My husband, ever so subtle, brought home an article the other day about spring cleaning. I’m the first to admit we are way overdue for a pretty serious house cleaning. Like many people we have accumulated way too much stuff over the years. When you are lucky enough to have a home, live in it for many years (20+ for Jim, 17 for me) AND have a basement it is human nature to save things “just in case”. Add to that a home business, a serious craft addiction and four pets and you end up with a pretty disorganized home. That is of course, unless you are Martha Stewart and in that case, good for you. Me however, well…lets just say it’s more like organized chaos. I first began to notice what effect the lack of “stuff” can have on a person when we bought the house in Arizona. We only have the bare minimum there and it is so refreshing. Everything has a place. I can easily find stuff. I feel lighter when I’m there. Part of that, of course, is that I love it there so much, but part of loving it so much is the feeling I have when I’m there. A clean and organized house is part of that.
I never did get around to sharing my new year’s resolutions with you but one of them was to focus on clearing the clutter, both from my life and my home. I’m not trying to overwhelm myself by tackling it all at once but instead in small (very small) pieces. If you need help getting started the article above has great tips. Although the Fly Lady thing never stuck with me, they really have some great ideas that work well for many people. It’s a little scary that I’ve been holding on to this idea for almost FIVE years now (I couldn’t believe it when I looked back to link that post) but maybe this time I can really make it stick. Please share any great cleaning/de-cluttering tips you may have learned over the years. I’m sure they are many of us out there who can use all the help we can get!
Another part of my spring cleaning is my body. I attended an Ayurveda workshop the 12-14th of this month which was focused on a spring cleanse. It’s not about losing weight (although that might be a side effect) or the ever popular “colon cleanse” but rather about freeing your body from disease through what you put into your body. There are plenty of place to read more about Ayurveda if you have an interest but I’ll try to give you a VERY basic overview. Before I lose you here, there are several principles in Ayurveda that make a lot of sense even if you don’t buy into the whole idea. Some of the main things are eating in season, eating local, organic/no pesticides and eating as fresh as possible (fresh has the most Prana or life) which is very healthy and makes sense no matter what kind of diet you have. There are five elements in Ayurveda (air, fire, water, earth, ether) of which each person is composed and three balancing energies (doshas). One or more of the doshas may be dominant which can cause imbalances in the body which creates “ama” or disease. Doing a cleanse is a process to rest your digestion and thus give your body a chance to be more focused on clearing ama from the body. Again, this my very limited understanding so feel free to chime in if you are a more experienced Ayurveda practitioner!
The rules of the cleanse are pretty simple. I’ll be drinking lots of water with lemon and lime to flush my system. Caffeine and alcohol (ama producing) are NOT allowed and I’ll only eat food that is easily digestible. For the first two days this means kanji (rice with spices, dates and raw sugar) for breakfast and kitchari (rice, mung dal and spices) the rest of the day. Days three and four are kitchari every meal. Five through seven are kitchari for breakfast and lunch, broth for dinner. There are a few more specifics as far as supportive herbs, yoga practices, meditation, pranayama, etc. but I won’t go into those now. It is a lot to take on at once but the idea, especially with a first cleanse is that some of the new rituals/habits will stick. Things that don’t stick are great too because it’s an opportunity to try something new and learn more about yourself. One of the things discussed most in the workshop was the way a cleanse allows you to see attachments in your daily diet and/or routine that may or may not be healthy. I’ll be sharing my experience with this over the next week. I’d love to hear from anyone who has done any type of cleanse or fast. What did you learn? How hard was it for you to overcome habits? What was it like afterward?
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
3 Responses to Spring Cleaning
Leave a Reply
Diva Knitting
Diva Knitting Store
Carefree Yoga
Yoga For Golfers
Diva Knitting Logo Merchandise
Link to Diva Knitting! (please save to your server) 
Deals and Gifts
Search with Google, win stuff! I've arleay won multiple Amazon certificates and a $400 check!
Hi Cheryl!
Whew, but you’re taking on quite a lot, eh? Spring cleaning AND body cleaning? Good gravy. It’s a good thing you don’t work outside of the home!
I’m proud of you, though (I know that I just made your day by saying that, eh?).
Let’s address the spring cleaning first. I have never been one to hold onto things. If I don’t use it, it goes, with the exception of yarn, which will be used when I get a chance.
I do a purge of unneeded items a couple of times a year and make my kids go through their things as well. Last summer, I did some serious closet-cleaning. But I’m daily looking for things to toss or give away. Once you get things cleaned up, you need to make sure you stay in the habit of keeping it that way. If you buy something, think about what it might be replacing, and get rid of the old.
Ok. Body cleaning.
I have done two ten-day juice fasts. Prior to the juice fasts, I followed Jordan Rubin’s The Maker’s Diet, which stresses raw foods accompanied by a small bit of cooked food. My husband and I followed the program for whatever time it said, and we did feel so much better after!
However, I felt the best while on my juice fast. The first three days were really difficult, but once I got past them, I found that I slept better, actually requiring much less than usual. I also realized what a heavy burden food had become. It was very freeing to not have to think about food! I juiced my drinks (fruit in the morning and veggie in the afternoon), and that was that!
The second juice fast was a little more difficult because I took my daughter to a soccer camp out of town. I took my juicer with me, but it was really hard watching her order take out from Outback.
However, I’d really like to make this a 2x/year thing. The rewards are so worth it!
I’m abyssmal at cleaning. I dislike doing it, and the only rooms that are regularly clean are the living room and the kitchen. I cannot function without a clean kitchen, so there are times when dinner is late because I was washing down counters (to make sure they are clean in case the cat jumped on them) and doing the dishes before I pull out the food.
Good for you with the getting rid of what you don’t need in more ways than one! The one pearl of wisdom I’ve tried to follow as far as clutter is, if you haven’t seen/used it in 6-12 months, you don’t need it. Not so easy to follow but a nice guideline when you are trying to figure out what to chuck and what to keep.
I’ve never really done a full cleanse but I would really like to try one some day. There’s a company that does a juice fast thing that you can have delivered and/or picked up in this area but it’s really expensive.
Good luck and let us know how it goes!