Beech Tree News Network

Since I’ve started my spring cleaning, I’ve thought about how things have changed at my house. When I worked in education, I deep-cleaned my house in June – after the end of the school year. Now that I’m retired, I deep-clean in April and May, trying to complete the work before the school year ends. I’ve also given up some tasks and changed or taken on other chores.

First, when cleaning the rooms my children used to occupy, I used to go through my children’s clothing, shoes, toys and books to determine what fit and what was needed for the next season as well as what was age-appropriate. As a mother of three, that took a little time. Even though I worked much faster then, each room still took about a day. I went through closets and drawers to see what still fit them and moved out whatever was no longer appropriate. Of course, my children were not eager to help me determine whether an item fit or didn’t, but they were very happy when I moved on to another room. Although I remember those days fondly, I also understand that God normally gives us children in our younger years for many reasons.

Second, a task I seem destined to struggle with is keeping my utility room organized and uncluttered. Merriam-Webster defined “utility room” as a room in a home where equipment (such as furnaces and water heaters) or large appliances (such as washing machines) are kept. At my house, those things are in that room. My utility room also acts as a pantry, stores much of my cookware as well as cleaning supplies and other miscellaneous items. A storage overload exists in that room. Normally when I deep clean that room, some of my time is spent trying to make it more functional. However, this year I only plan to clean.

Third, when we built our garage, it became a sort-of-try-to-clean area. We put metal shelving around a part of the exterior walls of the garage, and I never thought I’d fill all those shelves, but, of course, I did. When cleaning the garage, I look for things I can throw away and things I can shift around to make more room, then I clean the floor and the appliances. It’s a one-day chore and a dirty one. However, I love my garage and the storage it provides, so cleaning it a couple of times a year is not a bad exchange.

Amy Weber said, “I … really enjoy cleaning my house….That is my time to unwind, put my hair in a ponytail, throw on sweats, and be myself” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/cleaning-quotes_2). I don’t love to clean, but I do love the feeling after the cleaning is done. So, whatever the cleaning chore, when it’s done, I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.