I’m 63. 10 Things I Clear Out Before the Holidays — The Japanese Year-End Reset

📖 Get Emiko's Cleaning Book, the whole house written down, every mix and every minute: LINK IN BIO OR SCAN QR CODE ON THE VIDEO Open your refrigerator tonight and look only at the door. Count the jars, the cranberry sauce from last Thanksgiving, the capers you opened once. I am sixty-three, and in my mother's house in Japan the biggest cleaning of the year came in the last cold days of December, not in spring. In America you were taught to clean after the holidays, so your busiest weeks walk into a house still carrying the whole year. That is not a failing of yours, my dear. You were only taught to clean on the wrong side of the holidays. Here are the ten things I clear out before the holidays begin, and what you do instead. WHAT A HOUSE ASKS BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS: The holidays do not bring a little more, they bring double. Twice the food in the same refrigerator, four hours of roasting over last year's spill, twelve coats in rooms that were already full. Dirt hides best in a crowded place, so you clear before you fill. THE TEN: 1. THE REFRIGERATOR DOOR. Take everything out and read every date. Wash the shelves with 1 tablespoon baking soda in 1 quart warm water, last wipe with rubbing alcohol, a shallow dish of baking soda at the back (Card 34, page 115). 2. THE HOLIDAY PANTRY SHELF. Old flour, cornmeal, nuts, and ground spices go out, because pantry moths start where food sits still for a year. NEVER open a bulging, leaking, or seam-rusted can. 3. THE OVEN FLOOR. ½ cup baking soda with 3 to 4 tablespoons water, overnight, lifted with a plastic card, last wipe with 1 tablespoon citric acid or vinegar in 2 cups warm water (Card 15, page 96). NEVER the self-clean cycle in the week before a holiday. 4. THE FILTER OVER THE STOVE. Magnet test first. Steel: ¼ cup sesquicarbonate (or 2 tablespoons baking soda + 2 tablespoons washing soda) and a squeeze of dish soap in hot tap water, half an hour, soft brush (Card 17, page 98). Aluminum: dish soap ONLY. 5. THE GUEST BED. Clear it down to the mattress, air the room, wash the waiting sheets (page 559). 6. THE BOXES YOU NEVER OPEN. Open every bin, keep one box you can carry with your eyes on your feet. The ornaments with your children's names go to your children. 7. THE GIFT WRAP DRAWER. One roll, one spool of ribbon, as many flat gift bags as presents you will give. 8. THE INSIDE OF THE WINDOWS. ½ teaspoon dish soap in 1 gallon warm water, a squeegee from the top down, a dry microfiber cloth (Card 29, page 110). The outside of upstairs windows is NOT your job. 9. THE THINGS THAT ARE NOT YOURS. Every borrowed dish washed and carried back, with something small inside. 10. THE BIG CLEANING ITSELF. Finished by the third week of November, one job a day, then only ten minutes a day through the holidays (page 547). THE HONEST PART: Ten jobs is too many for one weekend at our age, so do one a day. Never put the oven paste on a heating element, a gas opening, or a convection fan, and always wear gloves. If you must stand above the second step of a ladder, ask someone younger. Never sweep mouse droppings dry. A ring that stays after one wipe needs a second night, not a harder hand. WHY NOBODY TOLD YOU: Oven cleaner nine dollars, hood degreaser eight, a refrigerator deodorizer six, glass cleaner five, four storage bins sixty, paper, bows, and gift bags twenty-three. That is one hundred and eleven dollars, against a box of baking soda, one jar of powder, a few drops of dish soap, and a square of cloth. Tonight: empty your refrigerator door, read every date, and count what goes back. Then tell me in the comments one number, how many jars did not go back in, and how old your house is. Not one of them goes unread.