Cleaning House

CLEANING HOUSE

Sometimes the best form of therapy is “cleaning house.”  Especially when you take on the task of cleaning out a closet or a drawer where you have thrown a “little of this, and a little of that,” and realize you need to make room for something else. Some of us call this our junk drawer and we let the junk accumulate in this space, until it becomes overbearing for us.

As you go through your cleaning, you will always find things that you do not want to throw away…you try to justify a good reason for keeping them, instead of tossing them away.  You ask yourself, “Do I really need to throw this away?” Other times you’ll think, “Why?  Why am I holding on to this?”   Sometimes the justification is, “I can really use this!”   Then, there are some items that you find, that you will not find justification for, no matter how hard you try.  

Sometimes there is a sentiment attached to an object; but, that sentiment is not necessarily good or bad…it is just something that has an emotional attachment.  If the emotion is not a good one, get rid of that object.  Why keep something that emits bad feelings and regrets?  Why look at it again and again?  If the emotion is a good one, then find somewhere to place that object so that you can enjoy that emotion when you need a pick-me-up.  Don’t hide it in the bottom of a drawer or in the back of a closet.  Let is shine! 

Remember, there will always be something that needs to be thrown away or given away.  If the object is negative, holding on is not going to accomplish the task of cleaning your house.  The object will be thrown back in the closet or drawer and allowed to fester, once more.  It becomes a deterrent to getting the house cleaned.  In the back of your mind, you know that negative object is sitting there and it is bothering you.  Get rid of the negativity!  Don’t let keeping it make you regretful of that object. 

The exciting part about cleaning house is finding unexpected treasure.  Have you ever cleaned your house and found something that you had misplaced? There is a rush of adrenaline when you find those things.   There have been times when I have found something and exclaimed, “Oh, there you are!  I thought I had lost you.”  It is such a good feeling to find something that was treasured and lost.  Just think, if you had not cleaned house, you would not have found that treasured item.  Cleaning house can be very rewarding, as well as therapeutic!

Finally, there are different approaches to cleaning house, too.  Some people like to clean the whole house in one day.  Others choose to clean one room at a time and may split the cleaning into several days.  Some people clean every day of the week, others once a week or once a month, some people clean only when they have too, some clean when they are forced, and there are some who never clean (and are quite content to live in their own filth).  Yes, there are even people who pay others to clean for them.   There are also the people who want to clean everyone’s house, but their own.  They can tell you what you need to do and how you need to do it; however, they have no idea what to clean in their own house.  Regardless, each one of us must decide how and when we want to clean in our house. 

When will you clean house?  What house will you clean?  ~Muriel