7 Ways to Spring Clean your Life!

Why You Should Spring Clean-

Spring Cleaning is thought to be typically restricted to your home. But why only spring clean your space when you can take it a step further and spring clean your whole life? By reading this post you’ll find the methods that will give your life a much-needed spring clean up. Below you’ll find the 7 best ways to jump into the season with a clean home, mind, and attitude!

When heading into a new season, you’ll want to step in on the right foot with a fresh and clean slate. With the winter snow melting away, spring and summer are just around the corner. While you can do this spring cleaning any time of year, it’s recommended most during April or May. Don’t walk into the months reserved for sunshine and happiness with any excess from the previous season still lingering. 

For those of you who live in a cold climate then you know there’s no better feeling than making it through the dark and cold bitter winter and finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Follow these 7 steps to spring-clean your life and walk into this season as the lightest version of yourself!

1. Declutter-

If you haven’t yet read Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” do it ASAP. In addition to its helpful tips and tricks, it puts into perspective the difference between holding onto material items because they bring you joy and holding onto them because you’re afraid to let them go.

The excuses we typically tell ourselves are that:

1. It was too expensive to let go of
2. We haven’t gotten enough use out of it yet
3. Or we have a deep-rooted sense of attachment to certain items and have a hard time getting rid of them.

When decluttering your home, if you find yourself debating long and hard about whether or not to get rid of something ask yourself, does this item truly bring me joy? If it’s not an instant yes then it’s a no. Of course, use your discernment with this. Keep things that you need to function properly. Your washing machine might not exactly bring you a ton of joy but you probably need it, so keep it. 

Another question to ask yourself is if you’ve used the item, in the past year. The general rule of thumb is that if it hasn’t been used by you in the past year, it’s not going to get used anytime soon. Throw it out. 

Go through everything, clothes, papers, school books, photos, old makeup, hair products, etc. Trade in your unwanted clothes, shoes, and bags to a consignment store in exchange for cash, donate your stuff to a thrift store or post them for sale on your social media accounts like Instagram or Facebook Marketplace. If you have enough items and time on your hands, consider an old-fashioned garage sale.

2. The Art of Detachment-

People form attachments to material items and it can feel like a punch in the gut to get rid of certain things. Trust that you will always feel so much lighter after when you take decluttering seriously.

When you get rid of the excess and the mess, you open up space for what truly matters and brings you happiness. Letting go of attachments to material things, or things in general is a crucial step we should all learn in this lifetime for a true sense of inner peace. 

3. Spring Clean and Tidy-

Once you’ve decluttered and removed what no longer serves you, you can move on to deep cleaning your space. Tidy and clean your space like you normally would, but take everything a step further. Get into places that are typically forgotten about during your regular weekly cleaning. Try to do this on a day when you have the energy and motivation as it can seem like an overwhelming project.

Get into all the nooks and crannies like baseboards, light fixtures, windows, the fridge, washing the walls, etc. Some of these tasks most likely don’t get done every week so don’t forget about them. They probably won’t get done again until the next deep cleaning day…whenever that may be.

4. Spring Clean Technology-

In the technological world we live in today, how can we think spring cleaning is just for your home? Smartphones and other electronic devices need decluttering too. You probably have apps downloaded that never get used and take up way too much storage.

Delete anything on your phone, laptop, or any other electronics that isn’t of use to you. Unsubscribe from the free trials you’ve forgotten about, that will slap a bill on you as soon as the trial’s up.

Many of us have thousands of photos and videos that don’t need to be there. How many times have you scrolled through your camera roll to find duplicates of photos or random blobs? Delete photos, apps, grocery lists from your notes, and anything else taking up storage space.

It’s also a good idea to unfollow anyone on your social media who you don’t enjoy following anymore. Either they don’t inspire you or you don’t resonate with their message anymore. Maybe you follow too many filtered and photoshopped supermodels who you find yourself constantly comparing yourself to, unfollow!

5. Re-Evaluate Relationships-

Since we are spring cleaning your whole life, it means your whole life! Think if there are any relationships or people in your life you need to create some space and distance with. I don’t mean the person who disagrees with you sometimes and sparks up a healthy and respectful debate. I’m talking about anyone truly toxic who spews negativity and hate towards you or others.

Don’t feel obligated to hold onto toxic relationships because they’re family, a long-time friend, or a partner. I’m aware that these relationships are often extremely complex and intertwined but creating healthy boundaries is a great lesson to practice. Do not feel pressured to hang out with someone if they don’t feel good to be around. Creating space to protect yourself is an excellent form of self-care.

If you can’t completely cut out certain people for a multitude of reasons, attempt to limit interactions. Tell them you need some space for a while or don’t show up to events that you know they’ll be at. A side note to think about when weaning out the toxic people in your life is to look at yourself in the mirror as well. Finding your faults and how you might’ve been toxic too, is a hard truth to come to terms with. Hard yet necessary.

When creating healthy boundaries and reflecting on what kind of people we want to surround ourselves with, it’s important to ask ourselves tough questions. Are we being a good friend, partner, person, etc that others would want to be around? Have we been gossiping or spreading hate?

Are we there for others in the ways that we want others to be there for us? Some hard questions to ask yourself but essential to do regularly if we want to hold those we surround ourselves with and as well as ourselves to a higher standard.

6. Attitudes and Habits-

The last thing we’re clearing out for the complete spring cleaning of your life is any old attitudes, habits, or self-limiting beliefs that are not serving you. Do you talk down on yourself and say that you’re not capable of x, y, and z?

Write down some self-inflicted bad habits that need to be purged. What habits, attitudes, or self-limiting beliefs do you find are holding you back? Figuring out in which ways you’re self-sabotaging is a great place to start to put a stop to them. 

Pay attention to your thoughts. It takes a ton of practice but start to recognize when you begin to tell yourself a negative, deeply rooted belief about yourself. For example…” I could never do x because I am y”. When you realize this thought is forming, notice it and change it. “I could never do x because…wait a minute, that’s not true at all, I actually can do x because I am y and z!”

Don’t beat yourself up if this takes a ton of time and practice to master. We are all our own worst critic and our self-limiting beliefs are so ingrained in us, that it can be a challenge to get our mind to think about ourselves in a more positive and capable light.

7. Spring Clean your Energy-

Spring is a fantastic time to cleanse any stagnant or negative energy lingering in your space. If you’d like to include smudging, look up the traditional ways Indigenous peoples perform the ritual. Gather an understanding and respect for the tradition.

Look into your ancestry and find out what tools they would have used for energy cleansing. There are many great alternatives to sage out there like cedar, mugwort, cinnamon, rosemary, lemongrass, etc.

Add-

While this post has talked mainly of the need to get rid of things, there are a few things that are lovely to add to your space to play up the spring vibes.

-Fresh Flowers: Flowers are especially gorgeous in spring, try adding a bright bouquet to your table this time of year.

-Bright colours: Pastels and bright pops of pink, yellow, green, and blue in Spring will have your place looking very in season. Incorporate throw pillows, blankets, and other spring decors.

-Spring scents: Think citrus, florals, and fresh-cut grass.

That was the 7 ways to spring clean your life. Hopefully, you will implement these steps into your routine whenever your life needs a little spring cleaning.

As always, wishing you peace & tranquility, xo.