January

In the northern hemisphere January is a long, bitter, cold month.  It has thirty one days and for the most part we northerners are all hunkered down shovelling snow and trying to avoid frostbite.  And, of course, we’re watching the days get longer with the optimism that this year we will have a better garden, spend more time outdoors enjoying walks, outdoor barbecues and nature.  

Since January is the beginning of the year it is also when we have the most oomph for resolutions and  self enrichment. For example, I would like to learn the basics of another language (in my case, Italian) so that I can travel to the less touristed towns in my quest for slow travel and be able to enjoy “living like a local”.  Plus it is an attempt to keep my mind active to try to forestall my family history of dementia.   

But we are in our year of living Hogmanay and are committed to a deep dive cleaning of our homes.  We start with one room each month.  In this year we will divide our house into twelve sections.  For each month we commit to a thorough cleaning of that room or section.  If you have more than twelve rooms you can lump some areas together.  I call “hallways” one section and “bathrooms” another.  But you may want to categorize the bathroom attached to the primary bedroom as part of your main bedroom cleaning month.  But however you plan to divide up your tasks, put it in to twelve manageable chunks. Then we make a plan.  For each month of the year the strategy is to thoroughly clean that section in that calendar month.  For each person that plan may be different.  Maybe you have a big trip planned where you will be away for several weeks.  Then the strategy would be to tackle a smaller task that can be accomplished in the time that you are at home.  For example, I have a large garden (and expanding every year it seems) so I choose not to pick a difficult room for late spring early summer when I want to save my energy for establishing my outdoor flowers and plants that bring me joy.  The strategy is to make an individual calendar for your Hogmanay clean.  Remember that we are “reddin the hoose”.  So we are looking to chase away dirt in corners and establishing serenity and order to our house and life.  

In my case I find the hardest “rooms” to be the kitchen, the primary bedroom, and that black hole known as the storage room.  I prefer to tackle one of those big cleans in the month of January as there are thirty one days in the month, winter is a tough month weather wise and we are still on a high after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.  

Logically I should tackle the storage room, as the Christmas decor gets put away there, but it is dark and cold.  With so little sun hours I prefer to do rooms that allow me to enjoy the sunshine hours while they are here.  Every culture seems to have a sun god or goddess that was called upon in the darkest days of the year.  Helios, Apollo, Ra, Inti, Sol, Mithras…Whichever sun god, each culture valued the restorative and healing properties of the sun.  So to avoid the midwinter blues I decide to clean a major room that faces the south.  

So my January plan for my first room to tackle will be the open area kitchen/dining room.  This is the hub of the house and tends to attract the most clutter through the year. And without a thorough clean this is the area that I find items are most likely to get misplaced, food goes past its best before date, new recipes get tucked into odd places and notices and coupons tend to collect.  Plus it has the most nooks and crannies to get into as it is full of cupboards and drawers.  One of the drawers is even called “the junk drawer” so that will tell you this is where I need my most ruthless discernment.