One of the habits I picked up after living in Japan is their custom of oosouji (sometimes written as osoji). It literally means "big (oo) cleaning (souji)" and is a New Years Eve custom. The theory is that you want to start the new year with a clean slate - both metaphorically and literally - so you scrub your house from top to bottom and get all unfinished business done so you welcome the new year fresh and clean.
It's the kind of cleaning you don't do on a weekly basis, like pulling the furniture away from the walls to get all the dust bunnies out. Most people do this on New Years Eve. I, however, have much more to do than I could do in one day, so this year I spread it out over my free time in December. I decided to take on a more uncluttering approach over deep cleaning. I organized my jewelry, cleaned out two junk drawers, purged clothing I don't wear anymore, went through old letters/greeting cards I had saved, cleared out financial documents I no longer needed. It sure feels good to unload all of that stuff!
Today I did some literal deep cleaning, by vacuuming and changing my sheets and all that. Although I wasn't on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor, I think I did a pretty good job and I'm ready to welcome the new year with a clean house and a clean mind!
Happy new year all! :)
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