Spring is widely recognized as the season to get rid of excess. In fact, according to the Miriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the term “spring-cleaning” even has a dictionary definition of its own: “the act or process of doing a thorough cleaning of a place.”

That same dictionary defines the term excess as: the state or instance of surpassing usual, proper, or specified limits; undue or immoderate indulgence; to an amount or degree beyond.

As I do some Spring-cleaning this year, what I am wondering is why excess always seem to be so much more excessive in Spring?

In Spring it feels like all that extra stuff is choking me and I can’t get rid of it fast enough. But at other times of the year (when I am busy accumulating all that stuff) it seems so special and important and comforting.

Setting aside issues of greed and self-indulgence, my theory is that “excess” somehow satisfies our “nesting” needs.

But that being the case, how come we don’t do our nest-building in Spring, like most birds do?

Maybe we should get rid of our excess in Fall, when trees shed their leaves, and then spend Winter appreciating what we have.