Spring Cleaning for Earth Day

Sometimes we underestimate the power of spring cleaning. After all it’s just one more thing to do along with taxes, trying to stay on an exercise regimen or plan of healthy eating or dealing with economic concerns or rising stress levels, there may be more seemingly important things to get done. But a bit of time spent on spring cleaning can have payoffs for our overall health and well-being from a variety of angles: reducing the negative impact of stress caused by things we can control in our environment, mitigating the effects of dust or other allergens on breathing and increasing our feelings of satisfaction for a task well-done. When the level of stress in our lives seems to be increasing, making sure we stay on top of daily tasks and maintain a level of organization, peace and calm in our environment can be a way to reduce our overall burden of stress.

One of the ways to make the task of spring cleaning less daunting is to break it up into smaller pieces. Choose one drawer, one refrigerator shelf or one segment of the closet. Keep at it until you’re done. Just before sitting down to write this, I felt inspired to practice what I was writing about, so I opened the refrigerator, and went for the condiment shelf and opened all the jars and bottles. Many only needed to be placed back on the shelf, while others had remained on the shelf past when they needed to be discarded to keep a more sanitary and health-promoting kitchen. Regularly ensuring that we’re not creating the conditions for molds and mildew to thrive can be helpful for reducing the potential irritating effects of mold spores and the other components of fungi on breathing and the respiratory tract.

We’re also more likely to enjoy cooking in a kitchen that is clean, free from clutter and without hidden jars with unwelcome surprises. And the more we actually enjoy cooking, the more our health will benefit from having freshly prepared fruits and vegetables as opposed to packaged convenience foods.

Embarking on spring cleaning, particularly in the kitchen, can be a good time to evaluate food preparation habits. To prevent cross-contamination of foods while cooking, specifically when preparing raw meat and vegetables, it is shown that using separate cutting boards for meats and vegetables is the safest method in a home kitchen. Look at which cutting boards you use and make sure you are cleaning them well with hot and soapy water or running them through the dishwasher with hot water for a greater degree of sterilization.

Studies show that ordinary wiping of the surface, or just rising, is not enough to rid the cutting board’s surface of bacteria and prevent contamination of other foods. As we get ready for the late spring and summer picnic season, we want to take extra care to have all of our surfaces ready for an onslaught of food preparation for healthy meals. Speaking of which, the spring cleaning season can be a great time to look through the cabinets and make sure we have matching bowls and lids that aren’t warped or dusty, leaking or moldy. Remember as well that it is best not to put plastic bowls or food containers, or plastic wrap in the microwave, because some of the plastic polymers can leach out into the food. Inert ceramic or glass is much safer for microwave use. And if you have some warped or melted containers shoved in the back of the cabinet, spring cleaning might be a good time to recycle them or let them go.

While cutting boards, old condiment jars or dust in cabinets may seem like trivial matters in the face of more weighty concerns, all the everyday things in our environment can have a profound impact on our health and well-being. After all, studies show that most of the diseases that are common in our modern world are a result of a complex set of interactions among genetics, our environment, our habits, other health challenges, timing, the negative effects of stress, and a host of other factors. Cleaning up our home and habits on a regular basis can be both inspiring and health-promoting.