Call it cold, wet, miserable, what have you, but it seems the best adjective to describe this year’s winter is, simply, long. And for the last several weeks, it’s been a roller coaster of a temperature ride: a high one day in the upper 60s; two days later, we’ve plunged, screaming, into the abyss, bottoming out in the low 30s again.

This too shall pass. Winter will end. Spring will come. Today, might not feel like it, however.

While the temperature is climbing to a balmy 50 degrees today, and the rain falls, perhaps it’s time to turn our thoughts away from the out of doors, and inside to spring cleaning.

Every household needs it. After being cooped up for an entire winter with hardly an opportunity to let a breeze waft through, it’s time to scour the baseboards and root through cabinets. It’s time to dust and vacuum and clean out closets.

Out with the old. Out with that pair of heels that seemed like a good idea at the time, but were only worn twice; out with the jacket that hasn’t fit in a few years.

Get rid of it, because someone else needs it more than you do. There are many organizations in Beaufort County that would be ecstatic to receive your gently used clothing. There are many people who would be delighted to find a really nice coat or pair of pants for next to nothing at a local thrift store.

Clothes are meant to protect our physical bodies. They are meant to keep us warm and keep us covered. They are not doing the job they were created to do if they are just taking up space in a drawer, in a closet, day after day, year after year.

Sometimes, it can be really difficult to get rid of clothing: you might be able to fit into it again, one day; you might have an occasion to wear it again, one day; it might come back in style again, one day. That’s all true, but there is a way to judge what needs to go: if you haven’t worn it a year, it goes out. If you haven’t worn it in two years, it definitely goes out. If you haven’t worn it in three years, it has now claimed squatter’s rights in your closet and must be ousted immediately.

This year, take a good, hard look at your closet and drawers. Be realistic about what you need versus what other people really do need. Then take a trip to the Salvation Army, Good Will, 15^th Street Church of God, or one of the many other organizations that will be happy to take the results of your spring cleaning.