Spring cleaning

In the 50s and 60s, a lot of Chinese families had many children even though some families were poor. Many of my neighbours had four or more children. If a family was too poor to raise the many children it might give away or sell one of them.

Nowadays people are much more well-off but they say they cannot afford to have more children. I think it is more a matter of choice rather than money.

In the old days the family picked a day or two to do spring cleaning for the Chinese New Year and every one, including the children, were assigned certain tasks. I remember I was given the job or cleaning the floors. There were no mops. I had to use a basin of water and a large cloth and knelt down to clean the floor.

Nowadays many families do their spring cleaning in parts or parcels. Maybe one day they clean the kitchen and another day, the bedrooms and so on. Or maybe one day they do sorting, tidying and discarding unwanted things, another day for cleaning and another one for decorations.

Every year I have a lot of unwanted things to throw away. I feel happy when I clear the cluster and the place becomes tidy. 

Have you started your spring cleaning?