There is something absurd about spending a Saturday morning with a bucket and hose, getting soaked just to clean a car that will be dusty by Sunday.
Yet for millions, this weekend ritual is more than a chore. In a world of abstract, digital work, hand-washing your vehicle offers immediate physical satisfaction, and as research shows, a genuine way to decompress.
The Saturday morning ritual
For many South Africans, washing the car is less a chore than a morning ritual.
The hosepipe needs to be unknotted, the bucket gets filled, the correct amount of soap is added, and you’ve already decided that you’ll start on the roof, work your way down and end with polishing the tyres before tackling the interior.
For some people it is a 20-minute job, but for others it becomes an event.
The wheels are scrubbed, tyres are polished and the inside vacuumed. Then the dashboard is wiped down and the windows cleaned with a clean chamois cloth.
After packing away all the paraphernalia, you admire your handiwork with an immense feeling of satisfaction.
There may be something behind that
It turns out that the feeling isn't entirely in our heads.
Research into cleaning has found evidence that the activity can have psychological effects beyond simply removing dirt.
A large 2024 meta-analysis published in "Psychological Bulletin" examined 129 records covering 230 experiments and more than 42,000 participants.
It found a measurable relationship between physical cleansing and psychological states, although the researchers also noted considerable variation between studies and warned that some of the underlying research has limitations.
Another study involving 3,066 participants in the UK, US and Canada found that actual cleaning could reduce some of the effects associated with stressful experiences. The researchers found that cleaning behaviour was associated with changes in psychological and physiological responses to stress.
That doesn't mean washing your pride and joy on a Saturday morning is going to solve all your problems, but it does suggest that there may be something satisfying about taking something that is dirty, untidy or neglected and making it clean again.
The before and after effect
Part of the appeal is the fact that the result is immediate because you can see what you have achieved.
There is no need for a progress report or a spreadsheet. Nobody has to approve the work and you don't have to wait until the end of the month to discover whether you have achieved anything.
In a world where so much of what we do happens digitally and where the results of our work can be difficult to see, there is something reassuring about a physical job with an unmistakable before and after.
The car itself
There is also something different about cleaning something you have chosen and paid for.
A car is a personal possession. We spend hours sitting inside it, take it on holidays, use it to fetch children from school and sometimes it hears conversations that others shouldn’t.
Keeping it clean becomes an expression of ownership.
It may also explain why some people become rather obsessive about the process.
A friend of mine washes his car every Saturday morning. He has a rack filled with polishes and soaps, a high-pressure cleaner, a sponge for cleaning and a cloth for drying.
It’s a whole palaver and I’ve spent hours watching him while I sip on a drink.
And woe betide anyone who climbs in with dirty shoes or dares to have a snack in the car.
The car wash isn’t the same
A car wash is quicker and more convenient; you can eat a pie from the garage store, and it means you don't have to spend your Saturday morning standing next to a bucket.
But when you wash it yourself, you get a clean car and the satisfaction of having done it.
Of course it will rain
You can spend two hours carefully washing your car, cleaning the windows and getting the wheels looking immaculate, followed shortly by clouds gathering before the first drops arrive.
Within minutes, all your hard work has been covered in water spots.
But washing the car isn't really about keeping it clean forever, but more about taking your mind off the daily grind and doing something tangible for a while.
Willem.vdputte@nationalmg.co.za