Accessed February 25, 2009.Spring cleaning is known as the one time each year where you give your home a deep clean inside and out! Spring is the time of new beginnings, which is a great time to give your home the attention it deserves.

'What are the origins of spring cleaning?' WiseGeek.

'The significance of Passover cleaning.' L'Chaim.

'Spring clean your life.' Body + Soul.

'Now Rouz, the struggle of day and night.' Iran Press Service. '12 easy spring cleaning tips.' Good Housekeeping. 'The tools you'll need for green spring cleaning.' The Daily Green. 'Cleaning up for the Chinese New Year.' New York Times. 'When too much is not enough.' Sacramento Magazine. After all, it's easy to allow a house to get a little gross around the edges when you're sleepy. It's possible that we spring clean simply because we wake up from a winter long melatonin-induced stupor and find more energy as the days grow longer when spring arrives. Conversely, when we're exposed to sunlight, our bodies produce much less melatonin. With a lack of exposure to light, the pineal gland produces melatonin - a hormone that produces sleepiness in humans. During winter, we're exposed to less sunlight due to shorter, often dreary days. Ultimately, spring cleaning may have more to do with simple biology. Once the house is a clean slate, the Chinese welcome good fortune by observing a prohibition against sweeping for the few days following the new year in order to prevent sweeping away any good fortune that came with the turn of the year. The Chinese sweep their floors and clean their homes to rid of bad luck and misfortune that may have accumulated during the previous year. Like Iranians, the Chinese clean their homes in anticipation of the new year (which occurs shortly after the Western new year). There's yet another culture, the Chinese, in the running as the originator of spring cleaning. Learn about these possible origins to spring cleaning today on the next page.

Exactly why do we traditionally clean our homes at the beginning of spring? Those of us in the West may be surprised to find that it's possibly rooted in customs found in the East. There isn't any documented medical evidence that spring cleaning is a compulsion rather, it seems to be rooted in tradition more than anything else. The sense of cleanliness and accomplishment that comes from scouring the house also brings something like a neurological reward from the brain. An estimated one to two percent of the population in the United States are compulsive hoarders, who accumulate and refuse to throw out large collections of everything from newspapers to paper clips.įor people who don't have a hoarding compulsion, spring cleaning seems almost compulsive in itself. Using fMRI scans, researchers have determined that when confronted with a decision to throw out possessions - even junk mail - people who've been diagnosed as compulsive hoarders show activity in the same region of the brain that's responsible for processing damaging and unpleasant experiences. Spring cleaning isn't for everyone, though. It's kind of an unconscious, collective movement. Public service campaigns for everything from properly disposing of outdated pharmaceuticals in America to removing litter from the Irish countryside are attached to spring cleaning each year. Internet sites and magazines become awash in spring cleaning tips. Makers of cleaning products ramp up advertising late in the winter. Spring cleaning has become nearly ritualized in the West. You're certainly not alone in this strange desire to clean your house. You've been gripped by the urge to spring clean. Now it's time to thoroughly rid your home of the dirt and dust and dog hair that have accumulated over the long, dark season.

You've awakened from the long winter quasi-hibernation that kept you glued to the television. Disinfectant sprays suddenly attract a new level of interest and you decide your sponges must all be replaced. Without much thought on your part, the couch is moved from its place so you can sweep beneath it and the drapes are suddenly in the washing machine. The sun takes a little longer in its descent below the horizon and the chill of winter begins to leave the bones. It feels almost like a biological imperative. Many cultures have a tradition of cleaning the house in the spring.

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