Spring is best time to clean up our act. More sunlight and warmer temperatures invite us to open the windows of our home and our soul and strip ourselves of everything that is no longer serving us. Not an easy task, but extremely necessary to maintain balance in our outer and inner environments. In this post I am going to give you 4 easy tips to apply right away so that you can spring clean your life all year round. But first, let me explain to you exactly what I mean.
What does it mean to Spring Clean
Whether you are a spring clean enthusiast or a spring clean procrastinator, when you hear the term spring clean (or spring cleaning), you probably think of ridding your home of junk, reorganizing closets, the garage, the attic, maybe the kitchen…
Cleaning out all the stuff that has mysteriously made its way into your life during the course of the year.
However, I like to take spring cleaning to another level, incorporating all of my homes.
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn says, take care of your body. It is the only place you have to live. I love this! Your body, your temple, right?
So yeah, let’s get rid of all the excess under our roof and all around our house, but let’s also clean up our true physical home, our body, adding our mind and heart to our spring clean project as well.
Whether you decide to focus on just your house, just your body or spring clean the whole deal, apply the following 4 tips (plus one bonus tip at the end) to help you to lighten up, let go, and deep cleanse your life with greater ease, joy and success.
Tip #1: Spring Clean One Thing At A Time
Whether you are focusing on your home or your body or everything, avoid overwhelm state by doing one thing at a time. When we start thinking about how much there is to do, we start feeling exhausted before we even begin, we hear stories in our head saying that we don’t have time, we don’t have energy, we will do it next week. We start to panic and panicking leads to procrastination and disappointment, mostly with ourselves. So break it down. Maybe write a list and then check off one by one.
As Dana K. White, the voice behind the blog, A Slob Comes Clean, and author of the book, Decluttering at the Speed of Life – Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff says, when you feel overwhelmed, just do the dishes! So try applying this to your spring clean, maybe start with the dishes, darling friend! Most of us have way too many of them in our cabinets. (See Tip #3 for help)
For your home
Start with one room, one closet, one drawer, one box, or even one dish ;)! When you are finished, go on to another. Repeat until you have gone through all the spaces.
For your body
Start with one healthy habit you can include in your routine. Maybe it is to take a 20 minute walk every morning or go to a yoga class twice a week or start eating an all fruit-based breakfast or do a 7 day juice fast… reduce or eliminate alcohol or cigarettes or shut off your devices an hour before bedtime and go to bed earlier.
Again, make a list of all the things that you are going to do to improve your physical health. Start with one thing, when it becomes habit check it off and choose another. Spring clean does not have to begin or end with spring, it just has to begin today.
For your mind and heart
Caring for your mind and heart may be the most challenging part of your spring clean. Start by making a list of all your limiting beliefs and all the negative stories you tell yourself every day.
Maybe it is that you are not lovable or that you aren’t talented or that you will always be fat and ugly or maybe it is the fear you hold about the future or maybe it is the belief that you are unlucky or that you are a failure or that you do not deserve to be happy. Any of these sound familiar?
Start with one belief and rewrite your story. Use affirmations. Start meditating. Devote time to your health and self-care. Take a risk. Begin a project that you have been dreaming of. Do something challenging.
Start with one thing and take action in turning it around. When you feel confident, check it off and go on to another.
Tip #2: Declutter, Don’t Reorganize
Ok. So you have started with one thing and you have great intentions to eliminate all that is no longer serving you. However, before you know it your space is neater, but all your stuff is still there (including your emotions).
Even the ipods that don’t work so well, even the books that nobody is ever going to read, even the cotton candy maker that your sister-in-law gave your daughter for her 10th birthday despite your discontent and was never used. Your daughter is now almost 19 (yep! that’s me).
You have managed to find a perfect little place for all of it and you are feeling real good…
until a couple of weeks or months from now when all these things mysteriously get out of order again and the mess is even messier and the piles are even higher and there is more stuff to dust because in the meantime even more stuff has mysteriously entered your abode (once again, emotions included).
I have a reality check for you: Reorganizing is NOT decluttering. Reorganizing is making everything look neat and pretty. In real life this never lasts. It only takes one day that you are super late for all the neat and pretty to go POOF! and you are back in chaos.
Get rid of it!
For your home
Simple. Eliminate the stuff.
For your body
Eliminate the food. Putting it on a higher shelf or in the back of the cabinet will not save you. Avoid switching one unhealthy addiction for another. If you give up candy and start drinking too much coffee you are just reorganizing dependency.
For your mind and heart
Work towards eliminating the bad habits and thoughts completely. It takes time, practice, patience and compassion. However, if you never start, it will continue to accumulate.
Also, switching one bad relationship for another or substituting abusive self-talk towards your body for just as abusive self-talk about your worth is just reorganizing toxicity.
Tip #3: Spark More Joy
I know, it is difficult to eliminate things They have been in our lives for so long, sometimes a lifetime. They are so familiar. We have gotten attached to them, even the ugly, nasty and useless stuff.
In the space changing book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, author Marie Kondo writes, “Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then, take the plunge and discard all the rest. By doing this, you can reset your life and embark on a new lifestyle.“
She also writes, “The best way to choose what to keep and what to throw away is to take each item and ask: ‘Does this spark joy?‘
For your home
Imagine being surrounded only by things that you truly love. Your space becomes light and joy-full. Keep only what makes you feel happy, energetic and inspired. Dump or give away the rest.
For your body, mind and heart
This applies to your unhealthy habits, your negative patterns and your uncompassionate, limiting thoughts. It won’t be easy. Greatness never is. What is healthy for you makes you feel energetic and inspired. Trust your instincts.
Apply the other tips and begin TODAY. Six months from now both your outer and inner environments will be much more suitable for the person you are gradually becoming, not the person you were in the past.
Tip #4: Ask for help
Maybe you held that thing in your hand, you examined it, you asked yourself the right questions, and even though in your heart you no that it doesn’t have that spark joy factor, you still can’t build up the courage to let go. Well, ask for help.
Choose a person who knows you, who you trust and know will be completely honest, and who has absolutely no sentimental attachment to your stuff, material or emotional.
This person will give you their unbiased opinion whether it’s a YES or an absolutely, positively NO. This one is key when you find yourself too attached to the past.
Once again, you can apply this to all aspects of your life, all of your environments, both outer and inner.
For your home
It is so useful to have a trusted friend or family member sit with you while you are eliminating your stuff. I have amazing memories sorting through my over 20 years of accumulating closet with a dear friend when we sold our house to go on the road. We had so much fun as she helped me decide, can it stay or definitely gotta go.
For your body
When we are trying to clean up our body, it is so important to have someone who will keep you accountable. Choose someone who already practices a healthy lifestyle. Allow them to inspire you and help you decide where to start.
For your mind and heart
Cleaning up our mind and heart requires a support system. Who understands you and is never judgmental? What person do you choose to spend time with or call when you need a bit of calm, love or inspiration? Who cheers you up and cheers you on?
This person will provide an ear, a hug or just their presence as you go through your checklist and eliminate your limiting beliefs and toxic situations and emotions. They will be there to remind you that you know how to rise up when you fall.
Ask for help whether you are spring cleaning your house, your body, your mind or your heart. Letting go is easier when you feel supported by someone willing to help you see what you are unable to see, be there to listen, or just sit by your side.
Get the support of someone who sees who you are becoming and will hold you accountable to only hold onto what serves you for the journey you are on right now.
My spring clean is a daily practice
If you get only one thing from this post I hope that it is the understanding that it is all connected. Decluttered space outside. Decluttered space inside.
When we make our spring clean a daily practice we free ourselves from all the things that are confusing us and weighing us down.
Spring clean for me has become a life practice. When my family and I sold our first house to travel on the road in an RV, I was forced to get rid of many material things. It was an extremely emotional process which involved ridding myself of doubt and fear as well as kitchen appliances, furniture, books, cds and clothes.
Our nomad lifestyle helped us clean up all aspects of our life. We became more and more curious about taking responsibility for our health, our daughters’ education and cultivating our relationships, starting from our own.
Living in a small space, motivates us to learn to live with the essentials, physically, mentally and spiritually. It is extremely challenging. However, the better we became of letting go of our stuff and our limiting beliefs (about ourselves and one another), our family experienced a brand new type of freedom.
The more we have the more we have to maintain and worry about. All of us live with so much more baggage than what a healthy, balanced life requires.
It causes us to feel overwhelmed, stressed and disconnected. This includes material things, our routines, our habits, our thoughts, and what we carry around in our heart space.
Don’t limit spring cleaning to Spring
Do not procrastinate, but also never think that it is too late. Spring cleaning is a year round practice. A healthy home and life require regular check ins.
Here is a bonus tip: Make a monthly date with yourself to clean up your space. Make a weekly date with yourself to clean up your mind and your heart. Make a daily date with yourself to keep your body clean.
Year-round Spring Clean Summary
- Break it down. Choose one thing to focus on at a time. Thinking that you must clean your entire house, eliminate everything that you currently eat, or overturn your entire life is too overwhelming and will lead to you feeling like a disappointment or failure. Make a list. Focus on one small thing. Follow through, check it off and proceed.
- Declutter, don’t reorganize. Actually get rid of the things that are no longing serving your space or you. If it is not functional or does not spark joy, let it go.
- Surround yourself with joy. Eliminate everything that does not make you feel energetic, joyful and inspired. Material things, habits and patterns, people, limiting beliefs. Actually talk to your stuff, beliefs and emotions: Ask them if they are improving your physical and emotional well-being. DOES IT SPARK JOY?
- Get a support system. Write a list of the people you can rely on to support you during the cleaning process and beyond. Asking for help is a strength, never a weakness.
- Make a date. If you keep it vague, you will never get to it. There will always be an excuse available. Set regular monthly, weekly and daily dates for cleaning up your environments and your life.
Disclosure
This post contains affiliate marketing. This means that when you purchase a product through the link provided, I will receive a small commission with no extra cost to you. This is a small way that you can thank me for my writing. I really appreciate your support. If you want to purchase the book Decluttering at the Speed of Life – Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff by Dana K. White or the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, by Marie Kondo, click on the title.Have you understood that my idea of spring clean is not about Spring? It is a lifestyle and mindset. Less is most always more.
When we make it a habit to regularly let go of what is no longer serving us and clean up all our spaces, we feel calmer, freer and incredibly whole. HAPPY CLEANING!
If you haven’t read it yet, you may want to read my FULL DISCLOSURE MESSAGE. ❤
