Spring cleaning is for chumps

Why do we spring clean?

Yeah, it probably makes sense from a historical perspective. I mean, spring was probably the first time the pioneers had enough light to see into the dusty corners of there homesteads.

But, we are not pioneers (in the whole historical sense) and we have something amazing called electricity which means we can peer into our dusty corners any time we so choose. So, why, I must ask, does everyone still do this whole spring cleaning thing?

The last thing I want to do on a beautiful, sunny spring day is clean.

Why don’t we have ‘winter doldrums cleaning’ where come Jan 12, everyone busts out the mop and cleans the back of their closets and corners of their crawlspaces?

Winter is such a more favourable time to clean. There is no bike ride calling you, no barbeque to resist and there certainly is no warm sunshiney t-shirt-wearing afternoon waiting for you.

But alas, resistance is futile. It’s like trying to resist bopping your head to a Justin Beiber song, it’s just not possible.

I cleaned out my closets this past weekend and have a whole laundry basket of clothes waiting to be taken to Good-Will. The bathroom cupboards are up next to endure the ruthlessness that is my cleaning style. “When in doubt, throw it out” was always my mother’s motto and I’ve adopted it as my own.

Fortunately, I’m a little more discriminating than she is. In her house if it hasn’t been used in the past 30 seconds it’s in line for the trash or give-away bin. I like to allot a much more realistic time-frame of 3 months for every day things and 6 months for seasonal gear.

I also like to adopt the more realistic plan to only clean when it’s raining. Unfortunately there is rain in the forecast for the weekend.

Have you started to spring clean?