Dreaming of Spring Cleaning with Snow Still on the Ground

When I was growing up in southeast Kansas there was a tradition of Spring Cleaning at this time of year in our small rural community. The event usually occurred when the windows could finally be opened and the house could be aired out for the first time after a long winter.

Mother took the bedspreads off all the beds and hung them over the clothesline in the backyard. Pillows would be clipped to the said clothesline, as well as large rugs, and any large cloth-type items that would not fit into the washing machine.

Next, she would wash AND IRON everything else: sheets, pillowcases, and every washable curtain in the house.

Then the window washing began.

Each window would be taken apart and washed inside and out. The floors would be scrubbed and polished and the kitchen cabinets would be cleaned and organized. (It seems like she took out each dish and glass hand-washed them, put down new shelf paper, etc. Did I dream that?)

The only job I can remember that was mine was to stay out of the way and to clean my room, closet, and dresser drawers. I wasn’t particularly fond of this job, but to this day I still try to organize my clothes and dresser drawers once a year.

As a child, I would pass down my clothes to my little sister. So it was easy to clean out my closet and just dump the clothes I had grown out of on her bed. (That poor girl probably never wore a new outfit until she was a teenager.)

Since I was the oldest girl my clothes were new, but I didn’t have many outfits. Mother would always hand make my sister and me a beautiful spring outfit for Easter Sunday, but in between our clothes were pretty plain and low budget. Mother made a lot of our clothes partly because she was thrifty and partly because I think she really enjoyed the artistic part of sewing.

Either way, we always had clothes on our backs.

Back to spring cleaning.

Mother was extremely into cleaning the house each week, usually on Saturdays, but spring cleaning was different. She took it up a notch and even hired someone to come in and help her sometimes. Dad and my brother would clean out the garage and by the end of the exercise, the entire house was spotless and organized.

It almost felt like a new house.

It must have felt good to her to have a fresh clean house and possibly a fresh start on life. Mother spent most of her time working in the house during the day and that must have become old and boring. (Later, when we were school age mother took a job as a secretary at a local elementary school, but the first years of her married life were spent at home looking after us, and the house full-time.)

So, I remember that house on North 9th Street after the spring cleaning had been completed. I can still remember the phone number we had at that house and what the kitchen looked like, but that is “the rest of the story” and for my next blog.

Here’s to spring that is just around the corner and to fresh starts.