Spring Cleaning

The time of year has finally arrived when the sun has begun to shine and we are beginning to believe winter is truly over. Curtains are being pulled back, windows are being flung open, and we are all taking in long deep breaths of fresh spring air.

Shaking off the dank musty shackles of winter is the first order of business once spring dawns. Too long have we been cooped up shivering in our homes waiting for the weather to be more amicable. We have spent the last few months like shut ins, and now at last we can go out and play.

Most people go about greeting the spring by cleaning things up. It is called spring cleaning for a reason after all. Something about having been stuck indoors all that time makes us feel the need to open everything up and clean it out. Clutter seems suddenly stifling, and as we let the fresh clean spring air in through our open windows it is time to throw out those unneeded things and give everything a good scrub.

I find that this time of year not only makes people want to clean out their physical cupboards, but their mental and emotional cupboards as well. This is a time for renewal and the shelf paper in the kitchen cabinets is not the only thing that needs replacing. We have cobwebs in our mind as well as the high corners of our house.

I have witnessed of late a good number of my friends going through cleanings such as this. They are taking stock and inventory of who and what they are. They are scrutinizing themselves and attempting to discard the parts that are no longer needed and update the things that are woefully out of date or in disrepair.

Of course doing such personal repair work is not simple. It is a process that may begin in the spring but might not come to fruition for a long time to come. Mopping the kitchen at least has immediate tangible results, even if it is just in the form of wet cat paw prints across your clean floors.

I started my own spring cleaning a little over two years ago and I am still working on it. There have been more than a few cat paw prints on wet floors and other obstacles along the way. I have retreated in the winter and come out in the spring feeling lethargic and lackluster. It is inevitable I think that the process must be repeated continually. You can not start it once and then be done with it forever.

While my actual house will have to wait until the first weekend in June to be scoured from rafters down to the baseboards, I can start my spring cleaning now. It is time to open the windows of my mind and soul and let in the fresh air. It is time to take stock and inventory of what there is. I must find what is in disrepair and begin to fix it and find what is obsolete and throw it out.

It feels good to breath in the fresh air and bask in the sunshine again.