The weather here in the Midwest is starting to warm up, and I spent much of the weekend participating in a ritual known to most as “spring cleaning.” Despite being a domestic sound bite that suggests an event of scrubbing floors, raking yards, and sweeping garages, I’ve come to realize spring cleaning is a ritual that has the capability to be so much more.
The goal behind the activity of spring cleaning is renewal. It’s to establish a physical and mental process for dusting off the cobwebs (literal and figurative) that so often accumulate during the colder months. At home, at work, and in your mind wherever you go, now is the time to hit the refresh button. In this blog, I’ll suggest a couple ways you can approach the ritual of spring cleaning in order to get the most out of it for yourself.
Though you probably won’t turn your spring cleaning into a full-blown exercise routine, the additional movement is good for you! Whether you’re sweeping out the garage, tending to the yard or garden, or simply moving around the house, dusting, sweeping, or putting things away, you’re getting off your butt where the last few months you may have been idle, and that is a victory!
Now, you’ve decided to do some spring cleaning. But it’s not like taxes. No one’s going to come knock down your door if you don’t do it. You’ve decided to do it because you know that a clean home is a happy home. An uncluttered mind is a free mind.
Cleaning up your physical space has undeniable mental benefits. You can actually feel the mental fog of built-up gunk and clutter beginning to dissipate as your space gets cleaner. All the residual stuff that builds up, the dust on the windowsill and whatever fears, anxieties, or resentments you may be holding onto, starts to become visible.
From this feeling, you can start to see a way out. What other kind of clutter is holding you down? Is your space at work allowing you to be your most productive and happy? Does your family have easy access to all the spaces they need at home? Have you built up any unhealthy routines you’d like to break now?
You now have an extra hour of daylight. So when you get home from work tonight, do a little spring cleaning. Pick an area that needs your attention and go to work. Watch your thoughts and see where your cleaning mind takes you. This is an opportunity for you to tap into your needs and make a real change from a yearly domestic ritual.
