Yep. The title says it all. March is international spring cleaning month, and I’m here to remind you.
The origin of spring cleaning dates to centuries ago when, with no electricity, houses were lit with wax and -more poorly- tallow candles, and warmed with wood or coal fires. The windows would be shut tight for months to keep the warmth in. And all through the winter people would drag in mud, snow, and dirt from the streets. Imagine what houses smelled and looked like when spring came around.
It made sense.
Nowadays one must wonder why we continue with the notion of spring cleaning. If we have no candles and no fires to dirty our homes, why should we clean and organize more than usual. There are two valid reasons:
We still seal our homes for winter and even summer if we have air conditioning. So what happens? Over time the air gets rarified from not being renewed and day in, day out there is either humid cold air or hot dry air running through our living space, so that over time everything acquires a patina of habitation soot.
Secondly, we are a consumer society. We buy things, find things that we decide to save for a day of future need, we get gifts, something breaks and we set it at the bottom or back of the closet in an ever-growing “things that I need to fix” pile that never gets fixed… all of us are packrats this way.
Because of these two so different reasons, it is good to have a yearly purge, a time to go through it all and, with a clear head from the new fresh air –you got it, from those open windows, yes!- organize, clean, and get rid of things.
For those who believe in the philosophy of Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese belief in finding harmony within through the careful arrangement of our external environment, spring cleaning offers the chance to un-clutter your mind and body, by organizing your living space and starting afresh.
So; man, woman, couple, family, this is something you should consider doing in your home, and there’s no better time than in the early days of spring, when have all that pent-up energy from having been indoors all winter. Get rid of stuff and re-organize.
If you have never performed a spring cleaning and wonder how it all goes down… let me shed some insight:
It is not about cleaning per se, but more about clearing out clutter. Let me give two examples: the bathroom cabinets and the fridge/freezer. During spring cleaning you should go through the bathroom and throw out everything that you have not used in a long time. How long a long time is, is up to you. You know the bottles with half a finger of product, the old hair styling products, the dusty cotton things that are simply unusable since they are dusty… they need to go. Those who use cosmetics, you know the rules, I am not going to go into specifics but you know that every cosmetic product has a very clear usage life, so go through them now, while you’re at it.
And the fridge? Time to go through all those jars at the bottom/back and see what has become a science project (yes, you know you have them, it happens), check expiration dates on everything because sometimes things look OK, but aren’t. The freezer… throw out anything that is a mystery and anything that has accumulated ice. Also if you have any food that is not properly wrapped and has been directly exposed to the cold air of the freezer, you should not consume them.
After that you should plan a proper refrigerator cleaning but I am not going to teach you that. Ask friends and family, you will find many experts amongst them who can guide you.
In your kitchen, also remember to go through your pantry, inspect all dry foods for pests, and the expiration dates of everything canned and jarred.
While you do all this… remember to recycle... sort all the glass, metal and plastic. If your neighborhood or building has a compost bin, please discard all the food to that. Helping the environment helps all of us.
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