Spring, like the New Year, is often seen as a time for fresh starts. Flowers are blooming, butterflies are stretching their wings, baby birds are cracking their shells to see sunlight for the first time, and adults are cleaning out their closets and deep cleaning their houses.
Coming out of the winter and embracing warm weather, this is the perfect time to clean a lot of different items, both physical and metaphysical. The first day of Spring is March 20, 2023.
following/follower lists
Given the importance that our social media profiles now have in our day-to-day lives, it may be beneficial to start thinking of your social platforms as a sort of metaphysical space that needs a good clean every once in a while.
Sometimes, we feel the need to follow people on social media and/or let people follow us because of some weird social obligation. Oh, they’re my boyfriend’s friend’s new girlfriend, who I met one time — I should follow her! Or, Oh yeah, I work with this person, and if I reject their follow request, it’ll be awkward.
While I can’t deny the social pressures around social media, I will advocate for doing what feels best to you. I put my Instagram on private a few years ago, and every now and then, I’ll go through the list of people I follow and remove the people I don’t feel a connection to or people I don’t want contact with in my online space. There are people who I love and enjoy being with in person who I don’t follow online, and that’s okay.
Similarly, I’ll go through the people following me and remove anyone I don’t want to allow into my online space anymore. Again, it’s not personal. It has everything to do with my personal experience online and the reality that certain people cost more mental energy than others.
phone contacts
This is pretty similar to cleaning out your social lists but has the added benefit of freeing up storage on your phone.
I don’t know about you, but I have so many people in my phone contacts who I know I’m never going to talk to again. Whether they’re old group project members, people from my high school dance class, or old co-workers, if I haven’t spoken to them in the last two years, there’s a pretty high chance I’m not going to for a while. So why allow their info to take up space on my phone or in my mind?
The other benefit of clearing this out is if you’re like me and you forget to fill people’s contact pages out and subsequently end up with a million of the same (or similar) names, clearing out the old contacts ensures that you’re talking to the people you actually meant to talk to.
Subscriptions
Media consumption has become a part of everyone’s daily lives, and as such, we should be aware of the things that we consume and the platforms/services we use.
The first step would be to evaluate your various subscriptions and be honest about which services you enjoy using and which ones you use the most often. Ending certain subscriptions will not only free up some mental space but add a little extra to your savings account.
The second step is to evaluate the content you’re consuming on the subscription platforms you use. We spend so much time online nowadays, and practically every social platform relies on algorithms to constantly feed us content. It can be easy to forget that the algorithm feeds off of our actions, so if you’re seeing things that you no longer want to see, or you’re not seeing stuff you do want to see, now is the time to change things up.
You can also use this time to evaluate subscriptions that don’t have to do with media (i.e. gym memberships, meal box subscriptions, makeup/beauty-related subscriptions, etc.) Be honest with yourself about the services that you enjoy using, and consider canceling the ones that don’t bring you as much joy as others.
space
This is the obligatory spring cleaning step everyone should probably take. Cleaning your space feels extremely good and has some added physical health benefits (beyond just the physical activity involved in cleaning.
Now is the time to do an in-depth clean and clean things that we often forget about, like the grease trap in the kitchen, the washing machine, the dishwasher, the space under our beds, etc. If you have a centralized air system, now is the time to look at your air filter and consider replacing it. Having a working air filter is especially helpful for people with seasonal allergies and can improve your air quality and breathing at home. Other things you can do include: treating your sink and bathtub/shower with Drano, vacuuming behind the couch, throwing some ice and salt into the garbage disposal, and clearing old food out of the fridge.
Beyond cleaning, spring cleaning is a time to get rid of old items that are no longer serving you. As you clean, take stock of the things in your home that you use and don’t use, and try to pull together a bag or two of donation items (and consider putting together a little swap meet between friends, you never know what you guys might be able to exchange).
mind
Hopefully, after you’ve cleaned your physical and digital spaces, clearing your mind will be a bit easier. As spring cleaning is a time for fresh starts, I would encourage you to take this moment to practice some mindfulness.
This will look different to everybody, but I like to meditate for a few minutes, journal a bit, and set my intentions for the next few months. Take some time to self-reflect on everything that has already happened in 2023. Take stock of the negative things and allow yourself to be happy or excited about the positive things, and always remember to rest!
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I hope these ideas help you in your spring cleaning this season. Spring is my favorite season. I’ve always loved the sense of revitalization that comes with it, and I hope that through your transition into spring you feel this sense of revitalization as well.