This time of the year always brings with it fond (or not so fond ) memories of Christmas time growing up as a child in South Africa (Cape Town) and one memory that always has me giggling now but as a child would leave you just wanting to run away is the big before Christmas clean up. So coming up from the last weeks of November into the first weeks of December the cleaning would start and this would be painting the house, making sure the windows are gleaming even more than usually during the year, putting on brand new bedding and hanging new curtains. The whole house would be cleaned upside down from the inside to the outside
Then all this cleaning would be a huge annoyance to you as a child because you want to be out enjoying the festive buzz. But looking back on it now all the cleaning and clearing out was almost therapeutic because you are celebrating the end of the year, giving thanks with joy for reaching the end of the year by renewing and in a sense decluttering to get ready for all the new the new year will bring.
These days we try to deep clean every so often just to avoid that big before Christmas clean up but that energy is still the same as renewing and decluttering to open up ourselves and our home for all the blessings of the new year.
Growing up we were big on homemade cleaners because the old time remedies worked best and did a really sparking job.
Here are some of my favorite homemade cleaners to tackle the job this year once again.