What Do Couples Who Have the Most Sex Have in Common? Their Bedroom (But Not in the Way You Think)

When you think about cleaning your bedroom, you likely think about a necessary but boring chore, being yelled at by your mom for not doing it as a kid or half-heartedly shoving piles of clothes under your bed for a quick fix. What you likely don't think about is...sex? But as it turns out, keeping a tidy sleep space could be the secret to an active sex life.

Huh? It's not that the act of changing the sheets is a turn-on in and of itself, but keeping your personal space clean and fresh makes it more inviting to be intimate. Think about it: If you're even a little bit in the mood, walking into a messy explosion of clothes, shoes and everything in between is pretty much guaranteed to make you snap out of it and think, Ugh, I knew I should've tidied up.

Better yet, if you share the chore (and you should), you'll get the job done faster and you’re both in on a little secret. (And just like that, cleaning can be sexy?)  

Just make sure not to become a cleaning gatekeeper, which could have the opposite effect of encouraging intimacy. In that instance, one partner tends to be much, uh, tidier than the other—and has strong opinions on the right way to clean. To the point that when the messier partner does clean up, the gatekeeper swoops in and re-does their work. It seems harmless in the moment, but now your partner feels like you don’t appreciate his help—or worse, feels judged for their second-rate cleaning skills. Meanwhile, you're bottling up resentment for that messily folded sweater. As long as the job gets done, cut each other a little slack.

You know what they say: happy wife, happy life clean bedroom, better sex.