20 ways to spring clean your life and clear your path forward

personal journaling Mar 12, 2024

It’s time to emerge from winter hibernation, bask in the sunlight when it finally graces grey old England, and embrace the energy of springtime: new life, new colour, new opportunities, new excitement.

For me, I think now is a perfect time to clear away the dead leaves blocking your path forward, get your ducks in a row (Can I think of any more seasonal analogies?) and initiate the progress you’ve been longing for. It could be to wake up 15 minutes earlier. It could be to start a whole new career.

Whatever you see for yourself, it’s useful to tidy up the 4 main areas of your life. Your physical environment, mental wellbeing, digital presence, and time management can drag you down or propel you forward. I’ve come up with a list of techniques to help you make sure they are doing the latter.

Spring Clean Your Physical Space

You deserve to have an environment that enables you to focus on your ambitions. A messy and chaotic space can clutter the mind and slow you down. Traditional decluttering can be a bit boring, plus as an ADHDer I know it can be VERY distracting, so to get the most out of your spring clean, I’d focus on these things (in small chunks 😉) :

What can you upcycle? - Maybe something is no longer bringing you joy because it looks a bit drab or it’s broken. A crafty afternoon could give it a new lease of life (and a wonderful quick new hobby for a dopamine hit!). Maybe you could repurpose it completely. I’ve seen people on Instagram turn vintage curtains into beautiful dresses. With some TLC, could an item currently cluttering your home be of use again?

What can you sell? - Selling items on second-hand platforms like Facebook Marketplace or Vinted makes decluttering a lot more interesting. Why not allocate any money raised to a treat that will motivate you to declutter? (Or toward that new upcycling hobby...) If you’re dealing with a top-to-bottom declutter, you could transform it into a friendly competition within your family to see who can generate the most income while decluttering.

What can you donate? - I love a good browse around the charity shop, something I inherited from my Mum. By donating items that are only taking up space, you’re giving back to a good cause. It’s a lot more eco-friendly than just chucking things in the bin.

What can you rehome? - Just because an item is cluttering your space doesn’t mean it’s no longer useful. In that case, the solution isn’t to get rid of it but to move it elsewhere to keep your space tidy and organised. I often pass things on to new homes through my local Facebook community recycle group.

Look into useable storage solutions - There's no time like the spring cleaning season to review your storage solutions. How are they working for you, your family and your home? If it’s too much effort to put something away properly, it usually gets left out, immediately cluttering the space. There is no perfect storage solution, only storage solutions that meet individual needs.

Spring Clean Your Mental Space

Our minds are constantly buzzing with thoughts and beliefs. Some are helpful. Some really aren’t. How are your thoughts and beliefs helping you? Are they lifting you up or bringing you down? Mindset really matters, especially when you want to make changes in your life. Here’s what I’d focus on for a spring clean of the mind:

Reconnect with your purpose - When we spend our time on what we feel is meaningful, we tend to think a lot more positively about life. It’s a part of our human nature to want to have a purpose. What is meaningful and purposeful differs from person to person. Reflect on the impact you’d like to have at work and at home. How can you fulfil that purpose?

Identify and re-evaluate your boundaries - Honouring your boundaries is a key part of your self-esteem and therefore the thoughts you have about yourself. When you know where your lines are and stick to them, you’ll be relieved from a lot of stress and frustration because you are allowing yourself to meet your needs. Explore your boundaries and what it looks like to hold them.

Find sustainable self-care practices - When it comes to self-care, I like the mantra ‘a little bit often’. Most of us don’t have endless hours a day to dedicate to ourselves. What we can do is pick up positive habits that lower stress levels, build confidence and allow us to declutter our minds regularly so negativity doesn’t build up and explode. Remember it’s about what works for you. 5 minutes of gratitude journaling a day could fit the bill. Give it a go with my 7 days of gratitude journaling prompts.

Level up your morning and night routine - How you begin the day and how you sleep at night are massive factors in your mindset for the day. Set yourself up for success. What would help you start each day with a clear mind? What would help you to properly switch off at night? It can be simple things like meditation, reading or brain dumping everything into your journal. Find the routines that work best for you.

Compile achievements - It’s in our human nature to focus on the bad and forget the good. It’s not very healthy though. We don’t give our minds a break from evaluating mistakes to celebrate what we’ve been able to achieve. I’m a big believer in the law of attraction so what we focus on comes back to us. What would it look like for you to celebrate yourself more? You could note down on a piece of paper every time something good happens and put it in a jar. By the end of the year, you’ll have a full jar to look back on!

Spring Clean Your Digital Space

We cannot overlook the influence the digital world has on us. How we engage online can motivate and empower us or it can send us into a downward spiral. So be really intentional about the time you spend in the digital world. It’s a tool for you to use. What is the best way for you to use it? Here are some ideas to inspire you:

Review what you consume - Unfollowing social media accounts or unsubscribing from email lists feels mean but it’s not. It’s your right to choose what you consume. If you inundate yourself with too much clutter, especially content that doesn't actually serve you, it will drain your energy levels.

Evaluate your consumption habits - Without passing judgment on yourself, take a moment to consider how much time you wish to allocate for online activities and when you prefer to engage online. I've found that early morning or just before bedtime might not be the most ideal times for me. That’s when I’m most prone to doom scrolling and negative comparisons. Notice your sweet spot for spending time in the digital world.

Organise your inbox and files - A quick way to make your life way easier is to organise your digital world. Clear out your inbox. This will highlight what emails you’re not reading so can unsubscribe from. File your online documents so you can find what you’re looking for without giving yourself a headache.

Back up important files - Stuff happens. Laptops break. Accounts get hacked. You forget where you’ve saved files. If it’s too important to lose, back it up so it’s stored in more than one place and can be accessed in an emergency.

Print off special photos - We take so many photos these days but we don’t really do anything with them. I want my kids to be able to look back on photos of them growing up. You could curate an online gallery of special memories or go old fashioned and print them out. Digital files will change, a physical photo album will always give you access.

Spring Clean Your Time

Time tends to pass quickly without us even realising it. But time is the one thing we can’t get back, no matter how much money we have. Again, this is a prompt to be more intentional about how you use your time. Switch off the autopilot and think about what you actually want. You might find these ideas helpful:

Hobby for pure fun - Not everything has to be about making money or helping other people. Find a hobby that you do for the pure joy of it. Indulge yourself. We need breaks where we just focus on enjoying ourselves to be able to keep pushing through the not-as-fun stuff.

Hobby to get you moving - A lot of us live quite sedentary lives these days. Working at a desk doesn’t require much movement at all. A little bit of movement is good for the mind and the body. It really doesn’t have to be anything intensive. Using half an hour of your lunch break to go for a walk is refreshing and re-energising. It does the trick just fine.

Say no to something - People pleasers, this is for you! I know it’s your nightmare but that’s why it’s so important. Your time is yours. Practice allocating it how you wish. At some points that will involve saying no to people. While it’s scary at first, you’ll come to find it empowering and it frees up your time for the things you want to do that light you up.

Delegate something - It’s not all on you. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you have to. Sometimes it’s much more efficient for other people to pick up tasks for you. This applies to the workplace and home life. If there’s a task that unnecessarily adds to your workload that someone else could easily do just as well or better, hand it over. It feels weird at first, but trust me you quickly get used to it and will do more delegating!

Allocate time with loved ones in your calendar - There’s always something else to do. Empty time in your calendar disappears in the blink of an eye. Before you know it, you haven’t seen any of your friends in 6 months. Plan ahead to make it easier to preserve time with loved ones. Maintaining those relationships is so valuable to your wellbeing.

No. 1 Tip: Engage in Community Accountability

Spring cleaning any area of your life rises right to the top of the procrastination list. We avoid it for all sorts of reasons. It feels too big of a task, too difficult, too emotionally overwhelming. Bringing some accountability into the mix can really help. That’s why Spring Clean Your Life is March’s topic inside the Journal Vibe Club.

Our lovely members are on a journey of personal growth and are spring-cleaning all 4 areas together. They're receiving support from coaches and each other as they work their way through their spring clean. Throughout the month, there's daily journal prompts and a guided workshop, all of which are saved to do at the right time for each person. These help to raise their self-awareness, engage in self-discovery, work through resistances and find revelations when it comes to spring cleaning on a physical, mental, digital and time level. You can join them right now by signing up for the Journal Vibe Club monthly membership.