With warmer weather very slowly approaching, spring cleaning season is almost upon us. The urge to revamp one's space can be overwhelming, especially after spending so much time indoors during the winter.
If you're feeling the need to refresh and reorganize, there are a ton of ways you can do this. After all, spring cleaning isn't just about switching up your closet (though that never hurts either).
For your most thorough clean, here are some things you can focus on.
1. Your Closet
Even though spring cleaning isn't solely about reorganizing your clothes, it's definitely a helpful part of the process. When the temperature goes up, you won't want to reach into your closet and pull out a fuzzy sweater or giant flannel.
Now is the time to throw all your heavy clothing and boots into storage. Hang those short sleeve pieces in your closet, put your sandals out and await that sunshine. (OK, maybe keep a few warm pieces in there...)
2. Your cabinets
Sometimes, giving everything in your home its own space can work against you. Snacks go in the top right cabinet, so you throw them in - never to be seen again. Medicine lives behind the bathroom mirror, to be forgotten by next week.
Are you seeing a trend here?
It's so easy to forget about the junk you throw into the cabinets and drawers in your home. But if you don't want to find expired food and drugs this time next year, you might want to purge these during your Spring cleaning process.
3. Your media organizers
Most of us collect some sort of media. Books, video games, DVDs - our interests have a tendency to pile up around us. And even though we also buy storage units to hold these, those organizers can become messy and overfilled over time. Ironic, isn't it?
The fact is, sometimes we buy too much stuff. And even our shelves and storage bins need cleaning every so often. Go through your media, and get rid of what you don't need or use anymore.
Then rearrange the rest!
4. Your messy car
The phrase Spring cleaning automatically brings to mind a sweep of your entire home, but there are other places that could probably use a one over as well. Some of us spend almost as much time in our cars as we do our homes, so that would be a prime place to start.
Even if you make the effort to keep your car pristine, dirt and dust accumulate over time. And if you're in an area that's seen a lot of snow the past few months, the outside of your car probably isn't looking too hot either.
If you're anything like me, car cleaning might mean more than just a car wash. All those jackets and sweaters strewn about your backseat? Time to bring them inside. You'll thank yourself later.
5. Your workspace
Unless you're very lucky (and wealthy), you probably do some work from time to time. Student or full-time employee, it's also likely that you have a place where most of the magic happens. This could be your desk at work, your desk at home or somewhere else entirely.
Wherever the work happens to occur, the mess usually follows. Papers get thrown about, to do lists drag along the floor - you get the picture.
If your workspace has gotten to this point, it could impact your productivity. And no one wants that. So make it a point to ditch any unnecessary documents and organize anything else laying around. It'll do wonders for your output.
6. Your everyday bag
Many of us carry our stuff around in some sort of bag. It could be a purse, backpack or even a briefcase. And I don't know about you guys, but my bags get messy real quick.
It's probably better to make cleaning your bag a frequent habit, but you can totally begin that habit during your Spring cleaning extravaganza. Throw out that garbage you've left in there for weeks, put your spare change in a jar and only leave the essentials.
And if you're lucky, you might even be able to find your keys next time you go digging through your bag.
7. Your planner
If you have a planner or calendar, Spring is a great opportunity to clean it up. Any post-it notes you've covered the pages with or papers you've thrown in there for safekeeping can be evaluated. If you don't need them anymore, get rid of them.
If you don't have a planner or calendar, I don't know how you do it. Your Spring cleaning goal is to pick one up.
8. Your Inbox
Tell the truth. Do you have over 100 e-mails in your inbox, either read long ago or never to be read at all? Whichever category they fall into, it's unlikely you'll open most of them again. So why not clean up your digital space?
Digital clutter affects us more than we realize and emptying your inbox might lead to a decrease in stress you didn't know you needed.
And speaking of digital clutter...
9. Your computer folders
Many of us also save a ton of crap to our computers without paying much mind to where it all goes. File folders with silly names clog up our computer space, and half of us don't even know what's in them.
If this experience sounds familiar to you, you might want to make time to go through your storage. Transfer old photographs and documents to a USB and dump all the essays and memes you'll never use again.
And the documents you plan on keeping? Start clearly labeling them and putting them in order.
10. Your mental space
This point is a little out of the ordinary, but it can be a necessary thing to tackle after a dreary winter. After all, who doesn't get stressed and frazzled by the time Spring rolls around? (It isn't just me, is it?)
The execution of this point will be different for everyone. Some of us might benefit from taking some time off to reflect and recharge, while others may try meditation or an increase in exercise.
However, you go about it, clear your mind. You can refill it with stress and melodrama again later.
11. Your yearly goals
The coming of Spring also signals the fact that we're already a quarter of the way through the year. Those New Year's resolutions you already forgot about? It could be time to reevaluate them.
In all seriousness, the quarter mark is a great time to look closely at your goals again. Figure out why you're having trouble meeting the ones you haven't completed. And find new ways to improve upon the ones you've made progress with.
Why wait until 2019 to up the ante on your goal setting, when you can do it this month?