Clearing vs. Cleaning
“Tidying is the act of confronting yourself. Cleaning is the act of confronting nature.”
Do you want cleaning to be easier? Clear space first.
Clearing spaces involves making decisions about what is in your space, why it is in your space. Holding the item, revisiting the item to see how it fits in this season of your life. What season of life are you in now? That’s a question that gives you information as you make decisions.
It’s also a question that can stop us in our tracks.
What if it feels overwhelming to acknowledge the season that we are in? Does that make it tempting to keep an item rather than confront it? Putting it away in a spare room or somewhere out of sight gives your future self the job of confronting it again.
Cleaning spaces becomes easier after spaces have been cleared. It takes less time when the distractions of items out of place are removed. Confront what nature has brought into your space vs. items that you’ve brought into your space.
As an organizer, my role is to help you through the overwhelm of making decisions about the items in your space. While I find vacuuming therapeutic and I enjoy cleaning my own space (rage cleaning I think they call it these days), this is a different service, house cleaning. Different set of skills, tips and tricks.
After spending loads of time at home during a pandemic, you may find that one or both services, organizing and cleaning, could give your space a reset.