Tag: spring clean

Traditional spring cleaning seems to have gone the way of the drive-in movie. But for those of us of a certain generation, I’m sure we all can remember our mothers cleaning out the cupboards and closets as though it were yesterday, to begin the season with everything fresh and clean.

Ironically, many of us associate cleaning with drudgery, but clearing out can be a terrific stress reliever. The same spring cleaning mindset can be said about finances.

Spring cleaning coincides with the changing of the clocks; and so we need to reset our biological rhythms once again. During this yearly ritual most of us are polishing our mirrors and cleaning our windows to the world to shed more light on what’s happening in our lives. Oh, and don’t forget getting rid of the useless clutter to lighten up the home living space. These physical activities inevitably lead to spring cleaning our relationships, and if there is a marriage heading on a collision course this is an ideal time to stop and look at the big picture.

Many of us look to spring as the time to give the house in which we live a good cleaning. We throw away what is no longer necessary, get rid of a great deal of clutter and debris, and spiff up what we want to keep. The latter of which are often things we even forgot we had! We often make the items we keep handier—and use them regularly. When we are done with this stem-to-stern task we may be exhausted, but almost always feel refreshed and rejuvenated. I believe we can do the same for our personal relationships—those intimate partnerships that often get dusty and dirty.

The following are my suggestions for giving your relationship a good "cleaning." I think each one of these suggestions will make you appreciate what the two of you have together.

It’s spring and from the ground up we are all thinking about spring cleaning. Some of us are actually doing it while the rest of us are procrastinating. All that decision-making of what to throw away presents the primary impediment. Besides, throwing out what we have already purchased invalidates the money we spent as well as the intent—could we have been wrong?

Maybe you don’t realize it, but all of your stuff is piling up altering your perception: the various knickknacks, the hundreds of similar photographs, the piles of magazines and mail and the layers of dust. Your space becomes uninviting (embarrassed to let people drop in), which contributes to the loneliness. "Why don’t I have more friends?" Maybe you don’t really see the person who lives with you and loves you and he or she doesn’t see you anymore because the view is obscured. Here are some reasons why de-cluttering will immediately invigorate your life and renew your relationships.