Spring Cleaning Books!

No, not cleaning up the books. (Well maybe.) Books that fire you up for action.

It must be spring, the New England version, because I have ordered 6 pairs of sandals, apparently under the illusion that, because I have not worn any I probably don’t have any (I do, it’s just not that warm) and also begun cleaning out my closet under the kind of compulsion that has you heaving clothes into a bag for consignment etc at midnight when all you really meant to do was go to bed.

Just me?

Okay, so most of the sandals are of course going back. And at least some of the clothes are going into “deep storage” somewhere else in my house, because ever since the 2020 incident in which I threw away every item of clothing that didn’t bring me joy before realizing that it was a moment in which nothing brought me joy and also that now I had no clothes, I’ve been a little more judicious in my clear-outs.

But all that said, when this mood strikes me, I don’t just want to clean, organize, brighten and change. I want to read about doing exactly those things (sometimes instead of actually doing the things, tbh) and better yet, dig into a good memoir of someone uprooting their entire existence in favor of a fresh start (which I will not be doing), ideally in another country or some unlikely location filled with sheep.

I read and re-read things like that. I seem to find them oddly comforting. So here’s a list of my favorites—but also, I’d love to hear yours, especially in the memoir vein. It’s possible that Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project is my perfect read: it’s a memoir of change and life improvement, including some satisfying cleaning and organizing, in which she doesn’t tear up her life at all. More like that, please! Meanwhile:

Wear It Well, Allison Bornstein. Deep closet-cleaning instructions are my jam.

White Walls: A Memoir About Motherhood, Daughterhood, and the Mess In Between, Judy Battalion This is the book that partially inspired Mae and Barbara (Gus, in the TV show) in The Chicken Sisters, and it’s such a wonderful read about the ways the houses we grow up in make us who we are.

Outer Order, Inner Calm, Gretchen Rubin I’m lucky enough to call Gretchen a friend, but even if I weren’t, her approach to life improvement would still speak to me in every way.

A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle If you haven’t read this classic, arguably laughing (or re-launching) the “start over in a foreign country, clueless” genre, gift yourself this joy.

This is How: Help for the Self, Augusten Burroughs. This is for if what you need to clean out is your head, although you could also go with Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (if you haven’t already read that, I’m not doing my job).

Another Life, Michael Korda lives fascinating life in old school publishing, moves to country, tells tale. (Kind of a sordid divorce buried in here, but it’s still entertaining.)

Diary of a Provincial Lady, E.M. Delafield A funny, novelized diary of daily life in 1930’s England that that will distract you entirely from any prospect of cleaning.

My closet is almost fully cleaned out, my #tbr shelf—which is closet adjacent—also got a nice spruce (more on that next week) but someone has left an awful lot of junk on the floor of my bedroom, as though perhaps they cleaned out a nearby closet and then stalled. How’s spring going for you?