floor cleaning

Inspired by the cleaning scenes in Japanese films like Howl's moving castle, I've adopted a new approach to cleaning my floors. Instead of reaching for the mop, I get down on all fours and push a cloth along the floorboards.

This method may seem unconventional, but for me, it's a way to move my body in ways it typically doesn’t. Cleaning this way requires more energy than using a mop, but that’s precisely the point—it encourages me to embrace different movement patterns. If I break a sweat or feel my stiff back protest as I stand, it's a clear sign that I've been neglecting these types of movement. I want to act on this feedback because if I don’t maintain certain movement patterns, I’ll eventually loose them.

Rather than compensating for a sedentary lifestyle with intense bursts of exercise like parkour or structured movement practice, I prefer to integrate more diverse movement patterns into my daily routine. By doing this, I’m being of service to my environment whilst also tending to my body on a daily basis. These habits serve both my surroundings and myself simultaneously.

This approach is just one of the small habits that make sense for me to integrate into my life. The friction I encounter when adopting such an anti-modern habit often reflects other aspects of my lifestyle. For example, if I lived in a very large house, cleaning the floors on all fours would likely be overwhelming and I would probably not do it.

In fact, having more space—more things—actually creates friction for the life I really want. Instead, having less opens up many more opportunities. For example, having few things makes it manageable to actually take proper care of them / to nurture them. But as for this example—living in smaller spaces—makes the alternative method of cleaning feasible.

One can see that, our actions and lifestyle/material choices are interconnected. They do form a stable and complex web of interactions that match with one another. Nudging your web into a more favourable direction might take some effort though.

Ultimately, these small shifts are about more than just the physical act; they’re a way to reassess and realign with what truly matters. By paying attention to how our environment and habits shape us, we gain the opportunity to design a life that is more intentional, balanced, and connected to our values.