Cleaning Closets

The past two days have been spent do the major fall housekeeping, a ritual that is repeated every season in my home. There is the washing of windows and baseboards, vacuuming of ceilings, scrubbing and polishing of floors, furniture and knick-knacks... you know the list is endless. The most dreaded of my tasks is the cleaning of closets and yet this is also the most therapeutic. As all the hidden stuff is pulled out and assessed for it's necessity or usefulness, decisions are made to either keep it, throw it out, or give it away. Suddenly in the midst of these banal decisions I am hit with a doubt, or worry, or fret about something going on in my life. Like the junk in the closet, the cluttered junk in the mind usually surfaces while I'm focused on performing the closet cleaning tasks. I allow myself to really think about the problem or issue, I don't stuff it away and usually the assessments for it are the same as for the stuff in the closet. If it doesn't serve me well (like a worry) I throw it away. If it is a problem that doesn't really belong to me ( this is usually a fret) I mentally send it back to whomever it belongs. But if it an issue that demands my personal attention, belongs to me alone, and needs a home in my head, I keep it. Once the clutter is gone, the real issues can be put into focus and worked out. That's why to me, there is nothing as satisfying in the realm of the seasonal cleaning ritual as a tidy and spacious closet.