Tidy Up to Welcome Spring: Ditch Clutter & Spring Clean

If you were a fairy hiding in my house today, you would have found me on my knees, under my desk, wiping down my baseboards with a Swiffer. I know: I have such a glamorous life. Yet, I know that I’ll be much happier with spring around the corner if I take some time to tidy up.

I haven’t been working in my office much this year. First, the painter was here and the contents of the spare bedroom were moved to my office for safety. Then we began a remodeling project to convert part of the basement into a workout room. Yes, we relocated some of those items to a corner in my office, too.

Trying to work in a cluttered space stresses me out.

It’s easy to get distracted and hard to stay on task. Avoiding my office and working in the tidy living room was a better choice. I’ve reached a point though that it was time to take my office back!

As the grey of winter begins to fade, spring invites us to open ourselves to new possibilities. To open ourselves up to the newness of spring means that we have to make space by ushering out the old.

Open the windows. Flip the mattress. Really scrub all your floors. Get rid of what doesn’t serve you any longer. With each area of your home you tend, it’s like sending a message out to the universe that you are open to receiving more.

In the words of Mary Poppins, tidy up the place!

During all of this household upheaval, we’ve been discarding stuff. Books, briefcases, clothes, dishes, printers, computer accessories, and a microwave have been hauled to Goodwill. Boxes and class notes from the 90’s were also unearthed and made their way into the recycling.

Before crawling under my desk, I cleared that corner in my office and even went through that pile of papers I’ve been meaning to file (or shred or recycle). I also removed everything off my desk, polishing the wood and making decisions about what was taking up the valuable real estate. And after my under-the-desk excursion, I vacuumed and continued to tidy up until my office looked and felt loving and support.

Whether you work from home, like I do, or come home from an office (or other work environment) at the end of your day, the truth is clear.

Every room in the house can use some spring cleaning kind of love.

Even though research has shown creative geniuses tend to be messy, that mess causes stress and affects your productivity. It’s hard to feel motivated when there’s so much physical noise. Mess, clutter, and even neat piles of stuff to go through can take its toll on you, because everything in our world is either adding to our energetic force and overall happiness or draining that energy in which we conduct our lives.

I have never been a naturally organized person, yet I can testify to the fact that when my environment is tidy, clean, and free from clutter, I function at my best. Not only do I get more writing done, I’m excited to dive in wholeheartedly. And I will confess: when the house is in order, I also make better choices, like eating healthier and meditating.

And I’m not alone. Cornell University researches found that people consumed twice as many calories when they were in a messy kitchen. Choosing to tidy up your home helps make you more conscious of your choices.

I share this because if I can wrangle my environment into order, you can too.

We can make all the jokes we want about a messy desk being the sign of a creative mind, but the reality is that the desk becomes messy during the course of the workday; truly successful people begin the day with a clutter-free environment as open and welcoming as a brand new notebook or tablet are to a writer or artist.

If you need help going from messy to tidy, give me 30 days and see what we can tackle together.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that you cannot welcome new things into your life if you don’t release some of the old stuff. You need to begin to purge things from your life. Getting clear in your life by dealing with your physical clutter (big clutter and small clutter) will allow you to direct your precious energy towards creating the clear path to living your best possible life.