When you think of April, what kinds of images come to mind? Do you see a perfect spring day with every garden in full bloom, or do you see a landscape covered with enough pollen to make you sneeze for a week?
Do you picture an Easter egg hunt, with children clutching colorful baskets, running around trying to outdo their friends in the number of eggs they can find? Perhaps you imagine that you have created the cleverest gag in the history of April Fools’ Day, and you visualize yourself executing it.
Then there is the matter of spring cleaning, something that pops into my mind immediately when I think of April. As someone who has spent many spring days climbing on ladders to reach closet shelves and reaching under beds only to discover missing clothes or Halloween candy that has seen its better days, I can assure you that spring cleaning is about more than scrubbing floors or polishing furniture.
One of my first experiences with the emotional aspect of spring cleaning happened when I helped my friend Susan go through her mother Hazel’s belongings after she died. Susan was extremely close to her mother, and her death was a tremendous loss for her. I think Susan wanted help going through her mother’s closet because she didn’t want to do it by herself, so I offered to help.
Susan’s mother, like my mother, grew up during the Great Depression, when everything you owned was used until there was nothing left. Clothes, shoes and food were precious commodities that were never wasted.
When we opened the door to Hazel’s closet, we were surprised to see the contents. Susan’s mother had always made all of her own clothes, and judging by the number of patterns and pieces of fabric we saw, she never threw anything away. The “waste not, want not” world Hazel had grown up in remained with her all of her life.
Susan decided to give the patterns and fabric scraps to one of Hazel’s friends. While this entire cleaning experience had been difficult for Susan, I think she was glad she managed to get through it. She alternated between laughing and crying while we cleaned out the closet, but I think more than anything else, she felt that she knew her mother better now than she ever had before. Who knew that opening a closet door could lead to a moment of personal enlightenment that would stay with Susan forever?
While Susan’s spring cleaning experience was poignant, most of my experiences have been the exact opposite. I laugh every time I think of all the things in my closet I have felt the need to discard. What makes this kind of cleaning so comical is that it usually reminds me of my fashion tastes, both past and present.
My wardrobes have run the gamut from disco goddess to yoga novice. Many of my spring cleanings have included not only the removal of trendy clothes, but my amazement that I ever bought them in the first place. Did I really need spike heels? Why did I buy a pocketbook large enough to double as a suitcase? What was I thinking when I bought a pair of jeans that were so tight I could hardly breathe?
It became easier for me to clean out my closet when I discovered the joy of wearing yoga pants and T-shirts most of the time. I no longer blush when it is time to do some spring cleaning because I am not sorting through a wardrobe that makes me cringe and question my taste in clothes. Instead, I have gone from throwing away a lot of trendy clothes to throwing away very little. Hazel would be so proud of me.
A lot of us do not like the thought of doing such thorough cleaning, whether it is in the spring or any other time, but it has advantages that go far beyond having a clean house. In Susan’s case, she discovered that her mother was a practical, frugal woman. In my case, I discovered that scaling down my wardrobe works for me.
Thanks to spring cleaning, I now have a new appreciation for Henry David Thoreau’s belief that we should “Simplify, Simplify.” Like Susan, I found enlightenment by opening a closet door.
Mary Zahran, proud owner of yoga pants, may be reached at maryzahran@gmail.com.
Read CityView Magazine’s “The Faith Issue” April 2025 e-edition here.