It has become one of my most cherished traditions.
Every year, I take one gorgeous spring day, when the sun is bright and warm as it enters the house from the windows I’ve enthusiastically opened in every room, when the birds have returned to sing me the songs they’d been rehearsing all winter long, when the kids are at school and my wife at work and the house has exhaled, one gorgeous spring day to clean my house and my mind. I’m not sure which is needed more.
Before I gather the broom, dustpan and Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes, and before I start pulling all the papers and knick-knacks off of every dust-laden flat surface, I unplug myself from aaaaaall the devices that connect me to the outside world and pile up a stack of vinyl beside the turntable and place the needle down on the first LP that’ll soundtrack this annual cleanse.
Then, I begin the spring cleaning. Not in a rush, not harried in the least, not even half the whirling dervish I am on most days, but rather, with an ease of pace, like a Floridian retiree on the front porch with nothing to do but watch the sweat dripping down the outside of their glass of ice cold lemonade, for I’ve got aaaaaall day and not a care in the world about who is tagging me on Facebook, messaging me on Twitter, liking my photographs on Instagram, and I’m absolutely not tuned in to what a politician suggested, athlete is doing or talking head is giving his hot take about either.
I dust, I wipe, I scrub and I de-clutter from our partial hibernation. I start in the rooms I see and interact with the most: master bedroom, the family room and my beloved office. I restore order in my home and, because there’s my music playing with a crisp perfection of the finest audio format and because I am not dialed into ‘the world’ as it exists outside of my humble, getting-cleaner-by-the-hour home, an order begins to return to my mind and body as fragments of flowery sentences run through the word processor in my head and memories of previous warm weather days spent traveling with my wife and kids flood the spaces behind my eyes while I scrub and wipe and vacuum.
I break for a bite to eat and I’m statue still for the first time today. I sit looking at a room with no more cobwebs in the top corner above the lamp, no dust on the blue, green and brown woods framing dozens of our most fantastical family adventures on the wall above the sofa, no purple marker on the entertainment center cabinet, no books scattered on the floor beside the love seat, no residue of that tea mug ring on the end table next to my wife’s favorite chair, no cat hair build up on the back of that same chair, and with clean structured lines vacuumed into the conifer green carpet.
I smile, rinse off my lunch dishes, and get back to work just as the needle rises on a remarkable, soul reaffirming A side.
For 30 days of helpful tips, tricks and life hacks to make cleaning less daunting and more fun, be sure to visit Clorox’s “Springvent” spring cleaning calendar on www.SeasonofClean.com!
*OWTK is a Clorox CLXChampion receiving financial compensation for this and other stories. All opinions expressed above are honest and unbiased, as always.
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