FEW OF US ACTIVELY ENJOY cleaning. It’s hard work, it’s far from glamorous and, to be honest, there are plenty of things we’d rather do with our time. In fact, when you talk to people nowadays, it becomes obvious that there is far less cleaning going on than ever before. I remember as a child hearing the sound of the vacuum cleaner every day. As I walked to school I would see women cleaning the front step: first brushing, then buffing it with red tile polish. The door’s paint was always freshly washed and the door knocker gleamed. Of course, these days we don’t have time or we would rather spend what free time we do have in other, more entertaining, ways. So, if we can afford it, we hire someone to clean our space or, if we don’t, we fit it in where we can. We race round if guests are coming or wipe a cursory cloth over the worst grime. And so cleaning becomes an activity we begrudge.
Now don’t think I’m going to suggest we’ve got it all wrong and that women should get back where they belong – on their hands and knees scrubbing. For a start, cleaning is an occupation for both men and women. But there is a real need, both physical and spiritual, for clean homes – and fortunately there are ways of salvaging the cleaning process so it becomes far less of a chore.
But first I’d like to spend a short while explaining why this cleaning process is so useful; why we all, men and women alike, should do our regular share of housework. Not just waving a duster in the air but rolling up our sleeves and putting in some elbow grease; scrubbing floors, clearing drains, scouring lavatory bowls. Not necessarily every day, but regularly. This activity is important because it’s the perfect balance to the work so many of us do nowadays. More and more of us earn our livelihood via our heads. We sit slumped all day in chairs, staring at computer screens or battling with machinery. Cleaning, which done properly is hard physical graft, provides a good healthy balance.
CLEANING — CLEARING THE SHADOW
There is also a profound psychological advantage. In Jungian terms, the slog of cleaning can be a powerful way of dealing with the ‘shadow’. The shadow is the ‘dark’ side of the psyche. Robert Johnson, author of Owning Your Own Shadow, describes it this way:
We sort out our God-given characteristics into those which are acceptable to our society and those that have to be put away … But the refused and unacceptable characteristics do not go away; they only collect in the dark corners of our personality. When they have been hidden long enough, they take on a life of their own – the shadow life.
All through our daily lives we wobble on a kind of seesaw: if we play out characteristics from our acceptable, social persona, then we also inevitably balance them by playing out characteristics from the hidden shadow. Good and evil, positive and negative, light and dark, yin and yang, muck and brass – all need to be balanced. And yet we always strive for the light, for the bright, for success, for the sun. However, we cannot live in the light without acknowledging the dark. This may all sound very metaphysical and a long way from the kitchen floor, but there is a practical connection. For by physically cleaning, by getting down to the earth on our hands and knees, by clearing our muck and mess and dirt, we can keep the shadow balanced. We are embracing the dark. We are putting ourselves back in our place. Robert Johnson describes this process perfectly with the example of the famous Jungians Dr Marie-Louise von Franz and Barbara Hannah, who shared a house in Switzerland. He explains how they:
… had the custom of requiring whoever had some especially good fortune to carry out the garbage for the week. This is a simple but powerful act. Symbolically speaking, they were playing out the shadow side of something positive.
So clean for your soul’s sake. Especially if you have had a brilliant day at work and are feeling full of righteous self-satisfaction. Particularly if you have had praise and are feeling proud and maybe just a touch superior or supercilious. Then, and especially then, go for the grimiest jobs in the house so no-one else has to bear the brunt of your shadow asserting itself.
Brenda Peterson, writing in Nature and Other Mothers, obviously recognizes this essential nature of cleaning when she says:
Are there some deep losses we might nil incur from not cleaning up after ourselves? There is some sacredness in this daily, thoughtful, and very grounding housework that we cannot afford to lose if we are to be whole, integrated … For in this gesture of bended knees is some humility, some meditation, some time to recognize the first foundation of our homes.
Grounding is the operative word. When we clean, we connect with the ground, we take ourselves to its level. The same process happens in gardening, when we plunge our hands into the soil of the earth. We are getting in touch with our base, our origin, our home. We are saved from the flights of fancy of the ego; we are put back in touch with the base chakra, the grounding earth.
HOUSEWORK FOR THE SOUL
In many cultures, cleaning is not only essential work for the soul, but is considered a form of worship in itself. The Shakers considered work to be good for the soul and a way of glorifying God. ‘Put your hands to work and your hearts to God,’ said Shaker Ann Lee in a calling cry to the joys of housework. Each task was performed to the highest possible standard, with pride and a sense of joy. It’s an inspiring idea. So, too, is space-clearing expert Karen Kingston’s lovely description of her adopted land of Bali, from her book Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui:
Soon after dawn in Bali, the swishing sound of rhythmic, methodical sweeping fills the air. It is somehow restful, comforting, does not disturb your sleep but rather adds a new dimension to it. They are using stiff brushes made from coconut leaf spines. This is happening everywhere on the island. Every piece of land near human habitation and every home, building and temple, is swept clean at the start of each day, and at intervals throughout the day as required. Purification is such an intrinsic part of this remarkable culture that it is no surprise that this fundamental practice is so deeply ingrained into the way of life.
There are several lessons I feel we can learn from this description. Firstly, the Balinese perform their cleaning as a habitual practice, as we might brush our teeth or watch television! Anything which becomes a habit is more easily done. Secondly, they perform their cleaning in an unhurried, ‘rhythmic’ way. They take their time; the act has meaning and is an important ritual so they do not feel it is time wasted or resented. And thirdly, they know it is purification – not just physical but spiritual too. They are cleaning their homes, work-places and temples in exactly the same way: all are purified, cleansed, made holy. What a beautiful idea. It redeems that strange and rather po-faced saying ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’.
If we can carry these ideas into our own cleansing rituals, housework becomes soul work. It stops being such a drudge when we realize we are sweeping out old thoughts, rigid ideas, moribund emotions along with the dust; that by cleansing the physical environment we are also symbolically purifying our homes of negative and outworn attitudes and feelings. By putting meaning into an everyday task, we bestow it with a sense of the sacred. It becomes ritual rather than chore. Some people say they can use cleaning as a form of meditation but I’m not that enlightened. However, I do find that focusing on the task and imagining I am chasing away all the negative to make way for new, fresh, hopeful things is inspiring. There is also something wonderfully satisfying about a space that has been cleaned – and cleaned thoroughly.
Think about the following ideas – I find they all make the cleaning process more palatable – and even pleasurable: