Cleaning on my mind

The coming New Year always sets off a cleaning frenzy for me.  I don't think I am alone in this.  Files to be organized and papers to be shredded.  Closets to be cleaned and long unworn items to be donated.  Windows to be washed.  I know it is winter and I imagine we will get more rain - but still I'd like to be able to see out.  While I'm at it the blinds could stand some attention.  

Do you know, the more I look into life, the more things it seems to me I can successfully lack—and continue to grow happier. How many kinds of food I do not need, nor cooks to cook them, how much curious clothing nor tailors to make it, how many books that I never read, and pictures that are not worth while! The farther I run, the more I feel like casting aside all such impedimenta—lest I fail to arrive at the far goal of my endeavour.

I like to think of an old Japanese nobleman I once read about, who ornamented his house with a single vase at a time, living with it, absorbing its message of beauty, and when he tired of it, replacing it with another. I wonder if he had the right way, and we, with so many objects to hang on our walls, place on our shelves, drape on our chairs, and spread on our floors, have mistaken our course and placed our hearts upon the multiplicity rather than the quality of our possessions!

David Grayson quote from "Adventures in Friendship"

Does the New Year signal a cleaning spree for you?