Saturdays and Cleaning Rituals

Traditionally during my growing up years, Saturdays were the day for cleaning out the accumulation of a week's worth of living mess. And then polishing the house within an inch of its life in anticipation of Sunday -- our day of rest from usual chores and activities, and often having people over for a big dinner after church.

Saturdays were energetic days, as we'd get into our chores with a flurry with dust cloths, floor wax and accompanying polishers, not to mention the increasingly-skilled baking fingers of my sister, who was a whizz in the art of baking even at an early age.

Of course that was a long time ago.  When I first set up housekeeping as a young career woman, I still did things as we did them at home (which was a lovely pattern), but as life evolved into different seasons, the rituals of dusting and cleaning now often happens other times of the week.

Still, once in a while, I recall those Saturday mornings when a sunbeam would light on the huge box of Corn Flakes still on the breakfast table, as Mom would put us in charge of certain tasks -- I loved cleaning the living room so that I could rearrange the ornaments and even furniture.  It was motivating to chase out farm dirt from corners, giving everything an energetic shaking, scrubbing and shining.  Lots of work, but it felt good at the end of the day.  Smelled good too.

In light of those memories, I wanted to pass along a snippet from Alexandra Stoddard's book Living A Beautiful Life. Well worn and marked, this book has been my guide and mentor for more than two decades now, shaping my ideas and patterns for adding 'elegance, order, beauty and joy to my every day life.' Today's inspiration is on monthly rituals, Alexandra style:

"Life involves an accumulation of waste and clutter -- we must clean out the excess baggage in our lives on a rational and regular basis..... At our office, once a month, we have one day with no outside appointments and we attack our files, clean up all the clutter and create order. It's a necessary ritual that brings enormous rewards. We play music which soothes us. ...

At home I make this kind of attack on one area or another of our apartment at least once a week--a few hours of chaos and suddenly you feel exhilarated, just from throwing out. You find things you thought were lost forever. You make new discoveries. (note this part especially) A regular, serious attack on mess and unnecessary clutter, performed with a glad heart, makes you feel in control of all the parts of your life you care about."

Wishing you a lovely weekend!
Brenda
xox