Spring is here! It’s hard to feel it right now amid the Coronavirus shutdowns but it’s here. With the change in seasons comes the warmer weather, flowers blooming and, for many, doing some spring cleaning. This usually looks like clearing out winter clothes and accessories and making room for spring and summer outfits. Today I’m going to discuss decluttering your life through spring cleaning.
Tackle Those Closets
Closets tend to be one of the first things I think of when I’m preparing to start my spring cleaning. They’re the first things in my house to get out of control fast and, before I know it, everything is everywhere. I’ve found it helpful to move my winter clothes out of my main closet to keep it more organized and easier to find things. This can be done by packing them away in boxes or bins for the season or moving them to a secondary closet. This also feels like I have so many new clothes to wear and makes me happy to mix things up a bit.
Simplify Your Rooms
Periodically I will assess each room in my house and see what we don’t have a need for. My husband, a collector of many things, has a lot of stuff. At times, it can be overwhelming because my living spaces have always been very minimalistic so this took some getting used to. There is a way to function, though, even if there are differing perspectives in the house. We compromised and reduced the amount of stuff significantly but we were very open about what was important for us to keep. Every few months we go through that conversation again because, inevitably, we acquire more stuff and need to make space for it.
Reduce Commitments
Sometimes life gets hectic and we say yes to more than we should. It’s important to set aside some time to review those commitments and assess whether or not they bring you joy. To the extent that we can, our schedule should mostly bring us joy. Some people do this at the beginning of the year and look back at the year before to do a calendar audit. I’ve started looking at this quarterly. I’ve found that if I wait until the end of the year, there are changes I could’ve made sooner to increase my quality of life. This part of my spring cleaning routine goes a long way to declutter my life.
Assess the Content You’re Consuming
Social media is an amazing resource that can bring people closer together, keep groups in touch all over the world and can be a place to meet new people. It can also take you down a rabbit hole and impact your mood, the amount of time you have with your family and be a distraction. The content you consume can increase or decrease your joy and it’s imperative that we are proactive about that. This can also be said for friendships. Like the calendar audit, I encourage a social media audit. Who are you following and does the content they share make you happy or is it toxic?
Let Go of Comparisons
Comparison is said to be the thief of joy and it’s something that tends to be so natural for us. Letting go of comparison is another way of decluttering your life through spring cleaning.
Social media makes this even harder to combat because everyone is sharing their highlight reel while we’re living in our day to day, sometimes messy life. This can lead to feelings of insecurity about being a good enough mom, being fit enough or having a fun life like everyone else seems to be having. As much as possible, I encourage us to start our day with gratitude in what we already have and continue to come back to that when those insecurities flare up. It’s also been helpful for me to make a list of things in my life that I am comparing to others. Once I write it down, I crumble up the paper and throw it away. It’s a helpful, physical reminder that I need to let it go.
Ditch the Debt
Most of us have debt. Some of us have a lot of debt. Making progress in paying it down feels freeing but can be difficult to make those necessary changes. There are various different debt free plans out there. I’ve recently found Dave Ramsey and have found some of his strategies useful. More on Dave Ramsey here. This is something that setting a goal each month has been helpful to us because it’s something we can work to achieve and feel good about when we do each month instead of waiting until our big goal is accomplished. This will take some time friends but it’ll be worth it in the end.
Decluttering your life is good for the soul and spring cleaning is a great way to start. It helps to keep us focused, organized, happy and motivated. I hope that you are able to get as much use out of this as I do this season.
