I lament that I don’t have any photos to share.
By the time I realized that I wanted to share this experience with you, the evidence was already cleaned up—simply reduced to a memory until it happens again next year. It is my favorite tradition of our neighborhood—The Annual Spring Cleaning.
For a few days each April, residents put all the “junk” they would like to get rid of at the end of the driveway. While some early birds start to place items on display mid-week, the frenzy traditionally picks up on Friday and Saturday.
There is an art to the piles. In fact, display is a more suitable word than pile. The goal is for everyone to be able to see what is fresh for the picking. If you are not dragging more things out to the curb, you are circulating throughout the neighborhood looking for goods. In truth, it is more of a community swap meet than a spring clean as merchandise in typically equals merchandise out.
The scene includes kids, adults, trucks, trucks with trailers making their way up and down roads to rummage through the growing treasure piles. If you aren’t making your selections, you are waiting to chat with the next folks rooting through your pile of stuff. People come from miles around. If the sun is shining, it is a two-day, non-stop parade.
When my kids were younger, they would bring loads of stuff home, and I would sneak it back to the end of my driveway when they went to bed. More than once we found a couch jammed into my son’s room (no matter that he couldn’t reasonably fit a chair in his room—let alone a sofa).
This year’s neighborhood swap meet was one of the best. Sunny and warm. Community building, order discovering, creation enjoying, earth keeping—restorative ways of being on full display.
I suppose my photos would have fallen short of the beauty of this annual event. But I hope these words gave you a glimpse of the joy of the Spring clean.
