My apartment is full of stuff.
When we moved in, we both did the culling of items that happens when you move. For me the decision making process was, do I want this bad enough to carry it with me. Move after move I would prioritize my items and make the thoughtful choice to get rid of things.
We’ve been in this same apartment since 2016.
Year after year as birthdays and Christmas pass by, more items are added to the mix. There are hundreds of books around the spot. I bought something like 18 pairs of shoes over the last 2 years.
Then with my grandfather’s passing adding even more items of all shapes & non furniture sizes to the mix, this place is embarrassingly full.
The choice is to go through all the random crap and get rid of things, or invest in storage.
Since it is still spring, I figured it may be worth some spring cleaning.
Spring cleaning is both traditional and practical in nature
One of the earliest cases of cultural spring cleaning is Jewish folk cleaning their home of bread products for passover.
Since you can’t eat anything leavened, you need to make sure no leavened food is in the home. When you are about it bout it with Passover, even a crumb, accidentally flying into your mouth sitting on a couch is a violation. One time at the Rabbi’s spot I learned that you gotta eat matzo bread over a bag and what not to make sure it doesn’t hit the table and come into contact with water, which may leaven the crumb.
Since Passover is a spring activity, spring cleaning as a tradition can be linked to that.
It’s not just the Jews. The Chinese folk will sweep before their New Year (right before spring). Other cultures have also baked cleaning into tradition, often for the sake of purity.
You clean up to get rid of the bad and organize for the fresh and new.
Also, it makes sense in many wintery places to wait until the spring to really deal with cleaning up your house. Fixing anything that broke in the winter. Also back in the day in spring, after your old timey combustion based heating systems mucked up the house, you could finally clean it all in a meaningful way.
Still, biology also has a part to play.
People prefer lazy hibernating behaviour in the winter
Okay you aren’t inherently being lazy.
The lack of sunlight leads to more melatonin. More melatonin means more lethargic drowsy behaviours. It appears we’re hard wired to not be as energetic in the winter.
Come spring we find our groove again and burst back into life full force.
With that comes the renewed vigour to tackle cleaning projects. There is clear evidence that a tidy and organized home tends to lead to calmer and happier people. I confess the more messy my apartment becomes, the more stressed being here makes me.
There is this constant reminder I need to deal with this chore.
I’m not one to follow trends and in a perfect world you would stay on top of cleaning. This kind of deep spring cleaning goes one step further. It’s a chance to evaluate everything you own and decide if you really need to keep it.
As an example, no one needs paperwork, just take pictures and archive them.
I realize that I can’t just focus on cleaning up my finances, I’d like to clean up all the parts of my life and live the best I can.
Some stuff is worth keeping, sell or donate the rest of it
I have a lot of mementos from my childhood.
Things like cards, artwork I made. I’ve got these handwritten stories and journal entries from a life I barely remember. There are pictures and other memories.
Included in that is trinkets. Small items that hold a special sentimentality are worth keeping. Or at least I think they are. They are nice to reminisce over but I always kept them to show my future children.
Currently I don’t have kids and maybe I never do (scary thoughts but alas we’re getting older).
Meanwhile half of a closet is full of random crap no one ever looks at, myself included.
Maybe there’s a content play in creating a video archive of a lot of it and like chucking it.
Otherwise I got all kinds of stuff I kept for the future. Stuff that sits there, and I will literally never use. For all I know there is like 500$ worth of crap I can sell if I really take the time to go through it all.
Whatever I can’t sell I can donate.
Just remember when you die someone is going to just go through your crap and throw most of it out anyway
While it’s good to keep all your necessities I have some new PRSPCTVS on possessing stuff.
This isn’t to say your nice things. Or the stuff you use regularly. I’m talking about random crap you think you will one day need, and then just never do anything with it.
Like that box of wires (as even Apple moves to USB-C).
Tools are probably worth keeping, but like, my grandfather had 15 of the same damned screwdriver.
A lot of the things we keep because they may be worth something someday are not worth keeping if you don’t have the space for it.
There’s nothing wrong with getting rid of something you don’t need. Even if you end up needing it again one day, it’s worth the risk. Most things you won’t ever need again.
I have all kinds of cheap Amazon gear I won’t use again, but kept just in case. I’d invest in better gear should I ever need that kind of stuff again. Still, it’s cluttered in my room right now.
I’ll keep you all posted on how the cleaning goes.
It’ll take awhile. Until then…
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
Yorumlar