Spring Cleaning

We're in the process of doing our Spring Cleaning--and I capitalize it because it is an important event this year, for two reasons: Cleaning and Simplifying. As I walk through our house, garage, property, I see so much "stuff" and it really is too much. Do we need all this to live happily? No. It's true that it all has value, mostly sentimental, but I think we place too much value on the materialistic things.

So, we're going to start cleaning and simplifying. How, you ask?

We're starting in the house, one room at a time. We're starting with my son's room, going through everything in the room. First, the clothes and toys. We donate everything he can't wear anymore and the toys he doesn't play with anymore. As we go through everything, we clean. Move the furniture and the stuff, vacuum, wipe down the woodwork. We encourage him to do as much of it as possible--it's great training for his future. It also helps him learn that when he makes a mess, he's responsible for cleaning it up.

We're going through the house like this. The garage won't be as exciting, we've been using it as a dumping ground the past couple months! I haven't been able to park my car in it in all that time and it's amazing how easily you get used to that.

We have quite a few acres as well, and have to Spring Clean the land every year at this time. Apparently the previous inhabitants for the past century or so left garbage everywhere and either Mother Nature or they would cover it up with dirt. Every Spring Mother Nature pushes it up like so many daisies. So to complete our cleaning frenzy, I'll go out with a wheelbarrow and leather gloves and collect broken shards of glass, squashed metal cans, string, and old chunks of metal that I have no idea as to what they used to be. Last year I filled about 7 wheelbarrows full of this stuff!

The process of Spring Cleaning isn't fun, but when we're done, WOW! It feels so great to look around and see the beauty of everything, instead of clutter and dust. Why did we think we needed all that stuff?