Spring Cleaning Bursts Our Winter Bubble

Every year, around the time the days start to grow brighter and the birds begin screaming outside the window at 3AM (yes 3, talking to you robins, ugh), society tells us it is time for spring cleaning. Not 'lightly tidying up'. Not 'maybe putting the winter boots away'. NO. Spring cleaning is presented as a noble, almost spiritual ritual wherein we transform our cozy winter den into a sparkling domicile with lemon oil scrubbed baseboards and freshly washed windows.

In reality, spring cleaning usually looks more like standing in the middle of your living room holding a random object—say, a paint brush—and wondering how your life ended up like this.

The Myth of the Fresh Start
Spring cleaning is marketed as a fresh start. A reset button for your home and your life. You will either toss or donate clutter. You will organize your drawers and closets. You will become the kind of person who owns matching storage bins and a label maker. This is A LIE. Because the minute you start cleaning, you discover that your house is not dirty in the normal sense. It is dirty in the archaeological sense. You don't have clutter. You have layers of history. And history stays with you. 

The Emotional Journey of Cleaning
Spring cleaning is not a chore. It is a five-stage emotional journey.

Stage 1: Optimism
You wake up on a Saturday morning full of ambition. Today is the day. You open the windows. You make extra coffee. You turn on upbeat music. You will conquer this house. You will fold things AND put them away. You will vacuum with purpose (and finally suck up all that popcorn under the couch from winter movie nights). You WILL figure out what that weird smell is deep in the freezer.

Stage 2: Discovery
Within ten minutes, you uncover things that raise serious questions. Why do you own:

• Nine pens that don't work
• A single chopstick
• A candle that smells like 'Ocean Fog'
• An instruction manual for a toaster you threw away two apartments ago
  

You begin to suspect your home has been quietly collecting objects on its own.

Stage 3: Sentimental Crisis
Then you find something emotional. A card. A photo. A random object that shouldn't matter but suddenly does. Now you're sitting on the floor reading old birthday cards from people you haven't spoken to in eight years. You are no longer cleaning. You are time traveling.

Stage 4: The 'Maybe I'll Keep It Phase
This is where the entire system collapses. You hold up an object and say the most dangerous sentence in the English language: "What if I need this someday?" Someday is a magical time. Someday you will:

• Sew a button back on something
• Start journaling
• Use that fancy cheese knife
• Host a dinner party where cheese knives are required

Someday is also when you will become organized, motivated, and emotionally stable. Someday is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Stage 5: Strategic Shoving
At some point, your brain gives up. You create a new system known as 'strategic shoving'. This involves putting everything into a box labeled 'miscellaneous'. Or the even more honest label 'deal with later'. You then place that box into a different closet. Congratulations. You have successfully relocated the problem.

The Drawer of Mystery
Every house has one drawer that cannot be explained. It's the junk drawer. And it invariably contains:

• Rubber bands and twist ties
• Batteries (none of which work)
• A tiny screwdriver
• Six takeout menus
• Something plastic that might belong to something important
• Something metal that might belong to something important
  

You don't know what the metal thing is. But you are afraid to throw it away because the moment you do, something in your house will stop functioning forever. So it stays. The drawer remains. Civilizations may rise and fall, but the junk drawer will endure. See my pint-sized post about said 'junk drawer'.

The Cleaning Supplies Lie
Another thing about spring cleaning: you will inevitably buy new cleaning supplies. Because clearly the reason your house wasn't clean before is that you didn't have the correct lavender-infused eco-friendly microfiber cloths. You come home feeling optimistic. You spray things. You wipe things. You feel productive. But eventually you realize cleaning products are basically just expensive ways of turning dirt into wet dirt.

The Closet Reality Check
Nothing humbles a person faster than cleaning their closet. You discover clothing in three categories:

• Clothes you actually wear
• Clothes you might wear if you suddenly lose a drastic amount of weight
• Clothes that represent a completely different version of yourself (neither who you once were or will ever be)

For example:

• The “I might start exercising” clothes
• The “This fit in 2009 and I'm emotionally attached to the memory” clothes
• The “This will look great if I attend a yacht party” clothes

You try things on. You make eye contact with the mirror. You put the item back on the hanger and whisper: "Maybe next year."

The Real Secret of Spring Cleaning
Here is the truth nobody tells you. Spring cleaning isn't really about getting your house perfectly clean. It's about interrupting the slow creep of clutter that life naturally produces. It's opening the windows. It's letting the light in and think "I should really get a handle on this.” And maybe—just maybe—you throw away the charger to a phone you haven't owned since the Obama administration.

At the end of the day, spring cleaning doesn't have to mean turning your house into a magazine spread. It can simply mean:

• Throwing out a few things
• Clearing a small space
• Letting fresh air into a room that really needed it
  

A little reset. A small breath. Because life gets messy. Homes get cluttered. And sometimes the best kind of cleaning is just making things a tiny bit lighter than they were yesterday. Also, if anyone finds the lid to the container currently living in my cabinet, please return it. The base has been waiting since 2017...

"My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance." — Erma Bombeck

Chin up! Get that cobweb off the ceiling and wash those curtains. 

Do it anyway.

Love, Kate

Now, onto cupcakes.

Cupcakes with Coffee Style:

Cupcakes are tiny acts of joy—soft, sweet reminders that life doesn’t have to be big or perfect to be worth celebrating. They’re the reward after a hard day (mid-day, if necessary), the comfort during a messy one, and pure bliss in edible form. Paired with a good cup of coffee, they’re not just dessert—they’re a moment of pause, a little cheer, and sometimes, the reason you keep going.

Cupcakes with Coffee Style:

An afternoon coffee is permission — to sit, to breathe, to collect your thoughts like loose papers scattered across your mind. It’s a small ritual of self-trust, a reminder that even on busy days, you can choose a moment of stillness. And sometimes, that small, steady pause tastes better than anything else. 

A little tidbit (espresso romano origin theories):

• Post-War Italy (1940s-1950s): The most common theory is that it originated in Italy during or after World War II, when coffee was low-quality or, in some cases, artificial. Lemon was used to mask the unpleasant, bitter taste.
• American/Tourist Invention: Another theory is that it is an Italian-American invention (or a creation of American tourists in Italy) intended to add a refreshing, citrusy acidity to espresso.
• The 'Cleaning' Myth: Some suggest the practice of adding lemon originated from baristas using lemon to clean their equipment, which then resulted in a lingering citrus flavor.
• Southern Italy/Amalfi Coast: Other claims suggest it originated in southern Italy (Campania region), where lemons are abundant and often used in various culinary applications.

Despite the name "Romano" (meaning Roman), it is rarely found in Rome today and is generally considered a tourist drink or a specific, niche variation of coffee.

 (tasteatlas.com, coffees.gr, 787coffee.com, coffee-dictionary.com, tastingtable.com, perfectdailygrind.com)

ENJOY!

Spring cleaning isn’t really about 'in with the new and out with the old'. It’s about letting a little fresh air in and getting the stale air out. It's a time to remind yourself that small resets count. Maybe you throw out a few things, maybe you don't. Maybe you just make enough space to sit down with a cup of coffee and feel like life is a little less cluttered than it was yesterday. And honestly? That’s probably good enough.

The Unofficial Commandments of Spring Cleaning
1. Thou shalt not open the memory box unless thou has four hours available.
2. Thou shalt accept that the junk drawer is a permanent fixture of modern civilization.
3. If an object has survived three moves and two closets, it has earned permanent residency.
4. Anything labeled 'miscellaneous' is sacred and must not be questioned.
5. If thou findest a mystery charger, thou shalt keep it. Someday it will save a life.
6. Thou shalt not begin organizing photos unless thou intends to abandon cleaning entirely.
7. Cleaning supplies shall be purchased with great optimism and used twice.
8. The sock without a partner shall remain in exile until its soulmate returns.
9. Strategic shoving is a valid and widely accepted organizational method.
10. When all else fails, make coffee and pretend the sunlight hitting the dust is 'aesthetic'.