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What spring cleaning would mean in Southern California

Imagine your thatch-roofed medieval hovel after six months of snow

I can’t vouch for housekeeping habits of cave dwellers. - Image by Rick Geary
I can’t vouch for housekeeping habits of cave dwellers.

Dear Matthew Alice: Where did the expression “spring cleaning” come from? Did someone somehow determine that springtime is the best time to thin out our possessions? — Cathy McCormick, San Diego

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Well, you can bet it didn’t come from seasonless Southern California. I can’t vouch for housekeeping habits of cave dwellers, but it’s possible that even they thought of springtime (symbolic time of renewal, revival, fresh starts, and all that stuff) as the perfect season to chuck a winter’s worth of gnawed bones and charcoal and old bedding out the door and start over. If it’s possible, imagine what your thatch-roofed medieval hovel would be like after you and the old man and all the kids and maybe some livestock were cooped up inside for six months of snow and freezing temps. Pretty ripe, no? By May or so, you’d be more than ready to boot everybody out and defunkify the joint. Air out the blankets, wash your socks, that kind of stuff. Don’t know who first used the expression “spring cleaning,” but it didn’t take much deep thought, especially in cold-weather climates.

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I can’t vouch for housekeeping habits of cave dwellers. - Image by Rick Geary
I can’t vouch for housekeeping habits of cave dwellers.

Dear Matthew Alice: Where did the expression “spring cleaning” come from? Did someone somehow determine that springtime is the best time to thin out our possessions? — Cathy McCormick, San Diego

Sponsored
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Well, you can bet it didn’t come from seasonless Southern California. I can’t vouch for housekeeping habits of cave dwellers, but it’s possible that even they thought of springtime (symbolic time of renewal, revival, fresh starts, and all that stuff) as the perfect season to chuck a winter’s worth of gnawed bones and charcoal and old bedding out the door and start over. If it’s possible, imagine what your thatch-roofed medieval hovel would be like after you and the old man and all the kids and maybe some livestock were cooped up inside for six months of snow and freezing temps. Pretty ripe, no? By May or so, you’d be more than ready to boot everybody out and defunkify the joint. Air out the blankets, wash your socks, that kind of stuff. Don’t know who first used the expression “spring cleaning,” but it didn’t take much deep thought, especially in cold-weather climates.

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