Tidying vs. Cleaning

Trying to set things up in my life to make 2025 a kind of a reset. I need to start fresh and the calendar hitting January is as good an excuse as any. I’m not one to make specific resolutions but I just need to get some of my shit together in general. It started today with cleaning my room.

I tidy my room up all the time but I don’t clean it. Those are very different things. Tidying's all about the surface. Cleaning goes deep. There have been piles of things that have sat still for going on 4 years (one box of mine sits on a shelf behind & above my bed, making it so that I technically never finished unpacking when I moved in). There’s a broken chair which holds a broken laundry basket that contains all my clothes that no longer fit and, for some reason, a Poirot VHS boxset. I don’t remember when I got that but I threw it in the VCR as background TV while cleaning. There’s also an empty Cheez-It box that’s been sitting on a shelf since early 2023. Why? I don’t know. I want it gone, it’s taking up space, it’s literally trash. Every time it returns to my line of sight, I think “Why is that still there?”, as if I’m powerless to do anything about it. And then I don’t. But today, I did.

Folks, I threw out the Cheez-It box. I threw out the long, long receipt near the trash can. I threw out the piece of discarded tape with the clump of hair on it and recovered the dustiest book anyone has ever seen when I finally bit the bullet and looked underneath my dresser. It’s all going in the bin outside. I got the paper towels and the sponge and the duster and the mop and I thought about all of the residual trauma I have from this year that will continue on for the next little while. It’s annoying having to always pick up the little pieces and go over the same spots you thought you already went over. But it’s work that has to be done and there’s no one else to do it. I’m scrubbing it all down.

I also drew some cartoons. Enjoy:

Nicky Flowers - 12/29/24 - (send any comments/questions to hello at nickyflowers dot com)