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I think about deep cleaning in the same way a young artist might think about art. I have to be inspired to do it. It might sound like I’m lazy, but I’m not. I know that once I open my closet and pick up a holiday decoration, I will enter a never ending vortex of organization that will keep me from doing any of my other important daily tasks, such as work, bathing, eating, you get the idea. 

Here are a few reasons why I, and many other creatives, might have a harder time spring cleaning than the average Joe:

Everything has a use if you use your imagination

Find some holey t-shirts in the closet? You could use them as rags, but they’re a bit too nice for that. Maybe they can be turned into headbands, and better get on that immediately as the inspiration has struck!

Everything sparks joy, or some other emotion

It’s not that it’s hard to throw things away, but first you need to reminisce about the time you last used that backscratcher. It was when you first got it-  in your Christmas stocking- 14 years ago? There was a funny story behind it. Better write it down. It could be used in your next novel. 

Hyperfixation, or as I like to call it, hyper-zen

Once we get on a roll, we really don’t like to change activities, and will continue with the same task until it’s done, no matter how long it takes.  

Time-Bindness

Lots of creatives are neurodivergent, and one not-so-great neuro-spicy trait might be time-blindness. You might plan to clean for an hour. Once it feels like the hour is up, you wonder why the sun went down early and everybody else has gone to bed. 

Perfectionism

They say that art is never finished, but cleaning isn’t art, so we need to finish it gosh darn it! We take too much pride in everything we do to just say “good enough”. I guess cleaning is our life now. 

Whether it’s one or all of these problems that make deep cleaning seem daunting, creatives may need a good strategy. Putting it off longer is probably the worst way to deal with it. When it comes to any kind of cleaning, I’ve recently gone back to a trick that I learned from my parents. When I was a child, they would tell me to pick up ten things and put them away. As a busy adult, I don’t have time for that, but instead, in addition to any new messes I make each day, I also give myself the tiny task of cleaning up (or throwing away) one extra item in each of two rooms. It literally takes only a minute or two each day. Try it. Reward yourself with a small treat or by giving yourself a point in a habit app (I use Habitica). If you keep up this habit, when it comes time to do an annual deep clean, it will be less daunting. 

Thanks for reading!

Rebecca H. Lee
 

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