How Cleaning is Symbolic of Life Transformations
When I first learned how to clean, I was chasing a feeling. I didn’t realize this at the time.
I felt like a broken human. My life was a tornado of chaos, trauma, and unrest. I would soon come to learn that cleaning would be the one thing that I could see manifest before my very eyes. Creating an immediate transformation that I could touch, see, and feel would help me connect the dots and eventually find a path to mindfulness.
As I developed my cleaning practice, I began to root deeply in the idea of the symbolism of cleaning and it relating to transformations of all kinds. I think we sometimes set out to accomplish a goal and easily get tunnel vision a few steps in. Which eventually might cause us to give up on said goal.
I began to learn patience and to trust the process of doing one thing at a time. And seeing how a series of smaller tasks equated to a larger goal accomplished. I also began to learn the art of balance. An understanding that it is SO normal for humans to be messy. But we clean that up. And so we do this dance of messy-clean-messy-clean.
I gained an understanding of the process behind what it means to invite change by implementing transformative work. Step by step. One task, one scrub, one sweep at a time.
I believe that we are all searching for purpose in our human experience. And sometimes we get stuck along the way. We begin to pick up habits and workarounds to find our way - some of which may or may not serve a healthy purpose in our lives.
My secret sauce to transformation is returning to those stuck feelings and to create movement - both metaphorically and physically. This is actually backed by neuroscience: when you work with your hands, it builds better and stronger connections in your brain.
What if we reframed the way we think about chores that we’ve dubbed as monotonous or boring and instead we see it as a feel-good experience that we’ll have during and after?
As I grew my cleaning business and have helped thousands of clients transform their homes, I began to see something beautiful happen. The people who have a tiger-like hunger for change, the ones who are willing to put in the work, are the ones that I’ve seen experience the biggest transformations. I see it in my employees, too. These days, I do a whole lot less scrubbing and more managing of my team in Portland. I see the profound impacts the act of cleaning has on my team. I see myself in them. I see them gain confidence around the challenges in their lives.
It was a lot of feelings that I scrubbed out...and to think, I created a successful business out of this in doing so. In everything I’ve learned, I feel called to share this wisdom with others.
For the past year, I’ve been working on a larger project that I’m excited to reveal at some point. It involves a product line and a deep dive experience into mindful cleaning. It’s a pretty big deal to me, as I've always run a brick and mortar service in my hometown of Portland, OR. I’ll be expanding to consumers beyond just Portland for the first time ever.
