Spring Clean Your Life

Here’s how to declutter your home, clear your mind, and make space for what really matters

- Giselle Wainwright & Vicky Silverthorn

Feel like it’s time to hit the refresh button? Some experts believe that finding inner peace starts with sorting out your sock drawer, so here are our tips to help you spring into action.

Clutter is anything that gets in the way of what’s important to you. Physical clutter is the ‘stuff’ you immediately think of when you hear the word, like the sweet wrappers lying in the back of your car, the pile of old newspapers stacked up in the garage, the clothes hanging in your cupboard that no longer fit, and the ‘I’ll deal with it later’ drawer in the kitchen (yes, every house has one).

Because your mood is often affected by the physical places you spend time in, if your home is a mess, it can make your mind feel muddled, too. In this way, clutter doesn’t just refer to physical things – a busy or cluttered mind can result in emotional clutter such as forgetfulness, tardiness or irritability. And it’s often emotional clutter that triggers negative reactions like anger, guilt or resentment. As we can’t see this sort of clutter, it’s easy to pretend that it doesn’t exist, but often it’s emotional clutter, more than physical, that is holding you back from living the best version of your life. Maybe you’re hanging onto an old jersey because it reminds you of happier times, or you’ve resisted trying something new, like an art class, because you’re worried that you won’t be any good.

Sometimes it’s not our own emotional clutter that’s causing us to lash out – you might be carrying someone else’s baggage: the friend who often unloads all of her issues onto you, or the regular Thursday lunch date you have with an old colleague because you don’t know how to say no.