Spring has well and truly sprung, and there is now no time like the present to get the spring cleaning done.
Don’t worry – you don’t have to reach for the mop and bucket just yet.
It’s more in the sense of clearing out your wardrobe, your makeup and even your lifestyle to make way for bigger and better things.
Clothes
Quite a few of us are holding on to clothing items that we no longer need.
Either due to nostalgia, wanting to fit into them at some point in the future or pure laziness for not clearing them out.
It’s a vicious cycle that we often find ourselves in, but you will benefit so much more for having more of a bullet-style wardrobe than having clothes hanging around for the sake of it.
They would be much better suited on another person, or going to a better cause.
Have a look through and sort out. If you have been holding onto something longer than a year without wearing it (taking into consideration season changes which can affect how often you wear a certain item), you don’t need it cluttering your storage space.
Offer around your friends, take them to a charity shop, list them on a site like eBay or give to a school or community project.
There are a whole host of places that will take your clothes from you with no questions asked and no extra strain upon yourself.
This shouldn’t leave you short of things to wear, but it’s a good excuse to get shopping for more updated items to line your wardrobe with.
There are online clothing boutiques available for you to get your staples from, and it’s never been easier to order from the internet.
It gives you more choice than going into a store, and saves on fuel, too.
Hair
This is more about going over the products that you have related to your hair, and thinking about whether you need to replace, replenish or reuse what you’ve already got.
Hairbrushes need a thorough clean out of all of the build up of loose hairs that accumulate within them, but this should be done more than yearly for hygiene’s sake.
It also gives a great time to rid yourself of any bottles of shampoo, conditioner, hairspray and all other products which you’ve gotten to the bottom of but still are clinging on to with the hope that you can squeeze one more use out of them, it’s time to throw them away.
On the back of bottles there is usually a time span for the amount of life that they are meant to have once opened (e.g. 12 months, 24 months for the most common examples), although most people ignore these and throw away once used.
But if you’re at the end of the bottle and you’ve been harboring it for a long time, it only makes sense to throw away and buy new.
If your brush is missing bristles, your comb has a few teeth missing and bobbles are reaching their straggly last days, it’s time to replace these, too – for the benefit of your hair over anything else.
Makeup
Makeup should regularly be sifted through and sorted out, but a spring clean gives a great opportunity for you to remember to do so.
This goes for the things that you use to apply the makeup, too – brushes should be cleaned with designated shampoo, or a mild baby shampoo
if you don’t have the proper stuff – it does the same trick.
Go through everything thoroughly, and if it’s looking a bit gooey, cakey, doesn’t glide on correctly or isn’t holding the same pigmentation as it was when you first bought it, unfortunately it’s time for it to move on to a better life … in the trash.
This is more for your health and safety than anything else; there have been a lot of skin conditions which have been attributed to wearing makeup that has gone far past its best-by date.
Friends
You shouldn’t have to wait until the Spring to rid yourself of any toxic friends you may have, but it sure does get you thinking about it.
Those who are in your life only to give you a hard time or bring you down aren’t worth keeping – no matter how long they’ve been a part of it.
You want to surround yourself with people who don’t necessarily have the same interests as you (as that would be boring and leave little to no time for debate and reasoning), but those who have the same moral principles as you and the same vision for their life.
This usually manifests around you as the people who are looking for the same values in a friend as you are.
Whether this is somebody who can keep secrets and not use them for gossip, those who are kind, those who are hard-working, determined and motivated without stepping up and over people to get to their place on the career ladder. It can be a whole host of things.
Around You
There are certain things around you in your home which will need a fair bit of TLC and a spruce-up, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be all about keeping it clean.
Simply decluttering your bedroom can have a massive effect on how you lead your life and your mood when you first get up in the morning.
This can then impact how your day goes.
Choosing new bedsheets, picking new ornaments and pictures to be hung and even moving furniture around your bedroom can be a great take on the spring clean – and a better way to get you feeling focused, motivated and ready to take on the months that lie ahead.
Spacing it out so that your room has more of an open, airy feel is akin to the freshness that this season brings, rather than the cosy and muted winter that we have just come out of.
