What cleaning legacy do you want to leave

I am supposed to write something smart on this last day of 2025.

But I am out of smarts. 

Yesterday, my sister, her husband, my daughter and my partner spent a day cleaning the home – if you could call it that – of my 92-year-old father and his recently deceased wife. This on top of three full days of cleaning before this. They were both hoarders and clearly didn’t care enough about cleaning. Two full skip loads of accumulated stuff, just to get the house to be habitable. It was vermin-infested and beyond imagining. I wonder how anyone could accept living in such squalor. (We could never have done this while my father’s wife was alive.) 

If there is something we can all do in 2026, it is to clean out. Stop buying. Stop hoarding. Prepare, even if you are younger, for your demise. 

Consider the people who have to clean up after you are gone. What cleaning legacy do you want to leave them?

I have now got my personal memorabilia down to one small box, including photos. I do have digital copies; however, they can be deleted with one keystroke. 

Yet this is not enough. I am in a frenzy now to reduce, reduce and reduce. To make it so easy for my daughter to manage things after I am gone.

In the next few days, I have to clean the toxic mood from my psyche. The anger and disgust. Try to find a shred of compassion for my father. I feel like I need to scrub and scrub the residue, the smell, the disrespect.

So the turning of the clock past midnight tonight is, like every other midnight, the chance to begin again. 

Strangely, I sense the antidote to my inner toxic swamp is rigorous cleaning in my own space in the real world. 

At the meta level, I sense the world order needs a similar scrub and clean. The vermin who have taken up residence in public spaces and offices need to be removed or rehomed. The root cause of their metastasis in our public spaces needs to be addressed and removed. The toxic emotions and polarised societies need recalibration. 

We need to clean out, let go and reduce. Invest instead in the things that matter. Like relationships, the Earth’s wellbeing, care, love, joy and adventure. Our growing up and interior development. 

Tomorrow we get to begin again. And the next day, and the one after that…

Photo Taken August 28th 2022, Article published December 31st 2025