Spring Cleaning

March 18, 2012 by chrissantosra 3 Comments

As much as I love spring, I loathe spring cleaning. Last year, my Omonim (mother-in-law) and I had to scour the wood floor for hours and clean the veranda from top to bottom. By the time we finished cleaning, we didn’t have enough energy to stand, so we both perched on the sofa panting like race horses.

Traditional Korean housewives prefer to do the cleaning MANUALLY, and by manually means to crouch on the floor and wipe wipe wipe… scrub scrub scrub like there’s no tomorrow. My Omonim would not even use the steam mop hubby and I ordered on-line. She said the best way to clean the house is to do it with bare hands, which is not only unhygienic but also harmful to the skin. (I should know because eczema is prevalent among women in my family.)

This year, I am luckier to have my husband help me with the cleaning, but we didn’t do it my Omonim’s way, we did it our way. After vacuuming and steam mopping the floor as we always do on weekends, we polished the windows, and rearranged some of the furniture. Since there’s nobody else in the house, I had no choice but to help him move the furniture.

Last week, our new computer arrived, so we decided to use the empty room in the house as our computer room/study room.

Barely finished

I washed the 이불 (quilt), blanket and bed cover that we used for winter, put away some of our winter clothes, removed all the clutter from our dressers and reorganized everyday items.

My dresser... his dresser (but not quite his, because I put some of my stuff on it, too)... ^^

My husband, on the other hand, put our family picture on the wall in the living room, as well as our wedding picture that I have been bugging him (since last year) to hang on the wall in our bedroom.

Our family photo was taken on my chagun ajubonim's wedding day. In most Korean houses, you will find a big family portrait hung on the living room wall.

We were dead tired when we finished our spring cleaning, but glad that we didn’t waste another Saturday sitting idly in front of the idiot box, or fighting over who gets to use the computer.

Besides, the house, especially our room, is now cozier and fresher. Do you know that major cleaning can be a great stress reliever, too?

If you want to experience a whole new kind of spring cleaning here in Korea, you can check out Korea’s official tourism site and wait for the new schedule of the Royal Palace Spring Maintenance Experience Programs this coming spring.

Related articles

• Ten Reasons Why I Can’t Wait for Spring
• Winter Laundry Land
• Spring Cleaning (drkennethorbeck.com)
• Spring Cleaning with Mother Nature (greenling.com)
• Spring Cleaning Checklist (thehappyhousewife.com)
• Spring-Clean Your Makeup Bag (bellasugar.com)
• Spring Cleaning for the Soul (randomreflectionz.com)
• Spring Cleaning Motivation (thehappyhousewife.com)