Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning 2015. I call it “The Purge”.

I know it’s not technically spring yet, but I have designated the entire month of March to cleaning and de-cluttering projects. I figure with a toddler, it will take the whole month. So far I’ve cleared out and cleaned the refrigerator, cleaned out and vacuumed the car, washed the couch covers, rearranged and swept out the bedroom, cleaned off my desk in the office, boxed up and labeled the too-small baby clothes, and tackled the scary little bathroom downstairs, which never got cleaned when we moved in and was already nasty then. The toilet still has some permanent stains, but at least now you can go do your business without thinking about STDs or spiders or something similarly gross. With every project comes conviction about clutter in my spiritual life. Especially when I cleaned out the fridge. I’m really good about going through and keeping everything fresh and up-to-date and preventing science experiments, but salad dressings? Yeah there were a few of those I needed to toss. I guess I tend to assume they last forever, but I found a few that were embarrassingly expired. Because I see them every time I open the fridge. I get used to them. I lose track of how long they’ve been in there because I’m familiar with them. And those Caesar salad dressings and raspberry vinaigrettes reminded me that I have habits and patterns that I have allowed to get stale. Like focused prayer time. Like intentional prayer. But the refrigerator wasn’t the only kicker. Clutter in general is a huge distraction to life. Physical living. Spiritual living. Relationships, etc. I took to my good online friend Merriam-Webster for a better definition of “clutter”:

Full Definition of CLUTTER

intransitive verb

chiefly dialect

:  to run in disorder

transitive verb