How a Yale Football Player Found His Design Style (and Created a Cleaning Routine You’ll Want to Steal)
Yale University senior Mason Shipp doesn’t have a lot of free time during football season, to put it lightly. I spoke with Shipp on his off day, which is Monday. The other six days of the week are filled with team meetings, practices, and, of course, game day — and that doesn’t even include his classes. “So, [my] schedule is really busy,” says Shipp, a wide receiver for the Yale Bulldogs.
Shipp doesn’t waste a moment of his day off from football. “That’s the day for me to catch up on classes, homework,” he says. “And for me, one of the most important ones is cleaning.”
He’d spent an hour and a half cleaning before our interview. This part of his routine — weekly bedroom and apartment cleanings — has become almost second nature to him. “I don’t have a set time for it, but it’s sometime on Monday, I’m going to spend time going throughout my house to clean my bathroom, kitchen area, just make sure I do a deep clean of it,” says Shipp, who’s an ambassador for the American Cleaning Institute and its Class of Clean toolkit.
Keeping his bedroom and living space tidy is super important for Shipp. And he makes a good case for designated cleaning days: “I would say there’s not really a time after it gets clean that I get too much clutter going on because everything’s in its place,” he says. In his bedroom, Shipp tosses all of his dirty clothes in the hamper in his closet throughout the week, and he makes his bed every single morning.
He doesn’t let messes linger in the kitchen either. “After I cook, [I] wipe down the countertops and put things in the dishwasher,” Shipp says.
Shipp has even navigated how to keep common areas clean while living with two roommates. His secret: Setting clear expectations for a tidy living space. “You’re living in a place with people who are from all over the world, from all different backgrounds, and [who] are used to different things,” Shipp says.
For Shipp, taking care of messes is a simple way to get in a good mindset. “I prioritize being clean because the more clean my room and living space is, the more I’m able to feel like I have a clear mind,” he says. “And that goes [the] same for decorating my room. I don’t want to have clutter on the wall … I’m going to put [up] what’s meaningful.”
As a college senior, Shipp has honed his decor preferences over the years. “I want to make it kind of authentic to me,” Shipp says of his design style. As a freshman in the dorms, Shipp put up anything on a wall, like general “Yale” posters, but now he wants his surroundings to have purpose and meaning.
When Shipp moved into his current apartment the summer before his junior year, he was particular about what he brought with him. “I’m only going to put things on the wall that I enjoy looking at every single day,” he says.
One spot that Shipp definitely enjoys looking at in his room is a corner he curated with his most meaningful items. The area started as a spot to store books, and then he added two shelves to house more significant Yale mementos, like two Ivy Championship rings from winning the conference in 2022 and 2023 with his football team, his 2024 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team award, and an old football helmet with Yale Bulldog stickers. “The rest of that wall is [my] family, my dog, and just kind of important things like that,” Shipp says.
With a defined style and a refined cleaning routine, Shipp has created a space — and schedule — that totally works for him.
