How should societies navigate this tension between being too clean and not clean enough?
5. Cleaning work is essential to every society, yet it is often invisible, low-paid, and done disproportionately by women and immigrants. What does the way we treat cleaning workers reveal about what a society truly values?
6. During COVID-19, people sanitized groceries, wiped down packages, and avoided touching surfaces. Now many of those habits have faded. How do fear and habit interact when it comes to cleanliness, and what does that tell us about how humans assess risk?
7. Many religions include cleanliness rituals — washing before prayer, dietary restrictions, purification ceremonies. How do these religious practices shape a culture’s everyday attitudes toward hygiene, even among people who are not religious?
8. Wealthy neighborhoods tend to be cleaner, and clean environments are linked to better mental health and lower crime. But is cleanliness the cause of those benefits, or just a symptom of having more money and resources? How do you untangle that?
9. Social media influencers have turned home cleaning into entertainment, with millions watching ‘cleaning motivation’ videos. What psychological needs do these videos satisfy, and what does their popularity say about modern life?
10. When a country hosts a major international event like the Olympics or a world summit, it often cleans up homeless camps, hides poverty, and polishes its public image. Is this ‘cleaning up’ actually about cleanliness, or is it about something else entirely?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions