Deep Cleaning - spring cleaning is opportunity to evaluate life - Brief Article

Vegetarian Times, April, 1999 by Meredith Gould

Putting your closets, cabinets, drawers and life in order

Spring arrives relatively early where I live. By mid-March, daffodils and crocuses have burst into bloom. The air is suddenly softer. The world and all its creatures venture forth into the longer-lasting, green-gold light.

But not me. I stay inside to clean. And when I'm finished doing that, I get everything organized. Then, because cleaning and organizing is messy work, I tidy up.

My spring-cleanathon has evolved way beyond dumping stale crackers and weeding out the sweater drawer. It has become a total body, mind and spirit experience, ripe with symbolism about rebirth and renewal. It's an annual opportunity to view my world more consciously, to let go more completely and once again create a structure for living life more fully--not to mention more neatly.

Over the years, I've uncovered these four tenets of deep cleaning.

1. LOOK AROUND

Examine your living space thoroughly. Peek behind and beneath your furniture. Let your gaze capture every nook and cranny. Dare to open the junk drawer. Look at it all as though for the first time. What do you see ? If you're not visually inclined, how do you feel?

The first step to spectacular spring cleaning is simple awareness. Notice the spider-abandoned cobwebs along the ceiling, the broken bits of pasta under the stove, the dust bunnies mating under the bed. How long has that stain been on the carpet? Who wrote "dust me" on the piano? When did the produce bin in the fridge start looking like a science experiment? Suddenly you're seeing your world in a whole new way. (Of course, if you think everything looks just great, you feel just fine, and hear nothing but permission to go out and play, you're probably in denial.)

2. DIVE IN

There's cleaning and then there's deep cleaning. To really honor the season of renewal, I recommend diving way below the surface.

In practical terms, this means pulling everything out of cabinets, closets, drawers, the refrigerator and freezer, then stacking it all on the floor.

This frenzy does serve a purpose. First, it enables you to sponge off, wipe down and vacuum everything more thoroughly. More important, it helps you prepare to let go. Really examine your stuff. Take it slowly. Maybe you could get rid of that pasta maker you've used twice in ten years. Ask yourself honestly if you'll ever fit in those tight jeans again. Get the creeps when you find an old love letter from an ex. Who were you then? Who are you now? Who do you want to become ?

3. LETTING GO

Indulge me in a few cliches. You can't fill a bowl that's already full. When one door closes, another one opens. There's no room for change if there's no room. Nor is there space for a new toaster if you insist on keeping the one you've had since college even though it shorts-out every time you plug it in.

Deep cleaning requires honesty. It's a time to purge, to eliminate the irrevocably broken, bent, cracked, torn or slightly melted. You know dam well that you'll never spot-weld the hinge pin on your favorite garlic press--the one you've already replaced--so chuck it. The expiration dates on those vitamins are so faded you can't even read them, so toss 'em. Went a little wild during the last canned goods sale? Donate a case or three to the community food pantry. Call the Salvation Army for a clothes pickup. Remember, you're making room for the new.

4. TIDYING UP

The best organizing system is the one that suits your style, so bend the so-called rules. When you put stuff away, stash it in a manner that makes sense to you. Where do you naturally reach, for what and when? So what if no one in the history of cooking has ever put a salt shaker there. Let everyone else organize her spices alphabetically or haphazardly. Behind your closed cupboard doors, spices are organized by country of origin. However you end up doing it, there are no crumbs in your junk drawer. In the hidden recesses of your closet, where no one can see, everything is hanging neatly. You feel a sense of peace.

With your home organized, can the rest of your life be far behind?

Meredith Gould is a freelance writer in Princeton, N.J., who also makes it her business to help the busy, burdened and befuddled get, and stay, organized.