Spring Clean Your Life

With spring around the corner, we can get the itch to start decluttering and sorting out the loose ends in our lives.

Almost all of us have too much stuff – unwanted gifts, magazines, never to read books, clothes we’ve never worn. And that is just the physical stuff! Clearing out the unnecessary distractions and saying yes to everything can also overfill the cup.

Read on for some spring-cleaning ideas to declutter and feel on top of your game!
In true Marie Kondo style, a clean out of your closet can do wonders for the mind and home. Here are some top tips to help you choose what to keep and what to give away: 

1.     Look at each piece of clothing and ask yourself, when was the last time I wore that? Does it bring me joy? If you haven’t worn it in a year and it is not a sentimental piece, it might be worth moving it on.

2.     Find homes for each group of items – socks in one place, jumpers in another.

3.     Consider organising your closet into seasons or colours and rotate them as the weather changes.

4.     Always return an item after washing to its home. It can be tempting to just pop things anywhere but we all know that’s where the mess can happen.

Declutter the home
Go through your bathrooms, living room and kitchen. Find things you have never used; unwanted gifts, things that are broken or unused for six months, and pop them in a pile to find a new home.

In the kitchen – go through your cupboards and throw out any expired cans/spices/grains and plan to use up those expiring soon. For your freezer, check the use by dates and if you have had something in their longer than 6 months, consider getting rid of it or use it soon!

For things such as cosmetics and self-care products, check their expiry dates. A good rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t keep them for more than 6 months. And don’t forget medications, these have strict expiry dates that should be stuck too, so throw out that old bottle of cough medicine from 1999!

Digital detox
What’s clogging up your digital space? Overcrowded desktop screens, unused apps, cloud folders filled with random documents? Schedule some time for each device and do a clean-up:

·      Laptop: clean-up your desktop from screenshots, organise folders, upgrade your software and organise photos.

·      Phone: delete apps you don’t use regularly or don’t need, organise the apps on your home screen and create app folders, adjust your notification settings on your phone and store photos and videos in a cloud folder.

·      Inbox:  unsubscribe to newsletters that you never open, delete or archive old emails that you don’t read, empty your spam and trash, set up a folder system to categorise emails and a reply soon folder is always helpful.

Sort out the diet  
Noticed one too many chocolates creeping into the diet? Got into a bad habit of eating the same meals — day in, day out? Relying too much on fast food or convenience options? Can’t remember the last time you tried a new recipe? If so, consider making these changes: 

·      Stick to sweet things once a day and only one portion.

·      Keep your caffeine under 400mg per day (5 espresso shots/ 7 cups of tea).

·      Check in on your alcohol intake and keep it under 14 units per week.

·      Include more colour on your plate

·      Commit time on a Sunday to batch cooking some new recipes,

·      Aim to have one meal per day made from scratch.

·      Try a new vegetable or one you haven’t had in 6 months.