There is hardly a place where, in the course of a year, some things are not purchased and never used, and where spring cleaning does not unearth them. Spring is the time when the good housewife puts all doubtful things into the trash barrel. – E.F. White, “Spring Soda Fountain Thoughts,” 1908 [a little altered —t&#94

As with the advent of spring cleaning we clear out of our houses the things no longer useful to us, why not at the same time relieve our minds of worthless rubbish? – Emily Tolman, “Seasonable Suggestions,” 1907

Do other people, I wonder, find the same keen pleasure that I do in periodically undertaking a pilgrimage all over the house to wage a war of extermination upon its accumulations of rubbish? – Chiffon, “The Woman of To‑Day,” To‑Day, 1898 January 15th #declutter