Spring cleaning

There is no better time than now to de-clutter your mind and space

It is a word that we now use throughout the year when we embark on a thorough cleaning up of our homes or offices. Spring cleaning, we call it, even if we are cleaning up in autumn or even winter

But there is a reason why the word has 'spring' attached to it. And there is a long and hallowed tradition behind it in more cultures than one.

The practice can be traced back to the ancient Jewish custom of thoroughly cleansing the house before Passover. The community prepares for the holiday by throwing out all items made with yeast (which they are not supposed to consume during this period) even conducting a ritual candle-lit search the night before to ensure that no leavened food product is hiding away in some corner.

The practice of spring cleaning continued with the Early Christians, who would conduct it between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. Even today, it is customary in Greece and other Orthodox nations to embark on a great cleanse either before or during the first week of Lent.

Some trace the origins of spring cleaning to the Iranian New Year festival of Norouz -- more familiar to us in India as the Parsi Navroze -- which marks the first day of spring and is marked by 'Khooneh Tekouni'. This translates, quite literally, as 'shaking the house' and involves a top-to-bottom cleaning of the home, taking in everything from the furniture to the furnishings.

In India, Hindus would embark on this kind of deep cleanse before Diwali. But somehow there is a symbolic logic in undertaking such an enterprise when the cold recedes and makes way for warmer days. The grass grows greener, the flowers bloom, and it is as if the entire earth is being renewed. So, what better time can there be to blow away the cobwebs -- both literal and metaphorical -- cluttering your world, and emerge as a cleaner, newer you?

Just on the off chance that you are up for it, here are a few tips to get that spring cleaning going:

* Start with yourself. If there are any old habits or ancient hang-ups holding you back, make an honest effort to banish them from your mind. If there are people around you infecting your life with negative energy, make a resolution to slowly phase them out (or, at the very least, pay no attention to them). If you are stuck in a rut -- in either your personal and professional life -- acknowledge that truth to yourself. Only once you accept that reality can you begin to change it.

* Work on your immediate environment. A cluttered space often begets a cluttered mind. So, if you are striving for clarity of both thought and purpose, then start de-cluttering. Your beside table should never have more than two books that you are currently reading (all those that you have given up half-way or finished should go back on the shelves) and maybe a small notebook and pen in case inspiration strikes late at night. Your nights creams and lotions belong on the dressing table. And your phone and tablet should ideally not be in the bedroom at all, or else you'll just keep obsessively checking them late into the night. And that will clutter up your head even further.

* Then start with your home. Keep one principle in mind when you begin spring cleaning. Every single thing in your house should bring you joy. If it doesn't, then it doesn't belong in your home. Those books you bought at some airport, which turned out to be complete duds: chuck them out. Don't keep that ugly vase just because your mom-in-law gave it to you. (Don't worry, you can always lie and tell her it broke; God will understand completely.) Those DVDs you are never going to watch again? Give them away. And be honest, does that couch really need those many cushions?

* The office is the logical next step. I am not a great believer in littering your work space with pictures of your family, paintings made by your kids/grandkids, mementos from your travels, or even novelty mugs to drink that awful canteen coffee from. Keep your desk clear. Keep the walls (if you are lucky enough to have them) bare of personal memorabilia. And give yourself the mind space to think, to reflect, and to come up with new ideas.

* And then, it is time to spring clean your life itself. Discard all the time-wasting techniques that you have honed over years. So, no aimless surfing of the web. Restrict your social media time to a couple of hours (and no cheating, please!). And no vegging in front of the television, watching cheesy soaps that will turn your brain into mush. Jettison all those people from your contact list with whom you haven't had contact for over a year. And most important of all, reboot your life to create space for new experiences, new people and new adventures. You won't regret it.

Happy New Year

In case you haven’t made your list of resolutions as yet; here, for easy reference, are some of mine

Yes, it’s that time of year again. The time when we chalk up a long list of resolutions, all the stuff that we absolutely must (or must not) do in the spanking New Year that stretches out before us. Odds are the list will be abandoned by the time February rolls around, but for what it’s worth, here’s my own list of New Year resolutions, in no particular order of importance.

De-cluttering my life:

This starts from the very basics. The closets bursting with clothes that I will never wear (i.e. fit into) again. The shelves groaning under books that I barely got through the first time and will never re-read. The CDs I never listen to now that all the tracks have been downloaded on to my Ipod. The magazines that lie piled up in a corner (and are still untouched after several months). The shoes that have been retired from active duty now that my back (and increasingly, my knees) has given up on me. The solitary bottle of barbeque sauce that lies forlorn and ignored on the back shelf of my larder. The ficus plant that stubbornly refuses to flourish on my balcony. All junk must go.

Trimming my friend list:

Over the years, we all end up adding friends to our extended circle. There are those we bump into at parties; those we discover through the social media; those we meet in the new neighbourhood we move to; those we acquire by marriage; and those that acquire us. But as social research indicates, it is really not possible to keep up with more than a 100-odd people (especially if some of them are very odd indeed). So, maybe this is as good a time as any to get rid of all those who add nothing to my life; those who are unremittingly negative; those who take a particular pride in running everyone else down; and those who are legends in their own lunchtime. (FYI, if you need to ask, “Don’t you know I’m famous?’ you’re probably not.)

Making time for those who matter:

Once I’ve got rid of the flotsam and jetsam of my world, it will be that much easier to work on my next resolution: spending time with those people who really matter to me. Long conversations on Skype with old school friends I haven’t seen in years. Making time for a cousin who has flown into town for a couple of days. Touching base with extended family. Long, lazy lunches with my girl gang. Bonding over boozy dinners with my favourite Smug Marrieds. Ah well, you get the picture.

Swearing off all diets:

Yes, yes, I know you’ve got this absolutely fantabulous diet. And yes, I can see that you have oodles of weight on it. But you know what? I don’t want to hear about it. Yes, you got that right. I. Don’t. Want. To. Hear. About. It. I don’t want to know how carbs mustn’t be mixed with proteins. I don’t want to be lectured about how I need to finish dinner by 7 pm at the latest. And I certainly have no interest in the glycemic index of various food items. So, be a dear, and shut up about your diet already. (Because, in any case, I can’t hear you above the siren call of that chocolate fondant.)

Rationing my time on the Internet:

Sadly, my search for a Net connection that automatically times out when it senses I am wasting time has come to naught. So, I guess I will have to do this the old-fashioned way: by exercising some self-control. That means not spending more than an hour on the Net every day, no matter how tempting the cyber trail that leads me away from the topic I type into the Google search box. And, of course, resisting the temptation to refresh my Twitter timeline every half hour.

Finishing my book:

If I can stick to the resolution listed above, this one will be so much easier to fulfil. If I could just check which Tube line went from Westbourne Grove to Camden Town; read an article on the Lashkar-e-Taiba network in Bradford; research the new Beretta models on the market; and get right back to my writing, I would have finished my first draft by now. Instead, I go flying off on a tangent, clicking link after link until I’ve clean forgotten what I was searching for. Well, no more procrastination, starting right now. It’s full steam ahead with the writing.

Staying positive:

I am tired of indulging the prophets of doom and gloom in the world. I no longer want to be told that a, b, c is impossible to achieve – well, at least not in our lifetime. I don’t need that kind of negative energy in my life. So, I am going to say nay to the naysayers. This year, as far as I am concerned, nothing is impossible. Or better still, my motto is going to be: The impossible? There’s nothing to it.