'The DSM Editorial - Issue 96 Spring Clean

Spring! Ahh! A time of renewal, rebirth, out with the old in with the new...a time when we get a rush of blood to the head and start cleaning projects, which at any other time of the year would be dismissed out of hand. I recently returned to the UK on what is becoming an annual pilgrimage to participate in the mother of all spring cleans.

My father lives just off the M25, junction 17 (Maple Cross), you may have heard it mentioned on numerous traffic reports. It has been our family home for forty years and in that time my mother and father never threw anything out. The house is full of ‘stuff’. 

Since the death of my mum two years ago, dad has been thinking about downsizing and so we have family get togethers not where we sit down, eat and drink too much, no, we order a skip and have a mass clearance of a selected room or rooms in his house. Last year it was the attic (two skips), this year it was the cellar, garage and kitchen (one skip). We found jars at the back of some of his cupboards containing substances unknown to man, solidified packets of sugar you could kill someone with. 

A carousel of family members process backwards and forwards with armfuls of stuff, as the grandchildren dance around the bonfire, where anything that will burn is lobbed on.

Far from being a chore it becomes a team building exercise, which not only brings us together, helps out my dad, but also unearths objects from our past which bring back happy memories. In the evening we collapse in a heap, shake the mice droppings from our hair and feel smug at a job well done. 

If you are embarking on any spring cleaning projects this month, bon courage! If you are looking for something to do there’s plenty going on in our April issue.