It’s that time of the year again where I go through my cleaning routines, and clear away things. And as always, I am faced with the perennial questions of whether I should keep or discard things.
Spring cleaning is a really painful process. It’s not the cleaning per se, but the memories the stuff bring back, the many a times difficult decision whether to discard or to continue keeping things that remind you so much of defining moments of your life. I often have to remind myself that things past had passed and that these artifacts and the memories they carry with them are temporal in nature. In time, it fades and when I go, it will mean nothing to whoever clears my house. This helps me let go. And this year, I started throwing things that I had kept for over 2-3 decades, including the perfume bottle given me to by my first crush in 1996, and the many items I used to don during my coming out years. I have, nonetheless, continue to keep some stuff. It’s still too fresh in my memories to let them go. And so, my many of my mum’s things still stay.
Spring cleaning is not just about cleaning away the dust that had settled over winter and to give spring a fresh and clean start. Spring cleaning, to me, is also also clearing away old attachments and letting them go - couple of things at a time - and allowing me move on with life.
