Clean One Cupboard

I’ve always associated the start of a new year with the start of a new school year. Perhaps I just can’t grow up in that respect (among others).

My internal clock is also not aligned with spring cleaning, as I find I often clean stuff out at the start of the new calendar year. Maybe it’s all the New Years resolution posts I see that inspire some cathartic tendencies.

Cleaning only one cupboard (or drawer or anything, etc.) is so easy and so gratifying that it makes me want to do another. Last night I was able to compost a bunch of food that was expired and sitting idly for years in my kitchen. The food waste is not ideal, but it’s a sunk cost. Raise your hand for basmati rice from 2012.

My (candidly) weird, old attachment to grunge music and Eddie Vedder kept a corduroy jacket in my closet for the past, probably, 10 years without one single wear. If I had put it in the donation pile 10 years ago, that would probably still be 10 years of ownership too long.

All the ignored socks… adios! All those t-shirts, all those hoodies (OK, almost all)… ciao!

If a cupboard is too big of a project, it becomes a hurdle. Slowly, this is how I lose steam, and the process of hoarding starts again. So it’s important to keep it small… to start.

It’s gratifying because it’s letting go of old things I don’t want, and creating new space for new possibilities. Sure, it’s just a kitchen cabinet, but when you build the habit one small thing at a time, it becomes a clean house, and maybe a clean mind.