A new season is upon us. Monday 20th March marked the spring equinox - where day and night are roughly equal to each other, and spring officially starts. Are you ready for spring? How about a spring clean?
I love the changing of seasons. It feels like a fresh start, a bit like how a new year starts. A blank canvas. A clean slate. And that’s the important part - a clean slate. I always like to do a spring clean at this time of year. A good declutter and a deep clean are just so refreshing and prepare me well for the season ahead.
A spring clean isn’t just a quick whizz around the house with the hoover. No, I think it’s important to go further. You can’t clean clutter though so it’s always best to have a thorough sort out and declutter of a space first. Only then will you be able to clean the space efficiently. One thing I’ve found that makes cleaning easier, is having fewer possessions to actually clean.
If you want to clean less, you need less to clean - Unknown
My home is, what I’d call, cosy minimal. I don’t have clutter, but I do have scatter cushions and shelves adorned with candles and books. Because I don’t have a lot of ‘stuff’, my home generally always looks tidy. It is therefore much easier and quicker for me to clean.
There’s lots of evidence to suggest that spring cleaning is good for you, too. It makes sense when you think about it though. A cleaner, more organised home can help improve our productivity, reduce our stress levels and depression, make us healthier, and improve our mental health.
I don’t know about you, but I always feel a million times better when the house is clean and tidy. It clears my head and helps me to feel less stressed. It’s as if a weight has been lifted. I love that everything I have has its own place and can be easily tidied away. This means that the children can get involved with tidying up too because they know where everything goes.
So below I’m sharing 5 things that you can declutter to help start your spring season in the best way possible, because remember, you can’t clean clutter.
Your Wardrobe
At the start of the new year, I turn all of my clothes hangers in my wardrobe the other way around. Every time I wear something, I wash and iron it and hang it back up the right way. Why do I do this? At the end of the year I know that every item of clothing that is still hung up backwards is something I haven’t worn. If I haven’t worn something in a year, it’s unlikely that I will wear it again and so I either sell it on Vinted, or I donate it.
I now have a wardrobe that contains only the things that fit me, that I love and that I wear often. I still have a few key pieces missing until I can officially call it my perfect capsule wardrobe, but that’s due to my body changing so much over the last year with pregnancy.
When I do go shopping next though, I know what I need to buy, what will fit, and what will coordinate with my other clothes. This means that I won’t end up buying items of clothing that I won’t actually wear.
Spend some time tackling your wardrobe and remove anything that doesn’t fit, that you don’t absolutely LOVE, or that you haven’t worn in at least 6 months. Plus, there’ll be less washing and ironing once you’ve narrowed down your clothes!
Your Home
I say this broadly as it applies to decluttering any room in the house. You may want to tackle one room at a time until the entire house has been decluttered. I always like to start in one corner of the room and work clockwise. I don’t know why, it just works for my brain so that I know I’ve not missed anything.
A home with fewer possessions is more spacious, more calming, and more focused on the people who live inside it - Joshua Becker
Look around at your possessions in each room. Do you really need all of those ornaments? Are you keeping empty paint cans, children’s drawings or broken furniture that you can no longer use? Be ruthless. Only keep the items that mean something to you, or that serve a purpose. The rest can go.
Your Diary
Yep, you can declutter your diary! I’ve been guilty of filling my diary with things that I need to do, places I need to be or events I need to attend. The thing is, busy diaries make for busy people. Busy people are often stressed, burnt out people and that’s not what we want to achieve in our slow lives.
Grab your diary and say no to anything that you don’t absolutely need to do. Say no to events that you don’t want to go to. If attending an after school club every night of the week makes you stressed, then say no.
You are in charge of your own happiness, and sometimes that means saying no in order to protect that. How about scheduling a day where you have nothing planned? Or keeping your weekends completely free? You don’t need to have your entire day planned out by the hour. In fact, it’s quite liberating to have days with nothing planned.
Why not have ‘protected times’ where you don’t have any commitments? We do this as a family. We don’t schedule anything past 6pm. This means no visitors, no after school clubs, no going out shopping etc. It’s our time as a family where we can relax and unwind before bed, and it is a game changer! I’d highly recommend having some protected times in your life.
Your Finances
Do you know what goes in and out of your bank each month? Honestly? Are you spending more than you’re earning? Do you even know what you’re spending your money on? Are you always expecting there to be more money when you check your banking app?
I keep a spreadsheet record of my finances and I evaluate them at the end of the month to see where I can improve. Have I spent too much on the food shop this month? Did I get too many takeaways or spend too much on Amazon and have no idea what I actually bought? If I do, then I know where I need to cut back next month.
Those ‘just popping to the shop’ trips really add up for us as a family, and we do a weekly big food shop so I really don’t understand what we need to top up during the week, but it can be expensive. I’d rather put money towards paying off debt or into a savings account than waste money on snacks and other unnecessary things every other day.
There are two ways to be rich: one is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little - Jackie French Koller
Can you take a look at your finances for March and see where you can cut back? Do you have any subscriptions that you don’t use, or direct debits that are outdated? You could save yourself some money by doing this exercise.
And don’t forget to reduce your spending too. Are you someone who shops for the sake of it? Do you honestly need another pair of shoes? How about taking part in a no spend week or month to save money?
Think of it like this: If you are not content today, there is nothing you can buy this weekend that will change that.
Your Mind
Decluttering your mind is so important, probably the most important thing you can do for yourself. What do you need less of to improve your mental health?
Do you need less screen time? Less work? Less commitments? Less time spent inside? Less time spent sitting at your desk? Less junk food? Less caffeine?
These all apply to me right now. I know this is an ongoing issue for me, and when I start to feel like my brain is fogging up, that my patience is wearing thin and my productivity is non-existent, then it’s time to move my body and eat better. Reducing time spent aimlessly scrolling helps me massively too.
Can you get outside more this week? Can you do more things that bring you joy and less of the things that drain you? I’m sure it’ll make an almost instant improvement to your mood and how you feel.
I’d love to know how you have started the spring season. Have you, or do you plan on doing a declutter, organise and spring clean? What is holding you back from a clean and tidy home? Let me know by replying to this email or leave a comment if you’re reading on Substack