How To Spring Clean Your Lifestyle This Year

With the month of March comes thoughts of all things spring with the warmer weather, more daylight, the flowers and trees blooming and also…spring cleaning. When we think of spring cleaning we often think of our physical space and the satisfying deep cleaning that we get to do after a winter season of cozying up at home so much. While spring cleaning the home is indeed rewarding, why not also spring clean your lifestyle too? This is a process that I do every year, and I do so slowly so as to really immerse myself into the act of spring cleaning the different aspects of my lifestyle to set me up for an enriching and successful year ahead.  In many ways March feels more like the new year to me than January.  Not only is it the month of my birthday, but the start of spring feels more like a renewal to me than it does in the middle of winter.  It’s a time to contemplate the year ahead and to create a lifestyle on purpose that supports what it is you want to do and experience.

Here is how I organize and execute the spring cleaning of my lifestyle.  To be successful one must be intentional and show up for this enriching work and while the process may be a slower one than that of spring cleaning the house,  just know that by the end you will have cleaned up your lifestyle to one that is lived on purpose and not by default which will help you to live well in your everyday life this year.

To Prepare

To prepare spring cleaning your lifestyle this year start by filtering your decisions through the lens of your word of the year (if you chose one back in January), if you don’t choose a word of the year for new years in particular, then simply pick a word now that you want to help guide you through this process. The word I chose as my word of the year for 2025 is Joie de Virve, and while technically it’s more than one word I wanted to use this concept from the French to bring more ease, simple pleasures, soft living, and joy to my everyday life. I use my word to guide me as to what I want to eliminate and what I want to include more of throughout my year.

I break the lifestyle spring cleaning up into six categories and I spend two weeks with each one to really do intentional work for each area and to do so slowly. This allows me time to make decisions, plan goals and journal through each concept to make the decisions needed for the year that I want to create.

Throughout the two weeks I will also take time to journal about each concept.  I elevate this moment by making time on the weekend to sit down with a hot drink, some music cozied up in my corner chair and write through each idea.

The prompts that I use are:

-What is currently working for me in this area?

-What do I find is not working for me anymore?

-How I can improve this area for a more joie de virve everyday experience (use your word here).

-What does my dream (use the category here) lifestyle look like?

-What do I need to eliminate from this area of my life over the next two weeks?

-What do I need to bring in for this area of my life?

-By the end of the year, what are three things in this area that I would want to have accomplished?

the categories

As stated above, I will work through six areas of my lifestyle over the next few months starting on March 1st and ending on May 24th. I will also mark these in my planner as a scheduled appointment too. This gives me plenty of time to work through each area diligently and to really plan the details for each area.  You can plan each category for whatever two weeks you see fit, I like to start with mindset because everything we create in life comes from how we view the world around us.  It sets the foundation of everything including the other categories.  The five categories that I use to spring clean my lifestyle are mindset, finances, health, digital life, wardrobe/style and leisure. But however you plan to choose (or you can even create your own lifestyle categories), be sure to really spend some time with them and enjoy the process of spring cleaning your lifestyle this year. For the examples below I will be using my word to fill in, but I will underline this section to notate that you will want to use your word here for journaling purposes.

the schedule

March 1-15 – Spring Clean Your Mindset:

On top of the journal prompts listed above, journal ideas about how to create a joie de virve mindset. For example, visit gardens and be out in nature, enjoy simple pleasures as much as possible, take time away from social media, don’t look at the news, don’t be in a rush or hurry, take your time, take time for rest, get sunshine, have flowers in the home, etc. You can journal as many ideas as you like.  From here take the time over the next couple of weeks putting these into practice and doing follow-up journaling to go over what is working, where there may need to be more work and new ideas for an even more joie de virve mindset.

March 16 – March 30 – Spring Clean Your Finances

As tax time is right around the corner, I find this is a good time to spring clean my finances for the upcoming year. In my journal I will use prompts such as, how do I set my finances up to support a joie de virve lifestyle for the upcoming year? Are there any large purchases I would like this year that I need to save for? Is there a lingering debt that I want to pay off this year? What kind of experiences do I want to invest in this year? Am I expecting any large purchases for this year? Do I need to rearrange anything in the current budget? Is there anything in my everyday life that I would like to incorporate more of that needs extra money to be allocated to (some examples are organic foods, a subscription to a magazine or service, better quality coffee, items for baking, etc.), Are there any expenditures to eliminate that I no longer use (some examples here would by a gym membership, streaming or music service, magazine subscriptions, etc.) Are there any outlier health related expenditures needed for this year? What would I have hoped to accomplish in this area by the end of the year? Once I have journaled through these, I will do things such rework my current budget as identified, cancel any services or subscriptions I no longer need, add in services or subscriptions I would like for the year, and also go through my current finances over the next couple of weeks to see if anything needs touched up or budgeted.

March 31 – April 12 – Spring Clean Your Wardrobe/Style

I find that this is the time of year where I start to transition my closet from the fall/winter season to the spring/summer season.  Before I start my journaling, I will often go through Pinterest to look at my style and wardrobe boards to see what I may have been pinning lately and look for the outfits that excite me for the upcoming season.  From there I will take some to journal with prompts such as, how can I represent more joie de virve into my style this year? What colors, styles and outfits did I love while looking through Pinterest? Thinking of your current wardrobe, is there anything missing that you would like to purchase for the upcoming season? Is there anything in there that you did not wear last year or think you will no longer wear this year? Is there anything that needs to be replaced? After journaling over the next couple of weeks I will start to go through and order any items that I would like to wear for the upcoming season, I will work through what I currently have and remove anything that either needs to be donated or thrown out, and I will also do this with my accessories as well.  This keeps my closet tidy and curated with joie de vivre for the year ahead.

 

April 13 – April 26 – Spring Clean Your Digital Life

Whether you’re online a lot or not, there is still a good chance that your digital life needs a good deep cleaning.  There are many elements of our digital life that we can go through and tidy up for a more organized and joyous experience.  This practice over the next couple of weeks will be taking place mostly on the phone (and some on the work computer where applicable). I will first start in my photos and delete any photos I no longer want or need as they often build up quickly.  Then I will go through my social media and unfollow accounts that are no longer active or that I no longer want to follow, clean up Pinterest boards by deleting boards or pins I no longer find value in, then go through Spotify and remove any songs or playlists I find that I am not listening to. I will also go through my phone and delete any apps or bookmarks I no longer use.  I will also clean out my email inbox of any old emails, purchases, etc., that I no longer need as well as unsubscribe from any junk coming in.  Digital life is the one place that we often let get cluttered because it’s a not a physical space, but take two weeks to go through and deep clean your digital life for a better experience whenever utilizing this part of your life.

April 27 – May 10 – Spring Clean Your Health

As the weather is becoming more consistently warmer and my energy is getting much better, I find that this is a great time to go through and spring clean my health.  After journaling using the prompts above, some ideas for spring cleaning your health may look like buying more fresh produce from the farmer’s market, taking a walk after lunch each day, doing a weekly facial, incorporating more weight training into your weekly workout, meditating, etc.  Take a couple of weeks to find an idea or two that you want to incorporate into your health this year and start practicing them now.

May 11 – May 24 – Spring Clean Your Leisure

This one is not only the most fun to spring clean, but also may be one of the most important. That’s because in this more digital age we have relegated our leisure to scrolling on the phone and that’s simply not the best way to spend our free time.  I think it’s mostly because people simply don’t know what to do for leisure, so this is a super quick way to get entertained.  While there is nothing wrong with visiting the digital space on occasion, diversifying your leisure portfolio is also a worthwhile task.  Using the journal prompts above, try to think about what you would find fun to do at home during the week after work and on the weekends too.  Some ideas may be gardening, coloring, knitting, a jigsaw puzzle, reading, baking, word search puzzles, visiting the museums, visiting gardens, trying new cafes, trying new restaurants, kayaking, hiking, or seeing a film at the theater.  There are so many things available to us to enrich our lives with fun and leisure, so take these two weeks to try a few that sound interesting to you and learn to enjoy time for leisure that is away from the phone.