Do I Really Need to Spring Clean?
Ideally, we should be on a continuous cleaning cycle. I like to think of it like the ladies who clean Mt. Vernon. They start at one room in the house washing, dusting, vacuuming. . . and by the time they have cleaned every room in the estate, it is ready to start all over again. The best house cleaners of our time suggest this approach to keeping a house in order. Even those chores which are yearly in nature, like cleaning carpets, washing drapes, steam cleaning furniture, cleaning the chandelier are best spread throughout the year and not just kept for spring. This is also how the professional maid services approach these.
Realistically, what busy mom has time to keep track of when the last time the chandelier crystals were cleaned? For today’s busy moms who don’t have a maid service, I want to suggest a more practical approach to these daunting chores that we frequently overlook. I use a very, common tool—the “to-do list.” You probably even have one tucked away somewhere. Let me suggest three ways to get the most out of this “to-do list” and get these bigger or less frequent chores completed.
First of all, make the list specific. This is a “to-do list” about chores that don’t get done daily or weekly or even monthly. These daily, weekly, or monthly chores are already assigned and written down in our notebooks/planners. It’s also not the list about who needs to go to the dentist. Let’s call it our “BOC” list (Big and Occasional Chores). This chore list has those things which you know you need to do, but never can remember them when you start to clean. Or those things which you often forget to do until company comes over, and you notice how dirty the curtains are. Or you will be sitting in your child’s bedroom one evening reading, when you notice that the blinds are very dusty.
Secondly, put this list in a handy place so that as soon as you leave your child’s room, you can go right to your list and write it down. Lastly, keep it in a consistent place. If you have to search for it, it will never get used.
Using it is going to be another challenge. I have found that when I am consistent with my list—writing things down and chipping away at the list, an amazing thing happens. . .The lists gets done. I’m not kidding! Try it. Yours may take longer than you like, but it really happens. I hope this little twist on the handy, dandy, to-do list will help you tackle those bigger chores.
And what about spring cleaning? Did you know that spring cleaning originated with the Jewish tradition of celebrating Passover? In Jewish homes, every crumb of leavened bread had to be cleaned out before celebrating Passover. Thus, the tradition of spring cleaning began. For us, we do our own sort of spring cleaning of the soul during lent. We fast and do penance to purge our souls of sin. Why not combine these traditions to both “spring clean” our soul and our homes. What do I mean by this? Simply, let’s tackle our “BOC” list with vigor and offer this sometimes tedious and dreaded work for penance. This can be a partial way to prepare our soul to celebrate the resurrection and perhaps our homes might be a little more pleasant, as well.