Renewal

Pessach is taking up almost every free minute of my day. I am trying hard to just clean for chametz and not do spring cleaning. Here is the problem though. If I am taking everything out of a shelf or drawer in order to check for crumbs and wipe it down, it just seems silly to just throw it all back in the messy way it was. If I went through the effort, I might as well throw out or give away stuff that does not belong and neatly put the rest away.
And if I am cleaning my fridge, it is almost impossible to just get rid of the crumbs. If I am already knee deep in the fridge with clorox and paper towels, I am going to clean up the random spills, the gunk and whatever else is there. After about four hours of work spread out over the last two days, I can honestly say that my fridge and freezer are super clean. I am so proud I even considered taking a picture and posting it. But there is a limit to my insanity.
There is something so nice about all this cleanliness. It feels like a fresh start, a new beginning of keeping things in order and wiping up the spills right away. There is a sense of potential, the sky is the limit. The cynic in me is saying that it is merely a mirage or temporary. That in a half hour there will be legos or pretzels or popcorn on the floor, inside the couch, in the fridge or wherever else I just cleaned. That things always stay the same.
But there is still part of me that is hopeful and holding on to this sense of renewal, not just in the physical realm, but in life as well.
While scrubbing my apartment, I may also be spring cleaning all my faults and inconsistencies away. The result? A new me- a more patient, loving, spiritual version...Who knows? Stranger things have happened.