On holidays, we all agree to make time for something important.
On Thanksgiving, we visit family (and our families know to expect us, and most people have the day off). On Halloween, we dress up and act silly and roam the streets (and everyone rolls with it, and the streets are safe and well-lit).
What other important things do we struggle to find time for?
Cleaning comes to mind. We all have clutter; it weighs on our minds and drains our energy. We should take a day each year to beat it back.
On Clean Something Day, everyone takes time to clean. It can be physical or digital. It can be your space or someone else’s — even a public space. You can clean with friends or strangers. The only rule is to end the day cleaner than you started.
Three days of cleaning, years apart, gave me this idea:
San Francisco
I went to visit a friend. He was happy to see me, but clearly distressed by the state of his bachelor apartment. After his third apology “for the mess”, I suggested we cancel our plans and clean the place instead: “I’ve just been reading Marie Kondo and I want a chance to try it out.” (This was true.)
I knew him well enough to think he’d appreciate the suggestion, and I was right. After a couple of hours, his apartment looked much better — the kind of space he could un-bachelor in, so to speak — and I’d learned more about his life in the course of sorting random objects (“Was this book any good? Where did you thrift this shirt?”).
San Diego
I lived at One Miramar Street, which houses hundreds of UC San Diego students. Before they built a bridge, the only way to reach the university on foot was an informal trail through a hole in the fence. A few homeless people set up camp there for a time; they left behind hundreds of cans, bottles, and wrappers, which blew in the wind and wound up covering the entire path.
I used the path myself, and it made me feel a bit sad to see the mess. One Saturday, I got tired of feeling sad and decided to solve the problem. (Most of the problems I face in life are much larger; I felt almost lucky to find one I could handle myself in a few hours.) I bought some gloves and brought a box of trash bags and cleaned. It was a weekend, so there weren’t many students walking; when I saw one, I said something like “just cleaning up!” and no one bothered me. It was also good exercise. That evening, after a shower, I felt cleansed myself.
The path stayed clean as long as I lived there; I felt a bit happy whenever I saw the absence of mess. We didn’t have any more visitors – but if someone had camped out, I’d have cleaned again after they left.
Berkeley
Today, I sorted the last of the 662 post ideas I brought to Inkhaven, many of which expired before they could be written. My shoulders feel lighter, and I can’t stop smiling when I look at my sparkling, well-tagged Notion database. I can’t wait to write 23 more posts this month. If Clean Something Day had existed all this time, I might have restarted the blog years ago.
Ways to celebrate
- Visit someone with a messier house — maybe a parent of young kids? — and help them get it under control.
- Get your friends together for a digital purge party (unused subscriptions, ancient emails, overstuffed folders…)
- Assemble a volunteer army and clean one of your city’s parks or beaches.
- Clean your garage. (Doesn’t have to be fancy!)
Whatever you do, set aside the evening to have fun — either in the space you cleaned or somewhere else rewarding.
This can also be a day to celebrate the people who spend their lives cleaning:
- Leave a tip for the office custodians, or your neighborhood garbage collectors.
- Organize a gift for the janitors at your child’s school.
- Give your stay-at-home spouse a break and take over housecleaning for the week. If you don’t know what that entails, this is a good time to learn.
What’s the date?
I suggest March 20 for the spring equinox. Spring cleaning already exists — what better way to start the new season?
But since many people already clean in spring, a fall date would offer year-round coverage. So my second option is October 9th — Marie Kondo’s birthday.