Outside Spring Cleaning

During the dark gray days at the start of spring, I typically hear everyone talking about spring cleaning. On our Upstate New York homestead, opening the house and airing it out, beating the carpets, changing our curtains over (from winter to summer ones) and all the other little chores that are associated with spring cleaning typically don’t happen. If by St. Patrick’s Day the Christmas decorations are all stored safely in the attic, I am usually feeling pretty good. (Disclaimer: While all our Christmas decorations have been packed up, tubs are still sitting in the hall, waiting for twenty empty minutes. I am still pretty happy and the world hasn’t ended so a few more days won’t hurt.)

Don’t get me wrong, we do spring into cleaning, it just doesn’t happen to be inside. Spring is always busy on a small homestead. Between planning our gardens, yard work, seed starting, transplanting and record keeping, the days are filled quickly. It can be overwhelming, even to those of us who have been homesteading since we can remember. The trick for us is to remember to do outside work smartly. This doesn’t always happen and yes I will give you some examples if only to make you laugh and remind you that these things are every day occurrences on a homestead.

Read the entire article at Gluesticks.