In this post, you will learn how to spring clean your life so you can emerge refreshed, recharged, and ready to take on the rest of the year as the best mom you can possibly be!
Springtime has finally arrived and along with it comes the energy of new growth and change — and of course the need to do a little Spring cleaning. When we think of Spring cleaning our thoughts tend to go straight to dusting, scrubbing, and decluttering our homes. While that’s incredibly important, especially for moms with messy kiddos, I want to challenge you to go a little deeper this year.
In my opinion, there is no better time of year for personal growth, self-care, and energy clearing than Spring. So, instead of just cleaning the surfaces of our house let’s clean up the energy inside of it. Instead of just cleaning clutter from our spaces let’s clear the clutter from our minds. Let’s refresh, reevaluate, reassess, and revive every corner of our lives.
Read below to learn 31 ways you can spring clean your life
Declutter, clean, and rearrange
1. Marie Kondo everyones wardrobe
If you’ve watched the show Tidying Up but you have yet taken action, now is the time. You don’t have to take on the whole house, but at least Marie Kondo the heck out of everyone’s wardrobe! Go through your closets and donate everything that doesn’t bring you joy. When making the decision of what to keep or give away, I like to ask myself, “Is this item of clothing something I want to bring into my future? Does this item represent the person I want to be?” If the answer is no, give it away. Go through your children’s clothes and get rid of anything they don’t like to wear (even if you love it) or that doesn’t fit them anymore.
2. Donate or throw away old or unused toys
Toys are the greatest source of chaos and clutter when you have kids in the house. Giving your kids a more narrow selection of toys not only helps with the mess but it helps your children feel less overwhelmed by options during playtime. Go through all your children’s toys and throw away anything that is missing pieces or broken. Donate any toys that your children don’t use or want anymore. If your children are older and can help you make decisions, include them in the process. If your children are younger, maybe wait until nap time to avoid any drama.
3. Purge old beauty and personal care products
How long has it been since you went through your bathroom drawers and cabinets? Now is a great time to ransack your bathroom and throw anyway products that are old, unused, or expired. This includes your makeup stash. Purge any old beauty products or makeup brushes that you don’t use — or for safety reasons probably shouldn’t use.
4. Feng Shui the bedrooms
Give stagnate or negative energy the boot and feng shui your bedrooms. Look into how to Feng Shui and rearrange the bedrooms in your house to support the flow of positive energy. I recently rearranged my bedroom and I felt so invigorated and refreshed! You could, of course, try to Feng Shui your whole house, but as a busy mama I thought just doing the bedrooms was a good place to start.
5. Clean all the things — with non-toxic products!
Give everything a deep clean and do it with non-toxic cleaning products. I know people love the efficient germ-killing power of chemicals, but there are plant-based cleaning products out there that are just as effective but don’t contain toxic and potentially harmful chemicals. Something just doesn’t feel right about ushering in a beautiful season like Spring with a load of chemicals.
6. Add detoxifying plants to every room
Spring is the best time of the year to add some plants to your home that are known for their detoxifying and air purifying powers. According to the NASA Clean Air Study, plants like Areca Palm, Spider Plant, and Boston Fern can eliminate significant amounts of benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene from the air in your home. Always make sure the plants you bring into your home are not toxic for children and pets!
7. Sage the house
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Clean up your technology
8. Remove unused apps
Our phones have become such a huge part of our lives, which means they need to be decluttered too if we want to truly be effective in our Spring cleaning efforts. Go through your phone and remove any apps that you don’t use or want anymore. You can even go a step further and sort them into folders to really feel organized!
9. Clean out the contact list on your phone
As long as you’re already clearing out space on your phone, go ahead and delete old numbers from your contact list. Let me tell you, I have an embarrassing amount of men’s phone numbers on my phone from my dating app days that I have no intention of ever using, so — delete, delete, delete! Maybe you don’t have those kinds of numbers on your phone, but I think you get the point. Clean out unused or unwanted contacts.
10. Reassess your notifications
How many times a day does your phone flash notifications? Probably a lot — and every time a notification pops up on your phone, you look. Which means your attention is pulled from whatever else you’re doing at the moment. If you want to be more present with your children, spouse, family, and friends maybe reassess what notifications you do and don’t need. For example, do you need to know every time someone likes your Instagram photo or can you wait to find out until the next time you open the app? Unless the notifications you receive are urgent, maybe consider turning them off.
11. Unfollow people who don’t inspire you
Spring cleaning your life is all about making sure your mind, body, and soul are being taken care of to the best of your ability. Part of that means deciding to not allow other people to make you feel bad about yourself or put you in a negative mindset. One of the ways you can do that is to go on your social media accounts and unfollow anyone who doesn’t inspire you. If you are following someone that makes you feel “less than” every time they post something, unfollow. Everyone you follow on social media should add value to your life, inspire you, encourage you, make you laugh. If they are not doing that, unfollow them.
12. Unsubscribe to newsletters
There is nothing worse than checking your email in the morning and seeing a million advertisements, promotions, and sales cluttering up your inbox. The best feeling in the world is unsubscribing to newsletters you don’t want. We are busy mamas and we don’t have the time to spend an hour every morning sorting through thousands of emails trying to find the ones we actually want to read. Unsubscribe to those unwanted newsletters and taste the freedom! But don’t unsubscribe from mine, of course, because I know you love reading those. 😉
Detoxify your body
13. Exfoliate your whole body
While we are shedding unwanted things from our life, let’s also shed some unwanted skin and bacteria from our bodies. Sorry, that sounds gross — but we gotta do it! Start dry brushing every day before you shower to shed dead skin cells and increase circulation. You can also make your own non-toxic salt, sugar, or coffee scrub.
14. Sweat it out
There are many benefits of sweating and detoxifying the body is one of them. Sweating can actually rid the body of toxic heavy metals. There’s no specific method needed to gain the benefits of sweating. You just have to do something that makes you sweat. Take a trip to a sauna, take a cardio class, have a dance party, wherever works. Of course, don’t wear antiperspirant during your sweat it out activity. That would kinda defeat the purpose. Maybe that’s obvious but I thought I needed to point it out.
15. Do a detox
If you’ve been eating a lot of junk food lately and feeling crappy, maybe Spring cleaning time would be a great opportunity to do a detox. Sometimes your body just needs a little reset. Try a three-day juice fast or go raw for a week. I’m not a nutritionist, so please do your research before starting any kind of detox, especially if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding.
16. Swap out your personal care products for non-toxic alternatives
How long has it been since you checked the ingredients list on your family’s favorite personal care products like shampoo, bubble bath, lotions, etc? You might find that some products you’ve used for years contain scary toxic chemicals. Now is a great time to swap out your personal care products for non-toxic alternatives. There are so many incredible natural brands on the market these days, which makes it really easy to try out some new non-toxic products and toss the chemical stuff. If you want to know the safety of any personal care product, check out the EWG Skin Deep Database.
Evaluate your daily activities
17. Purge or rearrange your schedule
Are you a “yes” mama who fills up her days with activities and obligations and doesn’t leave time for breathing? If so, now is the time to purge and rearrange your schedule. Take a look at your schedule and ask yourself if there is any way to slim it down at all. Can you cancel obligations or allocate responsibilities? I know this is such a hard one for moms, but even eliminating just one thing from your schedule can do wonders for your sanity.
18. Reassess your routines
Take a look at your daily routines and see if you can make any improvements. Can you change your morning routine to make time for meditation? Can you start getting ready for bed earlier so you have time for a better skin care routine? Can you add or eliminate a task in order to make your day flow better or get more done? Our daily routines might seem insignificant, but what we do every day creates our life. Are your daily routines helping to create the life you want? Take a closer look.
19. Refresh and revive your goals
Being a mother is incredible, but it’s also all-consuming. It can easily take every ounce of attention we have and that includes attention to our personal goals. How long has it been since you sat down and asked yourself what you want out of life? What things you still want to accomplish? Not something you want for your family but a goal YOU have always wanted to reach. Have you always wanted to start a business? Run a marathon? Grow a garden? Spring is an amazing time to refresh and revive your goals and put a plan into action.
Release anything that’s not working for your highest good
20. Let go of the past and limiting beliefs
So many of us are walking around with our past experiences etched in every cell of our bodies, holding us back, and perpetuating our limiting beliefs. These things are not working for our highest good and there is no better time to release them than right now. Start to become aware of the ways in which your past is leaking into your present. Become aware of your personal beliefs about yourself and the world that are not true and are keeping you from reaching your highest potential. Go to therapy, talk to friends and family, read books and learn how to let go of the past once and for all.
21. Let go of toxic relationships
If you have any relationships in your life that are not working for your highest good, maybe it’s time to let them go. You know if there is a relationship in your life that is toxic – it’s the one that popped into your head when you first started reading this section. I am not an expert on toxic relationships, but this is a great article if you feel like you want more guidance letting go of a relationship in your life.
22. Make apologies
Springtime is all about new growth and fresh starts. It’s hard to truly move forward on positive foot when you have a guilty conscious. Is there someone in your life that you’ve hurt lately that you owe an apology to? Maybe you did something unintentional and caused someone pain? Now would be a beautiful time to apologize, so that you and the other person can both feel better and move on.
23. Address and break bad habits
Bad habits, we all have them — but that doesn’t mean we have to keep them! Bad habits are hard to break, but with hard work and dedication you CAN break them and it’s always worth it. I feel like mothers need to be aware of their bad habits more than other women because we have little humans learning from everything we do. If we’re in the habit of criticizing ourselves when we look in the mirror, our children will learn to criticize themselves when they look in the mirror too. If we have a bad habit of reaching for junk food when we’re stressed, our children will learn to look to food for stress relief. Take a look at the bad habits you might be modeling for your children and begin the process of breaking them.
24. Begin to reprogram your subconscious
The best way, and maybe the only way, to break the cycle of limiting beliefs and bad habits is to begin to reprogram your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind rules all of your habitual decisions and actions. By reprograming your subconscious mind you can begin to make real, lasting change in your life. If you’re curious about reprogramming your subconscious mind, I highly recommend reading Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza.
Reevaluate your attitude and beliefs
25. Stop gossiping
One of the very best ways to keep your energy clean is to stop gossiping. Talking about people behind their back gives us an ego boost and makes us feel better about ourselves in the moment, but that doesn’t mean we should do it. Sometimes is hard to keep your opinions and thoughts to yourself, especially if you’re sitting with a group of people who are gossiping, but just bite your tongue and try not to get involved.
26. Notice when you’re being negative and stop
There are so many ways that we can be negative throughout the day and not even notice. Become more aware of when you are being negative and stop yourself. If you notice yourself complaining a lot, judging people or situations, worrying without reason, snapping at people, being over controlling of your children, acting pessimistic, etc. — stop, take a deep breath, and start over. We can always start over on a more positive foot if we want to.
27. Watch your negative self-talk
While you’re cleaning up everything else in your life, you also clean up your negative self-talk and language. I’m not talking about when you stub your toe and drop the F-bomb. Go ahead and keep doing that, it really does help with the pain. I’m talking about the endless loop of thoughts that go around in your head all day that are less than helpful to your personal growth. It goes a little like, “Ugh I shouldn’t have eaten that bagel for breakfast I look so fat. My kid never listens I’m the worst mom ever. I’ll never get my business off the ground I’m too stupid. Blah, blah, blah.” Instead of thinking those icky thoughts all day, try replacing them with positive affirmations instead.
28. Practice conscious parenting
Yet another thing we can clean up this Spring is our parenting strategies. One way to do that is to practice more conscious parenting. Simply put, conscious parenting is all about being more present with your children and more mindfully interacting, engaging, and influencing them. If that sounds like something you want to learn more about, check out these 11 conscious parenting tips that will change your life. Also, check out Dr. Becky at Good Inside– she is my parenting guru!
Take time to relax, recharge, and reset
29. Do a guided meditation
With all of this cleaning, decluttering, rearranging, and detoxing you need to give yourself time to relax, recharge, and reset. The best way to do that while simultaneously supporting your growth is to do a guided meditation. You can find awesome free guided meditations on Spotify. If you want some suggestions, check out my Meditation Playlist. If you’re completely confused about meditation in general, read this post on how to start
30. Catch up on sleep
Of course, one of the best ways to recharge is to catch up on some sleep. Mother’s need to catch up on rest even when they’re not in the midst of Spring cleaning their life, but after doing all of this work it’s especially important to give your mind and body time to recalibrate. Sleep in on the weekends, go to bed earlier, take a nap with your kids. Whenever you can create a moment for more sleep, do it!
31. Read a good book with a cup of tea
I find that one of the best ways to feel relaxed is to sit down and read a good book with a cup of tea. It doesn’t matter what book you read, just the act of blocking everything else out if only for a moment feels amazing. The only books I’ve been reading lately are personal growth books, but any book that nurtures or entertains your mind will do.
Ready to emerge refreshed and recharged?
Now that you’ve read that whole list you might feel like you have a lot to do. By no means have to do all of those things in order to Spring clean your life and emerge a refreshed and recharged Mama. Doing just a couple of the things from the list will make you feel so much better!
Even the smallest movements toward a more positive future have the power to make meaningful, lasting change. Take your Spring cleaning a little deeper this year and you never know — maybe you’ll look back at this Spring as the season that positively changed your life forever. Isn’t that a lovely thought to think?
What is your favorite Spring cleaning ritual? Share in the comments below!
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