SPRING CLEANING
WRITTEN BY KAELEIGH JAMES DESIGNER ALLYSSA OGAARD The Cambridge Dictionary defines the term “spring-cleaning” as “the act of cleaning all of a place, especially your house, very well, including parts you do not often clean.” While this still applies in 2021, I’d argue the cleaning we’re doing this spring goes a bit deeper. The spring cleaning frenzy that occurs every year right around daylight saving time is like the human version of waking up from hibernation. You’ve been trapped inside for countless months, passing the many dark hours in a fog of fatigue that when the sun starts to show a bit longer each day, an instinct inside you is triggered. All of a sudden you’re cleaning your bathroom, orga-
5 ALIGN
MODELS JAMIE YEUNG & KENNY PARK nizing your pantry, getting rid of old clothes, and hanging those pictures on the wall that have been lying on your floor waiting for you to pick up some tape for, well...we won’t get into how long. Life starts to look a little brighter, in more ways than one. If you look back to Spring 2020, the world started to shut down right when our instinct to spring clean typically kicks in. I’d argue it came on even more aggressive than usual with people stuck at home day in and day out. The hours of staring at the confines and contents of our homes became maddening, and led to things being thrown out at incredible rates, often left at the ends of driveways with dingy “free” signs unceremoniously taped to them.
