06_07_2020

The Deeper Benefits of Spring Cleaning

I was introduced to the ritual of Spring Cleaning at an early age.  My mother routinely followed the practice, although I never exactly what motivated her to undertake the project each year.  Based on her training as a nurse, my guess is that the ritual of spring cleaning to her was a way of killing any lurking bacteria, dust mites, or other pesky elements that had claimed squatting rights in our home.

I know that I hated the process as it involved heavy duty work all day.  First, any furniture that could be moved was moved outside.  Anything that could be laundered headed to the basement and took its turn in the washing machine before being hung outside to dry.  The storm windows were taken down, windows were washed,  and the freshly hosed screens were put in place before the window fans were installed.

The walls and woodwork were washed down, and the floors were scrubbed and polished.  Most of the cleaning smells had a freshness about them, so when the room was finally put back together, there was some sense that all of the work was worth it.

My approach to spring cleaning does involve degrees of cleaning, but compared to my mother’s approach, my efforts could best be described as “cleaning-lite.”  I am much more engaged by the opportunity to go through things within a room with an eye to letting go of things that I no longer feel a need to keep. I have been practicing a similar approach to “decluttering” before I ever heard of Marie Kondo.  Fortunately, in the area I live in we have opportunities to donate no longer needed items that are in good condition to Goodwill Industries.

Sometimes it is easy to let go of things and other times I do experience a sense of loss as I depart with things that had meaning to me at one time.  When I graduated from college and rented my first apartment as I started my teaching career, I relied heavily on garage sales, second-hand stores, and other recycled opportunities to create a warm and welcoming living space.

As I part with belongings each year, it helps to know that there are likely people who will experience the same excitement that I did when I found what I considered to be remarkable treasures at reasonable prices.

I usually start the process of going through each room after the Christmas season has passed.  I consider January – March to be my nesting months as the winter months do not involve garden or yard work with the exception of shoveling snow.  Knowing that I am ready to head outdoors come April, I try to have my version of spring cleaning completed by the end of March.

The process of cleaning, letting go, and opening up to new experiences that are in keeping with the changes I am going through feels like it is connected to my growth and evolution in other areas of my life.   I became an avid reader as a child, and I loved reading books in which a lot of attention was devoted to creating a welcoming home.  Hurricane lamps in windows were one of the welcoming signs of a home’s warmth and coziness.  To this day, I have several hurricane lamps in my home, and I still find that they convey a sense of warmth and coziness.

Since January I have been reaching for Sarah Ban Breathnach’s book, Simple Abundance: 365 Days to a Balanced and Joyful Life each morning as I enjoy my first cup of coffee.  Each day there is a short, thoughtful essay that I find is a nice way to start the day.  I was surprised to find that many of her essays focus on the concrete aspects of living as opposed to the more spiritual essays that one finds in the work of Mark Nepo.  I felt like synchronicity was on display as a number of the April and May offerings focused on spring cleaning.

Her words offer a deeper understanding of the importance of spring cleaning:  “May brings a desire for deep spring cleaning – emotionally and home-keeping – as our reawakening feminine creative energy slowly increases along with sunshine, birdsong, apple blossoms, budding lilacs, and crisp lavendered linen.”

                I love the idea that spring cleaning can also have an emotional layer.  Actually, I think that it is the changes that are going on within us that allow us to take stock of what we no longer need.  More importantly, I think the shedding process allows us to open up and welcome some new parts of ourselves that are continuing to evolve and blossom.

This has been a very unusual few months for all of us, particularly in the United States.  The pandemic has limited our access to others and to the amenities offered in our broader landscapes.  I am enjoying the experience of living in a quieter environment, finding more time for reflecting and exploring what lessons we might learn from this uninvited hiatus.

Perhaps it is the more contemplative dimensions of the last several months that have contributed to a more highly tuned sensitivity and reactions to the hatefulness that we all witnessed in the unnecessary and cruel killing of George Floyd.  Floyd’s murder was the straw that moved me to decide that I had to take steps to put a more compassionate and unifying set of leaders in Washington come November this year.

English homemakers have  their own saying for spring cleaning; they refer to it as “bottoming out a room.”   The pandemic has offered us a time to participate in an unusual – and hopefully, a once in a lifetime opportunity – to “bottom out.”  Maybe the combination of forced isolation along with fewer distractions has granted us the openness to absorb the impact of the deep injustices and harm that result from systemic racism in our country.

The sustained momentum of a broad spectrum of our country is calling on all of us to take what steps we can take to support change.  I do not want to live in a country where the president and his minions think it is acceptable to order brutal assaults on peaceful protestors.

We have an opportunity to do some spring cleaning in our own country, to shed the practices that support systemic racism, and that limit and harm people based on their race.

No doubt it can feel overwhelming to know where to begin, and to find ways of expressing your values and belief that are within your reach.  If you are like me, you will feel some of these anxieties as you take the steps to become more involved.  Searching for organizations that are looking for volunteers, watching for invitations from your local area to attend vigils, and watching for other invitations to assist in building and modeling the kind of communities we want to live in are ways to begin.  If you have not discovered Pod Save America or Vote Save America, they are good places to start.

It is possible for all of us to evolve, and to find our voices that have remained silent in the past. All of us need to lend our hands, hearts, and heads to cleaning our house in an effort to get our country order.