First of all, we’ve got to acknowledge just how satisfying – indeed, sometimes even cathartic – a picture of newfound cleanliness can be! The fact that there’s an entire online community created around the sharing of pictures like these speaks for itself. But what does that actually say, other than “ooooh, so nice and clean”?

Insights from a number of different fields seem to indicate that order and cleanliness tend to have a positive impact on our mental health and sense of wellbeing. Spending time in a clean space and even the act of cleaning can reduce stress and have all sorts of cognitive benefits for people suffering from anxiety or depression.

In one study, college students who received “mindful dish-washing instruction” reported improvements in a number of positive mental state attributes and reductions in negative ones. It’s not entirely clear exactly what those mindful cleaning looked like, but we imagine that staying focused on the positive impact a cleaning session will have on your life might be a good start.

 Another poll even suggested that, in response to cleaning, participants experienced a mild adrenaline rush comparable to what one might experience while watching a race.

According to the study: “One hundred percent of study participants agreed that cleaning provides peace of mind and a sense of control over one’s environment, 82 percent liked to admire their work after a good clean, and 81 percent felt a sense of accomplishment when they finished the task. In fact, after cleaning, participants reported feeling more determined, inspired and proud and less jittery, nervous and hostile.”

So that’s why you feel good when you clean and when you see these lovely power washing before-and-after pics! But what about the colorful history of power washing that we mentioned earlier? Well, read on for some interesting history tidbits!

The first power washer was invented in 1926 by Frank W. Ofeldt II. Frank was an engineer at a boiler manufacturer in West Philadelphia. Frank, not being wholly content with his lot in life, decided to get his hands on a piece of the Prohibition-era pie by spending his evenings engineering stills for local bootleggers.

One night, he noticed that steam streaming from a hose he had was pushing a puddle of grease around on the ground. He immediately understood the potential for this application, but also understood that some sort of cleaning agent would need to be added since he was working with grease. Thus began his experimentation and the eventual invention of the “Hypressure Vapor Spray Generator”, which a shrewd marketer later renamed to the “High-Pressure Jenny.”

Later, a German engineer named Alfred Kärcher improved on the design and built a power washer brand that became a household name for pressure washers.